COURSE TRAINS TEENS WITH EYES ON THE SKIES : LAUSD SUPPLIES MECHANICS.

Byline: Keith Stone Daily News Staff Writer

In the shadow of the Van Nuys Airport control tower and Southern California's ailing aerospace industry, there breathes the future of aviation.

Some 350 students at Los Angeles Unified School District's Aircraft Mechanics School learn the intricacies of jets and helicopters by taking them apart piece by piece, like a medical student dissecting a cadaver.

``It is the best-kept secret within LAUSD,'' said Don Gaskin, principal of North Valley Occupational Center, which runs the school.

And the LAUSD school also is one of just a handful nationwide and perhaps the only one in California that allows high school students to earn their degree while learning enough for a certificate in aircraft repair.

``It is fairly unique,'' said Louis Smith, president of FAPA, an Atlanta-based career organization for aviation workers.

By 10th grade, Alex Serrano already knew he wanted to be a pilot and that he wanted first to ``understand the physics, not just fly, but understand the aircraft.''

So Serrano, a San Fernando resident, began splitting his days between the mechanics school and his classes at James Monroe High School in North Hills.

``Some of my friends wanted to get in, but they thought it was too hard. Not for me,'' said Serrano, who graduated high school in June and expects to finish his last repair courses in January.

Alongside high school students are adults like James Juarez, a 27-year-old Granada Hills man who is hoping aircraft repair will be his second career.

``My father pushed me. He said you aren't going to go nowhere with truck driving,'' Juarez said during a class this week. ``I figured I'd go to school and learn to do something I love to do.''

The market for mechanics has paralleled the slump in the Southern California aerospace industry, which has shed hundreds of thousands of jobs in this region since 1990.

Still, Jack Brestel, a teacher at the school for 23 years, said his students have little trouble finding jobs, but not always with the major airlines or companies at first.

Reflecting the economy's downturn, most airlines are hiring fewer mechanics and therefore can afford to be selective, he said.

``Now they are talking about not just graduating from school, but having four years' experience,'' Brestel said. ``But I get guys who call from Florida, Oklahoma and Texas.''

FAPA - an organization that goes solely by its acronym - confirms that the job market remains strong and that trainees are finding work with smaller air carriers.

``Most cases they prefer three years' experience,'' Louis said. ``They may have to go to an entry level company or middle level company first.''

Aircraft mechanics can earn from $8 an hour to $16 an hour starting out and then as much as $60,000 a year with a large airline.

One graduate who didn't go far to find a job was Rich Greenawald, a 1988 graduate now working just a hangar away from the school restoring military jets.

For his work at the Thornton Aircraft Co., rebuilding some of the world's most exotic and sophisticated planes, Greenawald said his mechanics school education has served him well.

``That is the basics for this business. You are always learning. You never know it all,'' Greenawald said.

With a single piece of windshield glass from an airplane costing thousands of dollars, the school depends largely on generosity and whatever they can get through state surplus.

``There is no way we could ever come up with the money to buy that equipment,'' Gaskin said. ``That is our dilemma getting up-to-date aircraft.''

Donations account for most everything from 3-inch-thick manuals to a gutted jet. And crammed into the hangar off Saticoy Street are several aircraft, most notable among them a lethal-looking T-33 Air Force trainer and a hulking Coast Guard Sikorsky HH52 helicopter.

Shortly before noon earlier this week, the lesson of the day for Juarez was hydraulics, in particular the location of the selector valve on a board covered with hoses, wires and machined bits of metal.

``I'll find it,'' Juarez said.

``Think what a selector valve does, and you will find it,'' said his teacher, Phil Struyk.

``There. That would be your selector valve,'' Juarez said with a smile.

``Yes,'' Struyk said. ``That is right.''

It was just one of many tests Juarez will take before he completes his 1,900 hours of schooling. And then he must pass an oral and practical test that can last 16 hours.

``I've got a long way to go,'' he said.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Carlos Munoz, 18, disassembles a hydraulic pum p for a lesson about aircraft mechanics.

(2) James Juarez of Granada Hills demonstrates his knowledge of a hydraulic system for instructor Phil Struyk.

Bob Halvorsen/Daily News