I strand O strand more information

I strand's qualifying 

After their basic class on Electronics, they get put into strands.  The strands are I, O, or AE.  My son just passed his basic class, and moved on to I strand.  Once they get separated in their strands, they move to different housing. His room-mate just moved out, so he is alone at the moment- other than the "head-mate."

 

I'm also told he will be there for around 70 days.  So, we are looking at a November grad date.

 

From there, they go to C-School.  I guess "C" is what sort of air craft they will be working on.

Congrats to your son on PFC.  He also must have done well in his basic class to get I strand- although this is also the military, so they put you where they need you.   I know for my son's class the top two highest scoring people in the class got I strand.  My son told me that he thinks C-school will be either on the west coast or east coast, no midwest or middle region.

 

Currently he is moving to "Echo".  I think this will be I strand's new barracks. They call it the "hotel", I guess they have TVs everywhere and it kind of looks like a hotel. 

 

Where are you guys from?

Avionics is cool, but you need an Airframe and Powerplant license on the outside if you want to get anywhere with aviation. An FCC won't cut it anymore. I work for the airlines, and have worked AVIONICS. Difference between Avionics and regular line A&P is that the A&P does alot more than what they do in Avionics. Avionics does more like the downgrading, upgrading of the aircraft for cat landings, do more like change weather radars, and cockpit instruments, load software, troubleshoot wiring, splicing, running wire, things like that, they get more into the schematics. A&P does the whole airplane, and when needed, does avionics too. A&P we joke stands for ALL PURPOSE. This is true. An A&P is all that is needed to do line maintenance with the airlines. Now if you do BENCHWORK of the instruments, you need an FCC license which is really a joke. In the airlines, we don't get into that type of echelon. The FCC test deals with old technology and mostly radios. We don't hire FCC guys anymore however the ones with fcc are kind of grandfathered but stuck in their position. Avionics is great, but be sure to get your A&P before you even think of getting an FCC. You will go much further.

Hope this helps

Your occupational field will be decided for you in Pensacola, Fl. That is where you will go to school to learn the basics about aviation electronics. After you get there you will be placed into one of three areas, given that you can pass "common core" (not hard). Two of these areas will be Organizational (O) level AE and AVI O-strand, and one will be Intermediate (I) level AVI-I strand. O-level guys work on the actual aircraft, they remove and replace the faulty components and troubleshoot the wiring in it. I-level guys work in a maze of white vans that are not generally on the flightline, they repair the gear the O-level removes from the aircraft radios, transpnoders, HUDs, etc. A lot of time they are Y-codes that have nothing wrong with them and get sent back A-799 (just a poke at some of them O-level guys.) 

As for where you could be stationed, thats up to the monitor who tracks vacancies in you field. You'll get a wish list, and you'll get to choose your priority, starting from your most desireable to the least. They are: East coast, west coast, and overseas. After that there are many places; San Diego, Cherry Point, New River, Beaufort, C-Pen, Okinawa, Hawaii, and Iwakuni Japan just to name a few.

You can make decent money on the outside if you go I-level. Calibrators and Micro-mini solder techs can bank. Not sure about the O-level, but there are many contract jobs out there for different arircraft manufacturers.