Hire A&P Apprentices in Little Rock, Mississippi

Little Rock is a rural Newton County community in east-central Mississippi, with Meridian's aviation cluster — Naval Air Station Meridian's jet-training wings and Key Field, home of the 186th Air Refueling Wing — about half an hour southeast and Jackson's airports ninety minutes west. Certificated shops are thin across this stretch of the state, so a shop that grows its own mechanic isn't waiting on the metros to send one. Demand for certificated mechanics is strong — training an apprentice under 14 CFR 65.77 lets your shop grow its own A&Ps instead of competing for them.

You set the wage — there's no mandated apprentice rate. For context, entry-level aircraft mechanics in Mississippi start near $47,650/year and certificated mechanics across the state earn a median of $74,880 (BLS, May 2025). An apprentice starts below the entry-level figure and grows into it as their signed-off hours build — and in rural east-central Mississippi, growing a mechanic costs far less than recruiting one from Jackson or Meridian.

You do — but there's less than people expect. You document the supervised training as it happens (Grease Pilot's records system does the tracking and signatures); nothing is filed with the FAA until your apprentice is ready to test. At that point FAA Form 8610-2 goes to the Jackson FSDO — the office in Flowood serving all of Mississippi, shown with its address and phone in the section above — which verifies the supervised experience and authorizes the mechanic exams.

Yes — repair stations are exactly where this works. Your apprentice performs work under the supervision of your certificated mechanics (14 CFR 43.3(d) covers supervised work), and every logged hour counts toward the experience requirement — 18 months for airframe or powerplant, 30 months for both, under 14 CFR 65.77. With only a handful of certificated shops within 50 miles of Little Rock, a shop that trains its own isn't waiting for the metros to send mechanics.

Check the relocation line on their profile — apprentices state whether they're willing to relocate, and many will move for the right training opportunity. To maximize the quality of apprentice recruits, fill out your supervisor listing inside your account — once published, it shows to apprentices across the Grease Pilot network.