Airframe – What does a FAA Airframe Technician do?

It is important to know the roles of Airframe technicians

Airframe technicians have a variety of important roles in maintaining aircraft airframes. If you have proper mechanical knowledge and confidence in taking challenging responsibilities, you will enjoy the work as a specialist in this sector. Along with mechanical aptitude, you need to have great analytical ability and mathematical reasoning power.

Before going into the details of the responsibilities, I would like to discuss some important points about airframe technician jobs.  Yes, you need to have an Airframe license from the FAA to work on aircraft airframes. As the role of this job are practical oriented, you need to concentrate on this part carefully. For this reason, you need to enroll in a program of a reputed FAA Part 147 school.  Okay, after attending the courses, you are required to sit for the examination with a DME. After passing successfully, you will be eligible to get the FAA certificate and work as an airframe technician.

Now, I am going to discuss about the roles of an FAA airframe technician. After getting the certificate from the FAA, you are now an Airframe mechanic or technician. You need to do a wide range of roles on all the parts of the aircraft.  Don’t be afraid of these job roles. There are exceptions to what you can work on.  As an airframe technician, you do not work on instruments, powerplants, or propulsion systems.

As an airframe technician, you need to look for cracks using precision equipments, i.e.,  x-rays, etc. Your role is highly mechanical related. You will repair and replace defective parts of an aircraft. Moreover, you need to check for faults in the aircraft fuselage, wings and tail.  This is an appreciated job, no doubt.

Legally, if you are an airframe technician, you will have no right to work on powerplants. If you are a powerplant license holder, you will get the rights to work on powerplants. Therefore, getting a powerplant license is also an important task for an airframe technician. Many specialists do this to ensure job security.  

I hope you have a better understanding of the roles of an airframe technician. You can see that a technician in this sector does a lot of the mechanical related work. Good analytical ability and reasoning power are the vital attributes of a mechanic. Generally, fault finding and repairing of parts in aircraft require good mechanical aptitude. Therefore, if you want to be an airframe technician, you need to learn a lot in the mentioned subjects.

In addition to the knowledge of science and mechanical subjects, an airframe technician must have good English language skills. As the job opportunity is worldwide, English is a must.  Manuals are generally written in English. Sometimes, a mechanic has to read manuals to find something useful. In fact, this is an essential role too.  The FAA requires all license holders to be able to read, write and understand English.