Warbird Information Exchange

I have been wondering, what would be a logical ratio of maintainers to airframes at an active warbird museum? Obviously places such as Yagen's must have a large staff of maintainers to keep most of the airplanes in the collection flyable at any given time.
One of the things I noticed at FoF was that there did not seem to be hardly any mechanics at work in the shop. There were more "actors" running around playing characters than people actively doing aircraft work.
I am referring to actual line type operational maintenance, not restoration shop work. Obviously many organizations take advantage of volunteer labor but the quality and consistency of volunteers is spotty at best.
I know that most shops in addition to maintaining the fliers also have a restoration or two going on in the background (think Meier Motors) but how many mechanics would be appropriate for a maintenance staff based on a given # of flyable airframes?

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All I did was press this red button here...

Look at the Bald Eagle thread. One guy full time for 4 or 5 warbirds? Of course Rich wears a cape and tights, but doesn't like being photographed in them.

I am aware of Rich, and agree. But in reality even he needs help often even if just an extra set of hands. So, say 2 full time (normal) guys would have to be the norm for a 5 plane operation, or 1 full time/ 1 part time?

One of the things that I have found interesting over the years is that most A&P's who work for a living have very little interest in doing warbird work outside of their main jobs. A lot of it is like "asking the mailman to go for a walk on his day off" but I have also heard over and over that owners don't want to pay anything.... usually not even close to what the mech is making at his day job.

At our local airport we used to have a guy like that...He had a mustang and thought that mechanics should work for free just for the glory of being around his airplane.

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All I did was press this red button here...

Well, we have 2 four engined transports and we have a plethora of mechanics. At least 9 A&P's and a group of dedicated assistants that work directly with the A&P's as the 'extra set of hands'. We've maintained a pretty dedicated group of helpers and they themselves have gained immeasureable experience working with our A&P's.

We've even had one petition our FAA in order to use his experience to take the AP writtens. Passed, then passed the OP and has now held an A&P certification for 9 years.

However, our full time guys are retired. Our part time guys do it when they can. I, for one, am an Industrial Arts teacher by day. I spend lots of weekend time and lots of summer time working on the birds.

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Kevin Kearney
Vice President
Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation


C-54D "Spirit of Freedom" 43-17228
C-97 "Angel of Deliverance" 52-2718 (painted as YC-97A 45-59595)
C-54E/R5D-4 "Spirit of Freedom" 44-9144 BuNo 90414 (wfu April/2020)
http://www.spiritoffreedom.org

That's why Rich has all those kids!

I've volunteered on a few warbirds over the years and gained a lot of experience. Found out it was more rewarding to work on my own stuff than to work on stuff so other folks could reap the reward of flying them.

The question can't be answered easily because of the type of operation determines the maintenance need. How old are the restorations, how often do they fly (cycles and hours), how experienced are the pilots, etc. We operate with about 15 A&Ps who are at our hangar every week, 3 IAs, and about 15 helpers. This fluctuates as it is volunteer, but for the most part it's steady. About half are retired, 3 or 4 have gotten their A&P with experience working with us, and the rest are just dedicated individuals.

We have 6 aircraft to maintain. Sometimes we have too many mechanics, and not enough to do, and other times we have too much work and not enough mechanics.

As for pay, you'll have to ask operators with more cash than us about that!

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Keep 'Em Flying

Too funny