Jochen Schramm is a compliance verification engineer (mechanical) at Jet Aviation in Basle, Switzerland
Engineering aircraft: Vorsprung Durch Technik - and then some...
How did you get into aviation?
I was raised next to an airport in Frankfurt. A lot of the other young guys were interested in cars, but I wanted to do something different. Anyway, working on an aircraft is a lot cooler than working on a car!
What does your job involve?
I effectively take responsibility for Jet's designs, meeting the legal requirements of the aviation authorities. It's important that people are able to follow and understand the design on the paperwork. I basically conduct a sort of quality assurance process. It requires quite a variety of engineering knowledge, although there are only certain things I am authorised to look at - cabin safety and stress engineering, for example. Some more specific things, such as fatigue assessment, have to be referred to other parties with specialist knowledge in that area.
What qualifications and skills did you bring to the job?
I spent three and a half years as an apprentice aircraft mechanic. The apprenticeship was really important, because for my job you need to understand the mechanics of the aviation world. It's hard to pick that up if you go straight to work for an airline. After that I spent some time working in a composite shop, before I decided to go to technical college in Germany. I then had a decent level of education combined with a certain amount of experience of real work. I began to specialise in the regulatory side of things after I started work here in Basle - I did a lot of flammability testing, for example, which led into it.
What would you recommend about your work?
The most valuable thing is working in a diverse company. Being located in Basle means we have a multicultural mix of employees and customers. You have to get used to changing your approach to people on a minute-by-minute basis. At an airline, you just deal with the same sorts of people all day, every day.
What would you change about the industry?
Sometimes I wish I could make some engineers understand the requirements of certification. They have their ideas, develop the project to the production line and then I have to try and convince them to think about it a bit more. What they've done may work perfectly well, but it still might not fulfil all the legal requirements necessary to build it into an aircraft.
Source: Flight International
