Wonders about Aircraft Maintenance Interns? | Thailand
- RedtravelHood
- Aug 27, 2019
- 5 min read
This 2 months in Bangkok totally altered my prejudice of internships being boring and dull!
Hmmm, where do I start from?
Today is my last day working for Cathay Pacific Bangkok Engineering Office. I will share about our (engineers and mechanics) job scope, working hours, life in Bangkok, travel in Thailand and expenses. Lastly, I shall conclude with a comparison between thoughts of living in Thailand for a summer and a semester in Switzerland.
Here a very unnatural video of me introducing this internship for my university :P
How I got this job?
YESSS, thanks to PolyU again, our office of Career and Development Services (CAPS) helped me here. They organize internship programmes (mostly unpaid), locally or abroad, being the bridge between students and companies. They also subsidy part of the expenses, including return trip tickets and daily remuneration. Look up for "WIE CAPS POLYU".
[*ALERT:
tbh, some of those internship opportunities can be bad, for instance my interns last summer in Valencia, Spain sucks:( Well, this depends on the organization CAPS is working with too. For other international interns opportunities you may search for AIESEC global volunteer for certain field, ex. business student. ]
Our job scope?
My exact job title is aircraft line maintenance, in short, we check and fix defects when aircraft on ground (between arrival and next departure.
In details, we do:
- Walk around inspection
- Install hydraulic pins / landing gear pins (prevent damage when towing/ injuries)
- Visual check for leaks, unlatched door, any surface abnormality
- Make sure type's and brake's pressure and temperature are within range
- Refueling
- Headset communication during departure, arrival and for ground power & air-con
- Fix cabin and cargo defects
- Change seat cover (beverage-dirtied is fine, sometimes its vomit :)
We goes in team, which usually consists of one engineer and two mechanics, and me! Engineer is one with many years of experience as mechanic and passes all exams. Both positions requires training for different aircraft models and is always up-to-date.
Other than that, every colleague has a side role, ex. store-check man, facilities management (cars & tools), roster planner etc.
How do I feel during internship?
AWESOMEEE! It feels more like a summer learning camp than office work because its mainly hands-on work. All my Thai colleagues are sincere and willing to share all the knowledge they know.
Instead of co-workers,
they treated me more like a Father-Daughter relationship.
There is almost no paper work. Three aircrafts per shift, and in between that we will just have our meals in the pantry, watching TV (youtube or Thai sports and news). Some of the senior engineers always bring food from home to share with everyone. One thing I gained from this experience is the team spirit. Everyone helps each other when issues came up. They also wait for each other's on the same shift and leave together.
It really feels like home here.
Working Hours?
I work 5 days, then off 3 days (so we don't do weekends), each shift 10 hours.
Starting time ranging from 4am, 10am to 4pm, 6pm.
This job is tough, not only because of the ups and downs timetable. Despite sunny or rainy, hot or wet, thunderstorm or lightning warning, we go out onto the ramp. I really respect anyone working out there (the chock-man, red cap, catering, load master, cleaner and more.)
Leisure time other than work? (Yooo, this is why you should get your interns in Thailand)
Since this is the 4th time I'm visiting Thailand (and have been to Bangkok, Autthaya, Kanchanaburi, Chiang Mai), I tried to visit new places. They still brings huge excitement!
During this 2 months, I went to Pattaya (not recommended haha boring), Chiang Rai and Koh Tao!
Chiang Rai:
I was lucky enough that when I get off my night bus at around 7am, I immediately met a tour agency that is opened and almost leave for day tour at 8am. Little did I know then, it turns out to be the best day trip ever!
Laila was my tour guide, she is the owner of the travel agency. Before going to Chiang Rai i actually read good reviews about her on Google, what are the odds. She offered to give me and another 3 Italian high school kids private tour that we can be flexi on the destination we wants to go, and we went to the Thai boy rescue cave even! She actually owns teams of car and other local guide and could have dumped us to her subordinate but she didn't. This is the working attitude I respect.
Laila grew up with a very tough background, maybe I will write her story next time.
Koh Tao:
I did my first scuba diving here and got my license for Open Water Diver!
I saw on google saying that Koh Tao is the cheapest place on earth (truth on next blog) to get your scuba diving license certified, so I went! It's a life and death story, check out my next blog, how Janyce and I survive from the mighty ocean.
Transportation in Thailand
Except the reallllly-bad-traffic in bangkok, Thailand is highly accessible and I'm proud to say that I tried them all:)
- Flight: a lot of cheap domestics flight to ChiangMai, Pattay, Krabi, Phuket etc.
- Train: If you're free af like me and don't mind the un-comfortableness, the cheapest 3rd class carriage to Lopburi can be bought at 28baht/one way!! It also goes all around Thailand
- Bus: especially night bus to ChiangMai is recommend to give it a try. Bus Terminal in Bangkok is near Chatuchak market (called the Mochit terminal)
-Ferry: A lot of public boat service within Bangkok city centre near ICONSIAM (must visit**). Otherwise, ferry service helps you get to islands. For example, Lomprayah bus company sells package ticket (bus+ferry) for Bangkok-KohTao.
- Songkhaew: My favourite now! Its the local bus running in outskirt area. Its a truck, different colours go different routes. Only 8baht/way!
- Tuk tuk: too touristy im poor.
- Orange-vest Bike: or use Grab to order one. A must-try-local-experience! You really feel the city breeze touches your face.
Thailand Working Visa for Malaysian?
As Msian, we can indeed stay fro 30 days without visa but since my internship is around 60 days and I planned to travel within Thailand deeply. I applied a non-immigrant visa category "ED" which is for internship for company without salary. Documents required are written on their website and I got most of the documents from the company and my university.
Its free of charge for Msian when I applied it in Switzerland.
Expenses
Thailand is cheap anyway! A poor student (9months no income) like me even decided to get scuba diving lesson here:) I usually don't shop while traveling but this is not the case in Bangkok, #買到失心瘋
All in all, just two months in Thailand, I love it way more than one semester in Swizterland (or Western Europe), maybe its the Southeast Asian spirit that grows in me, or maybe its is because Thailand is cheap that you can afford anything that catches your interest!
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