Aircraft painter
Bringing beauty back
Megan Florian
Aircraft painter
Qualifications: No flying experience needed, but a team mentality and pride in work are key.
Benefits: Delivering an aircraft back to the owner “when they see the finished product as opposed to a piece of paper. I like happy clients.” A Van’s RV–14A she painted is the May photo for the 2023 Sherwin-Williams aircraft paint calendar.
Drawbacks: Not enough time in the day. The base coat is the hardest to apply, and if it’s not right, nothing else will be right, Florian says.
Pay: The national average is $22 per hour.
With an aging general aviation fleet whose owners are determined to keep flying, paint shops are kept busy year-round, and paint technicians are always in demand.
Megan Florian beautifies airplanes at Hayes Aviation at Colorado Plains Regional Airport in Akron, Colorado (AKO). She joined the fixed-base operator in 2014, and her first task was to learn how to strip old layers of paint off aircraft. From there, she became adept at all aspects of the very detailed process: priming; sanding; fixing hail damage; “shooting” (applying) the base coat; applying the stripes used in the final design; and then the detail work, which includes sealing windows and changing out threaded fasteners.
Six to eight weeks is standard turnaround for a paint job. “We’re a small shop and have limited manpower,” Florian said. “We push them through as fast as we can.” At the same time, her team needs to be thorough and precise. “A lot of people don’t understand how much goes into it,” Florian said.
While flying experience is not necessary to work in a paint shop, Florian said she likes to see candidates take ownership in their projects and bring a passion to the finished product.
“Everything is built on top of how well [the airplane] is stripped and primed,” she said. “It takes an army.”
Related Articles
