Learning the Trade - Becoming an Aircraft Mechanic

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 13:12:11 -0700

This deep dive back into film has started me rooting around in old boxes looking for my old negatives and polaroids. I found a bunch. Got some of the Polaroids scanned today and uploaded. I had more than I thought. I picked the best ones, and you can see them below. I’m not using my new fancy Polaroid Frame that’s CSS-made because I wanted the worn, dirty, real look of these old Polaroids. I have a lot more negatives, and when I get time, I’ll start scanning them. I’m excited to see what’s on them. Seems daunting; I may research having someone else do it because there are so many. After I see the price, I’ll probably just decide to do it myself.

Nothing special, and won’t mean much to anyone, but I wanted them recorded and archived online. I also forgot how bad the quality of these Polaroids is, LOL. I have to admit, I was a little shocked at how bad the quality is and still is. Just a reframing after so many years of looking at digital quality. It’s nostalgic and fun, but ouch. I did brighten them a touch in post because they were so dark. Whatever Polaroid camera I was using was about two stops too dark.

The polaroids are circa 1987 to 1989. I started A&P school in 1987; that is the school to become an FAA-certified aircraft mechanic, with an Airframe and Powerplant license. Right away, a local shop called AeroTwin hired a few of us students to work part-time with full flexibility to go to school, which was ideal. We got to start learning the “real world” way of fixing airplanes while we learned the book way in school. It was an incredible experience and one that I’ll never forget.

We were thrown into the deep end right away. No sweeping floors and handing a wrench to someone. It was grab that bucking bar, crawl into that aircraft, and start bucking rivets. Of course, everything, well, most everything was supervised by a certified mechanic, as we were not allowed to sign anything off.

It was such a great group of mechanics. The friendships and camaraderie were something that I’ll never forget. I loved the work; I loved fixing things. Watching an airplane take off after we had spent weeks or months on it felt good. Plus, at that time in Alaska, it was a damn good career. Lots of work, many places hiring, and plenty of ways to move up.

Our bread-and-butter workload was rebuilding heavily damaged Cessna Caravans that had been wrecked or damaged while flying out in Western Alaska by Mark Air, now one of many out-of-business carriers. Not sure what those pilots were doing, but we had plenty of work.

After A&P school, I worked full-time at AeroTwin but left soon after for ERA Aviation. They needed DHC-6 Twin Otter mechanics, and supposedly they had a path to flying, which was what I ultimately wanted to do. I worked there for several years and learned so much; the guys there took me under their wing and turned me into a pretty good mechanic. After a few years, I learned the path to flying for them was really just a carrot and not real.

Soon after being strung along, a ramper talked to me and said he had received a strange phone call from a small operator in Kotzebue, Alaska. The owner hired him on the spot and said, “Can you be here in two days?” which made the ramper nervous and he turned down the job. I looked at him and said, “What’s this guy’s number?” I called him the next day; he said, “Can you fly? Can you be here in two days?” I said, “Hell yes, to both.” I talked to my boss that night, left on good terms, packed up my meager belongings and toolbox into storage, and jumped on a MarkAir B737 jet to Kotzebue.

The story from there will have to be another blog post. But that’s where the fun really begins. Becoming a pilot.

** you can click on a photo to bring up a viewer and scroll.

Kodak Snapic Review

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 13:16:41 -0700

I posted nine days ago about a new flight bag camera I was carrying around the Kodak Snapic. I finally got two rolls of film shot through it, developed, and scanned. You can see what you get with this very small, lightweight point-and-shoot camera.

Pros:

very small
lightweight
double exposure feature
flash
macro setting
uses two AAA batteries, which are common and easy to find

Cons:

the placement of the flash setting in the upper-left corner is prone to bumping
there is no indication that you are using the macro setting, which in turn means you have to remember to switch it back
film door latch is not covered. If you carried this in your pocket, you could pop the back open. I’ve carried mine in my pocket for over eight miles without any issues.

One huge benefit is how small it is; you can shoot pictures without people really knowing what you are doing. I’ve talked in the past about street shooting and feeling self-conscious about it, or people giving you the stink-eye. I haven’t had any of those issues with this. It fits in the palm of your hand, and when you hold it up to your face, it doesn’t look like a camera.

This is perfect for parties or being out with friends and passing the camera to them to shoot some. I used to carry a full-size camera on the road, but the weight and bulk just aren’t worth it. The Snapic will stay in my bag and go with me on my walks alongside my iPhone for shooting. You can see Becca Farsace’s video on why cheap cameras are better.

Let me add, just because I’m super proud of it, that both of these rolls were developed and scanned by me. The Tri-X was my first roll of film I’ve developed since 1987. Film borders, as you can see, are all over the place. I did not take the time to crop; you get the real deal of film border with these shots, no fake film borders on digital pictures with these! I intentionally used generic Frontier scanner settings so you can see what you get with this little point-and-shoot. Overall, I’m very happy with the quality of the shots. The Tri-X is just old-school, iconic, grainy black-and-white. The Portra is just the classic 1970s muted look that I’ve always loved. There are some low-light and very low-light shots, so you can get a feel for them.

Kodak Portra 400 Photos Shot With The Snapic

*Click the first picture to open a full-size viewer, then use the arrow keys to navigate through the whole set

analog-film on Cliff538

Learning the Trade - Becoming an Aircraft Mechanic

Kodak Snapic Review

Kodak Portra 400 Photos Shot With The Snapic

Kodak Tri-X B&W Photos Shot With the Snapic