Hey all,
I’m an A&P in the US with mostly helo and commercial experience, but I’m thinking of transitioning to IA inspection oriented career-ing instead.
I’m relocating to England, and was seeking input from some of the IAs or even pilots on should I get the ‘endorsement’ if you will. I’ve flown around in SE England, and was told by a fellow at Crowfield Airfield that owners of N-Reg could use more IAs in the area. I meet all the reqs, would just have to gather more inspection tools and study study study – I just wanted to Kno if the investment is worth it.
Anyways, thanks for your time and input everyone, I plan on being active on these boards regardless after the move!
Chris
Welcome to EuroGA, SEATACmech 
Definitely get your IA.
There is a fair number of non-IA A&Ps around Europe (still not enough though, with many owners struggling) but very few IAs and most of the IAs are “tied” to companies (by employment, or by airfield politics) and can’t do freelance work. As you know, freelance maintenance is the key way to save costs and get a decent job done.
I used to know one owner in Greece who used to import an IA from the UK, all expenses paid… of course he really disliked the sunshine, the great food, the blue sea for a few days 
There is a lot of that type of work here in Europe. There is plenty of work just inspecting annual services and signing them off. Plus there is more if you can do prebuy checks. I have an IA working closely with me but he is time-limited and I get loads of people asking me if I know of anyone for a prebuy check.
One bit of warning though: there is a certain amount of bad work done by maintenance companies and they are looking for an IA who just signs the job. One IA I used to know got banned once or twice and eventually got banned for life (he is still an A&P and EASA66). If somebody buys a plane which looks like it has had dodgy signatures (let’s face it – almost every plane you buy turns out to have undisclosed problems) they will likely to report you to the FAA and even though they don’t have an office here anymore they will just bust you there and then, no questions asked. The FAA also read EuroGA, as one IA who used to be on here told me, but with 1k+ people reading here daily that is inevitable.
And people who are usefully active on EuroGA do get plenty of business from it
Yeah I’d report to NY in the USA being over there, and surely there are some sour apples that expect everything to be found, but I think I can deal with that.
Funny thing is in aviation maintenance in general there’s always a lot of pressure to “just sign it off” but the same people giving out the pressure are happy to give the blame if an issue arises from that sign-off..
Excellent, well I have all the study materials and quite a bit of the tools so I guess I’ll definitely pursue it, if only for personal skills and progression.
Chris
ANnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd I’m here. Not much in terms of work in East Anglia for A&P, I may have to migrate a bit west. If anyone has any tips to get onto contracts at anything RAF I’d love a tip!
Chris
Try leaving a card at local airfields, or in the door of an N reg.
