PROFILE
says Hayes. “They did everything from minor engine work, heavy inspections, wheel and battery overhauls, avionics and a lot of other in-house maintenance work. I learned as much as I could – soaking up as much information as was possible. Everyone was there to support me and help me out. I became a diff erent mechanic when I was there. I guess you could say I went from being a boy to a man. I learned from those who had been working a lot longer than I had with over 100 years of combined experience. I was also able to off er new ideas for doing things that had been set in place for a long time. “At Abbott, we also worked as
fl ight engineers and traveled all over the world supporting the aircraft and mission,” continues Hayes. “I will never forget my fi rst trip. It was the longest trip of the year. We did a trip with the CEO from Waukegan to Anchorage, then Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, and then back through Japan, Anchorage and back home. It was an eye-opening experience including the cultural aspect of visiting the diff erent countries as well as understanding what these aircraft can do to support the company. It was my fi rst time traveling internationally. I usually went on four to fi ve trips a year, and I enjoyed the job a lot.” While Hayes was at Abbott, Delves
(his former mentor and maintenance supervisor at McDonald’s) contacted him and invited him to join the Bombardier Challenger 300 advisory committee. Hayes joined the committee with Francisco’s support. He went to Montreal to sit in as a guest on an advisory committee meeting. He was voted in to join the committee at their next meeting, and has participated on the committee ever since, currently serving as its membership chair. He says it has given him the opportunity to work with other active aviation managers
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along with Bombardier VPs, product engineers and other 300 technical members to help guide improvements to the 300 program. Through the advisory committee,
Hayes eventually met Fred White, the aircraft maintenance manager for Harley-Davidson Flight Operations. Harley-Davidson was taking delivery of two 300s, and Hayes helped get White up to speed. Hayes got a call from White saying he had lost his technician and was looking for a replacement who had experience on Challenger 300s. “I’ll put some feelers out and let you know if I hear of anyone,” Hayes told White. Since taking the job at Abbott,
Hayes had moved to Milwaukee, WI. He was driving an hour or more each way, and the extra commute took time away from his home life. The Harley-Davidson hangar was only 10 minutes from his house. He started to think about the job that White had open at Harley-Davidson. He was a motorcycle enthusiast, and this would allow him to mix his personal hobby with his work hobby. “It was one of the toughest decisions I have ever had to make,” says Hayes. “People said, ‘You don’t leave Abbott, you retire from there.’ Nobody left Abbott. But I woke up one morning and thought I’d try it out. So I called Fred and asked, ‘What would you think about hiring me?’ ‘I was hoping you would say that,’ he told me, and made me a job off er. I decided to accept the off er.” Hayes says when he walked into Francisco’s offi ce to turn in his resignation, Francisco looked at him and said, “You’ve got to be kidding me! Don’t do that. I know you are always joking with me!” “I remember getting teary-eyed a little bit at that time,” says Hayes. “It was like telling your dad you had done something bad. I had looked up to everybody at Abbott. They were the ones who really started to sculpt me into the business and pushed me to
my limits. Bob told me he was upset that I was leaving, but he understood.”
HARLEY-DAVIDSON Hayes started as a mechanic for Harley-Davidson in September 2011. He and White were the maintenance team. They not only maintained their two Challenger 300s, but at the time also had an avionics repair station, managed and operated a fuel farm, were ISO 9000 and ISBAO certifi ed and did most of their aircraft maintenance in house. “It opened my eyes real fast with everything we were doing with just two technicians,” says Hayes. “We were fl ying around 1,100 hours a year with our aircraft. It was a tough transition. I learned a lot in a short amount of time. It was time for me to put my ‘big boy’ pants on. I jumped right into it.” A year after Hayes started working at Harley-Davidson, White took a position with another company. Hayes had the opportunity to take over as chief of maintenance. He says he was faced with a diffi cult decision to make. “There I was, 28 years old when the position opened up. I lost a lot of sleep over it for several days. I questioned myself – was I ready for this position? It was the biggest decision I had ever had to make. I talked to my family. I talked to Bob Francisco and Mike Delves. I talked to my fellow advisory committee members. And every single one of them told me, ‘If you have the passion, you can do it. It will be one of the toughest things you will have to do. There isn’t a book that has been written on how to do our job.’ It was a tough decision. I didn’t know what I was getting into. It was like jumping into a canoe and starting to row out into the middle of the ocean. I had no idea what I would be up against. The great thing was that the leadership above me saw something in me and had confi dence I was the
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