Job prospects soar for aviation students

The Huntington Beach Police Department just bought a new helicopter, but now they need an aviation mechanic. Fortunately for city officials, there’s a nearby pool of qualified candidates at the only Federal Aviation Administration-certified airframe and power plant program in the county.

The program, offered at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, has provided students with the technical skills necessary to earn positions as certified mechanics in the aviation industry since 1969. For years, however, internships were only offered to students focusing on fixed-wing mechanics.

That changed when Huntington Beach Police contacted officials with the OCC program for help in recruiting candidates for the temporary mechanic job. For those in the program leaning toward a vocation in helicopter maintenance, the internship comes at a great time, program chair Mark Zombeck said. Never in his time at the school has an internship for helicopter technicians been offered.

Not only is the internship educational, but it’s also a paid position and offers a flexible schedule that works around school schedules, he added.

“I was excited because helicopter maintenance is more difficult to get into right out of school because employers usually want experience,” Zombeck said. “This is a great opportunity to get that experience.”

The mechanical aspects of helicopters share similarities with most airplanes; however, a smaller margin for error exists on a helicopter, Zombeck said.

So far, only a handful of students have applied for the position, and it looks as if there will be room for only one intern. “If I were in their position, I would jump at this opportunity,” Zombeck said.

A number of hopefuls have already interviewed and gone through background checks. The process could take anywhere from six weeks to several months, Huntington Beach Police Lt. John Cottriel said.

“What is nice about the Huntington Beach Police’s maintenance department is that they have to do all the work on the helicopter. Mechanics there have to be very flexible to do many things,” Zombeck said.

“It will be a benefit to us and hopefully for them,” he said.

And there’s plenty of work to be done.

“We’re currently in the process of decommissioning one helicopter and receiving a new one,” Cottriel said. “That itself is going to be a lot of work.”

When the MD 520N helicopter is delivered, it will come completely stripped. It’s designed mostly to cart executives around. Police need a great deal of extras so they can use it for pursuing suspects and for search-and-rescue operations, Cottriel said.

It takes a lot of hours to do that, he said. “If we could get an intern in there who could assist in the set-up and at the same time learn about airframe and power plant then I think it’s beneficial to both organizations,” Cottriel said.

During the two-year program, students must complete 63 units before they take the FAA certification exams, which include a written test, an interview and performance evaluations, Zombeck said.

Equipment manuals are the textbooks in these classrooms. Much of the work takes place in the aviation graveyard after students get the manuals down pat, Zombeck said.

For instance, one group may go through the entire electrical system of an aircraft or the functioning of passenger seating, Zombeck said.

“We don’t necessarily take it apart,” he said. “The FAA basically tells us what we need to teach.”

According to the numbers, the strategy works, since nearly all students who take the tests pass, Zombeck said.

Students range in age anywhere from 18 to 75 years old, but the average age is in the mid-20s, Zombeck said.

The helicopter is scheduled to land at the police helipad in March.