aircraft mechanic

EPIC AIRCRAFT

This company has great potential, but prior to coming to Epic I was warned of their failures and have quickly learned why/how they've earned their reputation.  Epic started as a "kit" company and for the better half of the last decade have been working towards certification that would allow for in-house production.  Certification has continually been pushed back year after year as issues arise.  Some of these issues include: 

-no LSP on dozens of kit aircraft, a requirement per 14 CFR parts 25, 33, and 35 (whoops!)
-BP tolerances incorrectly flowed down to subtier vendors, resulting in the production of nonconforming product.
-no procedure for controlling nonconforming product or preventing it from being installed on aircraft, which has been shown through records to have occured on more than one occasion
-no adherence to rigging, marking, QC, or fabrication specs.
-lax management that does not recognize existing talent within their labor pool or allow them to fully utilize their skill sets
-Quality Control that follows a "house rules" mentality where procedures are modified and implemented on the spot in order to avoid addressing quality issues
-no Doc control, allowing for inspection reports to be modified without notifying the inspector that performed the operation
-leads that are allowed to show up to work under the influence without consequence because they have the correct last name and have been there forever
-most of the employees at Epic are related to each other in one form or another and therefor tribal knowledge is highly utilized 
-opportunity for advancement is slim as they prefer to hire people fresh out of college with no experience

The only positive to this place is that there is no drive to accomplish anything, as shown by their long drawn out certification process and the fact that most of management is just there to collect a paycheck, so if you're looking for a brain dead job where you can sit around for 8 hours and get paid for it then this may be for you.

Aircraft manufacturing is one of those professions typically filled with passionate people who love what they do. Epic has a lot of potential if management would concentrated a bit more on treating their employees with value and respect for the job they do. The company environment is currently modeled after a more authoritarian style of management which is fitting for a russian owned company. The CEO and production management seem to be trying to reinvent the wheel. Having no prior certified aircraft production experience there are many common mistakes being made that could have been avoided. The aircraft engineering staff are great to work with and truly want to design the best and safest product they can, but this is often times overshadowed by the aggressive nature of the executive and production management staff and the need to make up production numbers for their shortcomings in the certification testing processes and decision making.
I'm hopeful the owners will truly want to continue production of the aircraft in the US but with the manufacturing of a large portion of the parts being made overseas by sister companies, and the tendency to overlook the toxic culture within the organization, this would suggest otherwise.

Production gets 5 days off a year. If you or your family gets sick or you need, you know, normal time off to maintain your health appts etc, prepare to blast through your “competitive time off” of 5 days in the first month or two of employment. After that it is non-paid.

No regard or expression of appreciation for individuals that work excessive amounts of hours in a workweek. The benefits are 💩. No 401k match for production, at all, like not even 1%. Any additional benefits outside of health and dental are “optional” for disability etc and not offered through the employer for lower premiums. 

The pay is decent and there are good people that work here but relative to the cost of living, be prepared to work consistent overtime to have any fleeting chance at expendable income outside of your bills. 

2 nights a week the company offers food and drinks which is cool and used to distract the herd from the fact that their benefit and time off packages are 👎🏻 

A lot of cool things going on here and headed in the right direction, but the company needs to improve their time off for both salary and production, benefits, and 401k match in order to retain, attract workers and reduce turn over. 

- Anonymous disgruntled employee who quit

What to say about Epic Aircraft, I currently work here and I will say this.1st, it’s a good place to work, they got a great benefit package and they pay well. But in all I am just one person and my experience is well, mine, right? Right! It’s good work and good people. I work the swing shift so it’s a different experience. Okay they said they wanted to hear us…well guys, the music thing.. yep I am going to go there, professionally. The music, book tape, podcasts keeps me on task, I have to admit I am doing fine without it, but it would truly be a blessing to have it again I go crazy with some of the conversations I have to deal with or the folks who speak to themselves near by. I work on parts by myself, I keep notice to my surroundings and when I had music I had noise canceling headphones. Look they take pretty darn good care of us, and it is pretty tough to get fired, this place is great! Swing shift was the only shift with music when I 1st joined in 2019 hence one reason I joined swing, that and I live in Prineville. If music was brought back I would give 5 stars. Yep! Yes, it’s a good place to work and I am glad to have the job,Truly!

Typical day consists of clocking in with a security badge, getting lined out by a supervisor and completing your assigned tasks individually or as a team. The pros are: Medical & 401k Package ,Thursdays meeting which usually consists of a free banquet meal banquet keg beer and wine followed by a quick company presentation led by the kind and generous CEO. Cons: The Synergy or work group cohesion is lacking as the age group and demographic is out of balance. From multiple sources I've encountered other employees in different departments complaining of issues with salary being too low to sustain a modest lifestyle in Bend so many have to commute from surrounding cities. Upper management has no evaluation process in place for any feedback for it's employees to generate a more productive workplace. If your expecting an explanation in your exit interview don't expect one. All in all if you have the skills and don't mind the work it can be a decent place to find your start but don't count on anything long term unless your skills are outstanding.

If you ignore the glaring problems surrounding you, it isn't too bad. Most employees are great, but there are a few really bad apples that spoil things. Management has no idea about the specifics or even the broad strokes of what they're doing. I wouldn't mind so much that they don't understand the technical aspects of what they people they oversee do, but they don't even understand their own roles. If you like bosses and hate leaders, then I guess you'll like the upper level culture. There's a lot of "say one thing, do another" that involves management being above the law, but they like to kick the lower level employees around. It's basically like having a caste system, because that's modern and not backwards. It really is an amazing company. I'm constantly amazed the lights are on and the doors are open.

I have worked here for about 10 years. I have been through a couple cert and new aircraft programs before working here. It started off with a small group of employees long hours and high stress just like other programs like this. The epic team was able to get the job done pretty quickly for what had to go into it. It was difficult to keep up and do the work. 

Now that we are in production things have calmed down and management has improved a lot. Pay has also improved a lot and is now fairly competitive for the area. Epic still has its bumps just like any work place but it is now one of the better places I have worked. 

The entry level jobs are actually entry level where you are trained how to do the job. Advancements do come up here and there people can even change departments. Pay raises so far have been pretty good from my perspective any way. 

I won’t tell you it is perfect and there are areas to improve even but as far as work places go it is good and hopefully will continue to grow. 

Day usually starts with preparing chemicals and materials to be used for the day. 

When we're building new molds, then we set-up our work area for lay-up. When we're repairing a damaged mold, then it's assessing all the damages to work on, so we can prepare the materials we needed. Each day is a learning experience at the time i worked there, because we were working on getting certified, thus, building new molds from engineering but are constantly changing. 

The hardest part of the job was, while going through the process of certification, we kept on building new molds only to be altered again because of some changes in specifications that led to wasting lots of materials, time and effort.

The most enjoyable part of the job is when you can deliver a quality and safe aircraft that is actually flying up in the air.

The pay is decent. The work hours are good. There is no HR department for 400+ employees. Management is very immature and unprofessional. Management gets away with  treating people how they want, because there is no accountability for the managers.  When you request to speak to their manager, they will not provide you with their information. If you have any issues with the managers, there is no one that you can report their behavior to. The overall general moral is so bad. Gossip is so bad within the supervisers & employees. This creates a very uncomfortable place to work. The continuous harassment from employees and management makes this a horrible place to work. 

I was expected to train people on my part with out any compensation, and i abliged hoping for a better outcome, however, that has not been the case. The actual job is fantastic, most of the people are fun, and the night shift manager is a really cool guy. He is very over worked and is given the expectation to do all the things the day shift can do, with out any of the required tools to accomplish them. However, he always helps

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