Hire A&P Apprentices in Lufkin, Texas

Lufkin is deep East Texas general-aviation country — Angelina County Airport serves the Piney Woods region, and the nearest big maintenance hubs are hours away in Houston and Dallas. Certificated A&Ps are genuinely scarce out here, so a shop that trains its own apprentice isn't competing with the metros for mechanics. 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 Texas start near $48,600/year statewide and the Texas median for certificated mechanics is $84,440 (BLS, May 2025) — big-metro figures that East Texas wages typically undercut. An apprentice starts below entry-level mechanic pay and grows into it as their signed-off hours build, and you end up with a mechanic trained your way who already calls the Piney Woods home.

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 Houston FSDO — the office serving Angelina County, 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. Out here, where the nearest concentration of repair stations is hours away, training your own A&P is how a shop stays staffed without poaching from Houston or Dallas.

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.