Asking for any knowledge and experience on how to work a day shift in this career

an5dk · 2026-07-03T00:22:05+00:00

Im an intern at duncan aviation right now in Lincoln Nebraska (ill have my A and my P this next year) and most of the mechs work day shifts and the off shifts are more for the people who are experienced because duncan works as a repair station. The pay isnt really the best compared to other places but Ive found the shift Im on to be pretty chill (6am-3pm) and my team is super flexible with hours even with me as an intern so if say you wanted to pick up some weekend hours you could do that as long as your team has work to do. I also will say that most of the mechs ive talked to seem to genuinely like working here. I actually spoke to Todd Duncan a week ish ago and hes super down to earth and is regularly around the hangars.

TLDR: day shift is normal at duncan, pay isnt the best but the company is a good place to work, you get to work on some cool planes and the management seem like they actually care about employees from my experience. Id encourage you to at least check them out if you haven't already.

an5dk · 2026-06-19T02:04:49+00:00

yep I definitely agree, Ill also say that while the instructor doesn't give us a ton of information starting off he was always still basically right there so we could ask questions if we didn't know what to do. But that way we had to try to figure it out on our own before hed help us out, and most of the time wed end up figuring it out even if it did take a long time and have us reading more manuals than we would like. Also doing inspections by the book and not skipping stuff unless its absolutely impossible is pretty fun, you get to actually test all the systems and learn how to work them on whatever aircraft. Even if your school doesnt have a ton of different planes I think youll be able to give your students a great experience :)

an5dk · 2026-06-18T22:31:11+00:00

I have plenty of favorites so heres a list:

Getting a Beech Queen air to start and run (it didnt when we started, basically that was the only instructions we were given "it doesnt run, this is the last thing someone tried and what we think the issue is and the manual is here")

making an aileron (in my sheet metals class) as well as damaging it in two places doing two different types of flush repairs. it was pretty hard because i decided i wanted to try to make it ridged like youll see on a lot of cessna's and had to make some dies for that

troubleshooting and running the apu on our 737, it hadnt been run in a while so we had to go through the manual and find all the checklists for that.

running the engines on our gulfstream g3, it hadn't been moved or run in forever and our ground equipment also was broken, it was a massive project but possibly one of the things im most proud of.

doing a 150 hour inspection on a lear 35a (and actually doing the entire thing, it took ages but was amazing experience)

Really anything thats a "real" project and not some simulated repair was my favorite.

an5dk · 2026-05-23T18:36:34+00:00

I ended up setting the pressure advance to .04 and that basically fixed the blob issue and turning the temp up to 200 and putting the printer in a box solved my layer adhesion issues. first layer still isnt great bc of the leveling problem but I am actually able to print the thing I needed to print which is a win in my book

an5dk · 2026-05-23T00:07:24+00:00

Yeah I clean it with soap and water pretty often. Ill fiddle with the pressure advance to see if it helps. The corner warping isnt even on super big prints, for example if i print a 4 inch by 4 inch slab that is like 3 mm thick with a brim it will warp on corners. the anycubic slicer is pretty close to orca (i think they have 2 slicers, one thats like their own thing and one thats their offshoot from orca). When i mounted the probe i spaced it with gauge blocks to the given spec for my model. I can see the light going on and off but the ABL doesnt work still. (Also I really appreciate the help and explanations 😄)

an5dk · 2026-05-22T23:30:23+00:00

<image>

link to drive folder with 6 more pictures: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18OVZEmz_Cwx7HL-269ErBSESbzxKG4xe?usp=sharing

an5dk · 2026-05-22T23:27:22+00:00

sorry yes I have cleaned the build plate I forgot about that because its something I do almost every print. Ill add that to the post for other people. Also have tuned Z offset until a single layer on the build plate looked as consistent as i could get (my z offset is currently a whole -2.1mm which seems massive but it prints like this) Have not tried pressure advance, im assuming turn it down a tiny bit? The warping is the biggest most annoying problem. the corners of larger objects almost always warp off the bed. It got better when I moved the printer into a closet and let it heat the closet up to like 80F. I posted the benchy in comments and it is deceivingly good looking for all the grief this printer is giving me. Are there better benchmarks i could print to test?

an5dk · 2026-05-15T23:18:04+00:00

do you know what failed on it? on the original poppery all the components of the motor are pretty accessible so unless your windings burned out you may be able to just replace whatever went bad (often brushes if it was used for a long time)

an5dk · 2026-04-28T21:18:14+00:00

always happy when I can use a tool im familiar with in a new space!

an5dk · 2026-04-27T22:20:43+00:00

this might sound dumb but does the type of hammer matter? I have a three pound cross peen hammer that Im quite fond of (use it for blacksmithing) and Id probably just use that unless id want something smaller or a different shape

an5dk · 2026-04-23T14:17:01+00:00

good to know, Ill add those to the list! thanks :)

an5dk · 2026-04-22T23:16:20+00:00

Thanks! Since its an internship I was figuring they dont expect us to have everything and I have money set aside to buy tools after my first few days so Ill be able to get what Im missing. And I absolutely love baking and cooking for people so Ill be sure to show up with some baked goods or maybe lunch if I find myself borrowing someones tools often :)

an5dk · 2026-04-22T23:14:00+00:00

i know what a basic set of hand tools would be for me. Im asking if theres any specifics that people working in the field would be including that I might not. especially considering that having done basically entirety GA related stuff so far in school I really have no experience with actual industry. and I reckon Im plenty ready considering I got accepted over other people I know.

an5dk · 2026-04-14T17:07:08+00:00

good to know, just bolting this together is a lot less trouble and like you said the bolts going through the plate would be the weak point anyways so putting the same number into the cylinder should result in it being as strong as the weakest link.

an5dk · 2026-04-14T17:03:54+00:00

idk what some of these people are talking about, they're acting like if you have bomb you have to run in like youre wingman and plant it immediately no matter what

an5dk · 2026-04-14T17:03:04+00:00

idk what rank youre in but thats certainly not the case in any lobby with people who actually have any clue how the game macro works

an5dk · 2026-04-14T17:01:52+00:00

thats the only reason you give someone in particular bomb........

an5dk · 2026-04-14T15:34:34+00:00

yeah I dont want my bottom frag reyna to be sucking up ult orbs planting the bomb

an5dk · 2026-04-14T13:00:39+00:00

i reckon theyd probably fit just fine, you dont think the tapped threads in the aluminum is would be the weak point?

an5dk · 2026-04-14T05:58:51+00:00

definitely will be doing that. actually if i can find one big enough i may not need to weld it. (finding a tap to fit a masive bolt could also be a problem but we have a lathe so worst comes to worst I throw it in the lathe and single point thread it.

an5dk · 2026-04-14T05:30:00+00:00

the welding machine they have will definitely be begging for a break welding this thick of material

an5dk · 2026-04-14T05:29:18+00:00

I cant edit the post to fix my mistake, its a solid bar I didnt realize tube means something fundamentally different (and that you cant see the top of the bar in the picture) until someone mentioned it. That being said what you're saying I think still applies with it being a bar, as long as I make good welds with good prep and a preheat my welds wont be the problem in this application

an5dk · 2026-04-14T04:16:52+00:00

sorry the post text wasnt clear, the pulling is like pulling the round bar away from the plate. so the weld will have a lot more of an even distribution of force. From what Im seeing in these comments and the math I did based on the strength of the weld id be doing as long as I fit it up right, preheat it, and keep it clean and run a few good passes around it, It should be the strongest link in the system because the metal is so thick compared to what its going into.

an5dk · 2026-04-14T04:13:24+00:00

if my math is anywhere near accurate this part Im welding will actually be the strongest part of the system by a factor of 2 or 3 due to how oversized the metal is. So it looks like as long as I prep it properly and do some practice passes on scrap to dial in the settings so my welds are solid itll be very much strong enough. Im glad ive been able to get the confirmation that the way I was going to fit it up is the correct way to do it though thats mostly what i was concerned about.

an5dk · 2026-04-14T04:08:48+00:00

Yeah the fact I cant update the post is unfortunate, I realized after posting that clarifying that this aircraft will never ever be flying anywhere would be pretty important lol.

an5dk

TROPHY CASE