aircraft mechanic

captain

pilot

inventory control specialist

avionics technician

Dynamic Aviation

Dynamic Aviation is a great place to start your career in aviation maintenance or piloting. That's just it, you should start your career there and move on when you have a few years of experience. 

That's not to say the company is bad, no, just old fashioned. Aviation has changed over the years, but Dynamic has begrudgingly pulled itself up to the modern standards of both DoD aircraft maintenance and civilian. Civilian contracting for local and state governments is their strong suit, and though it has a healthy amount of DoD contracts, the procedures and facilities for accomplishing these is lacking. Especially when considering the amount of contracts Dynamic want to see itself taking on. Things on the management and directorial level seem to only happen on a reactionary basis instead of a proactive basis. Only when the product needs to be delivered in a short span of time will the gears turn faster, and everything and everyone responsible for getting the product finished is set on fire. They end up spending exorbitant amounts of money on overnighting critical parts that should have been taken care of days, weeks, or months beforehand. The guys on the floor and their supervisors do their best to make things happen faster, only to be met with setback after setback mostly derived from those higher up responding to a need set forth by a customer. When a customer needs something, the entire machine hits the emergency brake, and everyone is expected to shift their focus from the main task at hand to putting out fires set by the higher ups for compliance with standards they never clearly state or reference, or a customer demand. Since they don't have many parts, even basic hardware that is expected to be consumed during scheduled maintenance, a lot of time is spent waiting for parts to arrive after the inspection phase of an inspection is completed. This ends up being a lot of time that is billed to the customer, since Dynamic's made it clear to their employees to make sure that they bill customers for their time, even though they desire to make their costs for phase maintenance on aircraft lower. Dynamic has a good relationship with their partners, a good track record for reliability, and an easy to approach mentality. Despite this, Dynamic has been one of the most expensive facilities to have an airframe they service worked on at.

The single worst point about Dynamic is the pay. If you have low hours as a multi engine commercial rated pilot, they will hire you as an FO. Your time on the ground is paid higher than your time in the air, and whenever the subject of the ridiculously low pay and retention as a result is brought up, their rebuttal is always something along the lines of, "well, despite the fact that you guys have low hours, you should be fortunate that you get the opportunity to build them!" This is despite the fact that the pay is low enough that unless you have a room mate to split rent with in the area, you aren't going to be able to afford the cost of living in the immediate area. Most pilots live 30 minutes or more away due to the cost of living in the Harrisonburg area.

The pay for mechanics is low as well. A fully certificated Airframe and Powerplant mechanic with zero experience starts at $16 an hour, and  should expect to top out at about $24ish dollars an hour, after $1 per year raises, with a buck fifty raise for those that stick around long enough to consider becoming a Maintenance Lead. This poor wage, coupled with the issues outlined above all cascade into a company that those who have worked for it describe as a "Revolving door" in the aviation industry due to its ridiculous turn-over rate. There are many talented long-timers that will help you grow as a mechanic or pilot at Dynamic Aviation. Learn from them, and then when you have a few years experience or hit 1000 hours flight time, take a job somewhere else and make double or triple the amount of money. It's a shame really, few other companies in aviation have as strong of a self-before-work mentality.

I feel that I have found a place where I can grow personally and professionally, gain meaningful relationships with amazing people, and contribute to a greater cause that is saving lives, advancing science, and protecting communities. I'm extremely grateful for this company and the leadership team. The culture is extremely unique in the best way. I look forward to going to work every day because of the people I get to work with and the work we get to do. We are like family, and I appreciate the investment the company has made in me. There are leadership development programs and training with a world-class Harvard Business Professor and case studies, Wellness Program, giving me opportunities to learn new skills, travel, community involvement, tuition assistance and so much more. I appreciate that the leadership takes the time to teach strategy, mission, Vivid Vision, go through the Dynamic Operating System, and 12-week year. We certainly have our challenges as any company does, but we are constantly trying to improve and make tomorrow better than today. Continue reinforcing the values, vision, and mission especially as we grow, it makes a difference and is core to who we are. 

Promotion is based on family and friends plan mainly boys club. Work culture is laid back unless we are close to an impending deadline then all of a sudden upper management wants to apply pressure. Although there is always an unmet deadlines the processes do not improve they repeat the same mistakes every project. Most people with any beneficial work experience leave pretty quickly. The pay is very low and communication is basically non existent you find out the plan the day of changes. The turn over is so high it is hard to get your area running smoothly.  
The people are the best part it is a very friendly environment with a lot of employees experiencing the same struggles the ones who stay can afford the low pay because most are retired military, married individuals who have spouse's with good paying jobs, or contractors who get paid more.

Dynamic Aviation was very misleading to my co-workers and I. When we were offered an internship for the summer, we were told that we would gain great experience from working alongside A&P Mechanics. That was far from the truth. We (all college Juniors and Seniors) got paid minimum wage and did manual labor all summer. Our work had nothing to do with aviation, other than the fact that the job was at an airport. All of us summer interns quit early, with the exception of 2-3 interns. One of my coworkers returned home to work at McDonald's because he said, "I'll make more money." Instead of being treated like highly educated college interns from very reputable schools, we were treated like illegal immigrant workers. Some days we would even be transported to an off site work area in the back of a utility van with no seat belts.

My advice: Avoid this company like the plague.

Dynamic is a company really in a class of their own. If you want to come and enjoy all sorts of weird travel and flying this is the place to work. 

However, there are sacrifices to be made. The pay is very non competitive and the schedule is never what they say it is. Because of the poor pay, the company is constantly understaffed, so expect to be asked to spend months on the road. 

Management is a weird mixed bag. The low level managers that deal directly with employees is great, but upper management is out of touch. They think they’re doing you a favor by giving you a job, and the pay and schedule reflects that.

When I started working here a long time pilot told me “it’s a great job but an awful career” and I found that to be exactly true. I had a blast flying but eventually the shine wore off and the top heavy company began to poke through. 

Apply for the weird stuff, but be prepared to fight to set boundaries.

The people I work with are great. Couldn’t ask for better spirit and attitude. They way the place is managed is a hard to understand. People are promoted to positions that they are not capable of handling. They are good people just not in the right spot. Training is lacking, lacking, lacking, particularly in logistics and records.  Health benefits are expensive if you use them, the deductible is high, especially if you have a family. There are a lot of great things about this job you will not find anywhere else’s. The schedule is Monday through Friday with optional overtime through the week on a fairly regular basis.  Old airplanes on site and on occasion rides for employees and family.

The simple factor of the poor rating comes down to the poor upkeep of middle management.

The upper management staff is void of the many problems within middle management.  As issues are faced, the management likes to point fingers and instead of feeling secure in your job to work other colleges, your constantly having to defend your position.  

The effort involved to paint elaborate pictures to get points across to my manager and the hostile environment within the team where it feels like your walking on egg shells every time your in the office could be prevented.

The most enjoyable part of my day is working with the individual users.  I feel the happiest when I can improve a employees day by fixing a troublesome issue, or finding a more efficient method of accomplishing the task for the user.

I have met many great people here, but it's a disappointment that they don't seem to impact the quality of the company. The pay does not reflect the amount of work required each day, and the benefits are made out to seem better than they are upon initial interview. 

This company is purely a stepping stone or a revolving door to the aviation industry, simply because Dynamic refuses to pay an industry-standard salary for industry-standard work. 

The pay scale is set up in a way that no employee, regardless of position, will ever make six figures (unless a corporate or contract position) and will have to stay for years upon years in addition to performance grades, to receive anywhere close to a feasible starting salary. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Met some really great people , management sucked unless that really liked ya if not you were nothing 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Management not making any sense and when I left a company I worked for forever to come to dynamic and to then get rid of a few hundred of us then turn around d and hire more and end of keeping the ones that were pretty or didn’t give a hoot great company huh?

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Nothing of imported and just weirdness really 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Being confused acting like nothing was wrong and basically not getting anything really done , very bad review coming from me but I’m being honest and hopefully prevent good people making a mistake

Worked here for 3 years. Pay was low and benefits were terrible. Management was very bad and the only people who were promoted were part of the clique. Only good part about this place was they gave young and inexperienced techs a launch pad for their career. Bad part about thAt is that in terms of maintenance and safety standards -this place is the bottom of the barrel. What flies here will not fly at other places. Layoffs happen every year, and unless you are one of the protected few you are never safe. Does not matter how good you are at your job, witnessed some of the best people get let go. My advice is to stay away unless you personally received an invite to apply from someone very high in management.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Aircraft mechanic 12 salaries reported	$97,708 per year
Captain 4 salaries reported	$103,500 per year
Pilot 4 salaries reported	$86,250 per year
Inventory control specialist 11 salaries reported	$16.13 per hour
Avionics technician 2 salaries reported	$55,000 per year

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