Aircraft Maintenance Trainee — Sarsan Aviation Academy
Hands-on disassembly and reassembly of APU, turbofan, hydraulic, fuel and landing gear systems on decommissioned aircraft, progressing to leading a 5-student team.
A month of hands-on aircraft maintenance at Sarsan Aviation Academy in Dubai — the kind of exposure most engineering students do not get until years into a career.
I disassembled and reassembled an APU, a Soloviev D-30 turbofan, 737 and Piper landing gear, disc brakes, hydraulic tanks, fuel tanks, and a piston engine on decommissioned airframes. Taking a turbofan apart and putting it back together changes how you read a cutaway diagram permanently.
I progressed to leading a five-student team during the placement, working within a regulated environment where the safety and quality standards are not negotiable and the paperwork is part of the job rather than an afterthought.
On structures I performed wing-panel riveting to repair damaged sections and carried out crack detection using Dye Penetrant Inspection — a method that finds what a visual inspection cannot.
I also studied the avionics side: autopilot, MCDU/FMC, transponders, altimeters, VHF/HF radios, GPS, weather radar, and safety systems including the black box, ELT, TCAS, and emergency squawk codes.