MOSES LAKE - It's a rocky economy and a nasty job market out there. Just ask Chris James - he left the Navy and spent six months looking for a job, and finally went back to college, he said. It's a nasty job market out there, but not everywhere and not for everybody. After graduating from the aviation mechanics technology program at Big Bend Community College, James got a job in three weeks, and will start at Boeing sometime this summer.

Aviation maintenance is one bright spot in an avalanche of bad economic news.

Demand is so strong that BBCC is expanding the program with the help of a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The $20 million Air Washington grant will allow college administrators to add a third instructor and slots for 18 more students, said Rebecca Milligan, the grant administrator. The college is one of 11 community colleges and one apprenticeship program working as partners in the grant.

"This just about doubles our capacity here," Milligan said. The grant was awarded through 2014; Milligan said college administrators hope the expansion can stand on its own after that.

The aerospace industry faces two challenges; mechanics are needed now, and demand will grow as current workers reach retirement age, Milligan said.

Prior to the Sept. 11 attacks, "we were 100 percent placement," said Dan Moore, one of the two instructors in the current program. Following the attacks and the subsequent downturn in the industry, the number of students getting jobs dropped for a while, but currently program placement is close to 100 percent, Moore said.

Students in the program receive training in helicopter maintenance as well as fixed-wing aircraft.

"What I've called us is the unsung aviators," Moore said. Mechanics are on the non-glamorous end of the aviation industry, he said. "We're still being perceived as the grease monkey air mechanic," circa World War II, Moore said.

Chris Dinges, 22, is a graduate of Moses Lake High School, and was looking for a career when he enrolled in classes at Big Bend, but the program came as a complete surprise. "We're in the shadow of the pilot program, so much that I didn't even know this existed," he said. He found it when his brother suggested he go online and look for mechanic programs in the state, he said.

It might not be the most glamorous job, but it is crucial, especially to passengers and pilots. "There isn't a plane out there that can fly without a mechanic behind it," Moore said.

It's all about basic physics - a plane ascends and descends, and passes through many stages of air pressure on the way up and down. That puts a lot of stress on the plane and its engines, and somebody has to make sure the air frame and engines are handling that stress.

Maintenance is especially important for airplanes - Moore said he uses a comparison between cars and planes to make the point. When a car breaks down, the driver can just pull to the side of the road, but an airplane - well, a pilot can't just pull up to the nearest cloud and take a look under the hood. "So you've got to stop and fix it right before it leaves," Moore said.

Because of the demands on an airframe and engines and the potential for disaster if something goes wrong, there's a lot of redundancy built into the system. Which seems to be one of the biggest surprises for students coming into the program.

"I'm used to working on cars," Dinges said, and he expected to be handed a screwdriver and rivet gun and wrench when he enrolled in the program, not a stack of paperwork.

(A Navy veteran, Chris James knew there would be plenty of paperwork. "I think I would've felt out of place if it didn't.")

Graduating students receive an associate of arts degree; they have a minimum of 400 hours of instruction in general aviation, 750 hours each in airframe (everything but the engines, Moore said) maintenance and 750 hours in power plant (engine) maintenance. That qualifies them to take the battery of exams administered by the Federal Aviation Administration. Candidates must past the FAA exams before receiving certification, Moore said.

A mechanic receiving certification can find work outside aviation. "My students are well loved in the marine industry. Disney loves A&P (airframe and power plant) students."

A high school diploma or GED equivalent is required for enrollment to the program, Moore said. Math and reading skills are vital, Milligan said. People who want information on applying to the program can contact Milligan at the college, 509-793-222 or www.bigbend.edu.