EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
ISN’T IT IRONIC?
As I was preparing to write my editorial column for this issue, I received an interesting news
announcement from the FAA. The FAA announced the release of a new Advisory Circular (AC 150/5100- 20 – Guidance on the Extraction of Oil and Gas on Federally Obligated Airports). The AC discusses oil and gas development on federally obligated airport land, including any drilling that penetrates the subsurface of airport owned land. It describes how existing FAA policy, guidance, standards and obligations, as well as other applicable laws and regulations, apply to proposed oil and gas extraction from obligated airports (both use of surface land and extraction of subsurface minerals/oil/gas). Allow me to explain why I fi nd this ironic. I grew up in Falfurrias, TX. Falfurrias is a small town
around 2 ½ hours South of San Antonio. There were two major industries in Falfurrias when I was growing up – ranching and oil. My dad worked in the oil industry. He was a supervisor for Exxon. I was exposed to the industry at a young age. My dad would often take my siblings and me to drilling rigs and explain what the workers were doing. I remember all of the pumping jacks extracting “black gold” from ground all around South Texas. It was just part of the landscape. When I graduated from high school, it was time for me to decide what I wanted to do. Since the oil industry was all I knew, I decided to pursue a degree in petroleum engineering. I was off ered a scholarship at Texas A&M University, and started classes there in 1984. Unfortunately, the oil industry took a huge hit a few
years later. My dad was forced to layoff engineers who had been with the company for many years. Many of my upper-class friends were graduating with no job possibilities in sight. It was tough – similar to what the oil industry is experiencing today. Oil prices had dropped so low that it wasn’t profi table to explore or produce. To make a long story short, I ended up being off ered a job with DynCorp at the Naval Air Station in Corpus
Christi, TX. I was hired on the wash rack in 1988. I thought this would be a good job to take for a few
years while I decided what I wanted to do. Within a few days of working there, the decision was made for me –I got the aviation bug. During my breaks, I would go into the hangar and bug the mechanics. I would ask what they were doing and if I could help. I moved from the wash rack to the fuel crew and eventually became a plane captain on the fl ight line within a year. Two years later, B.A.S.I. got the contract, and I was off ered a job as a mechanic helper in the hangar. I worked under the supervision of the A&Ps who worked there. Thanks to their encouragement, I went to the FAA MIDO in San Antonio three years later to get permission to take my A&P tests. I received my A&P certifi cate, and a few years later got my Inspection Authorization. I transferred with the company to Selma, AL in 1995 as a mechanic lead. Two years later, I moved into Quality Assurance as an inspector. My career path took a turn in 2000 when I was hired as the editor of an aviation maintenance magazine. In 2008, I left the magazine and helped launch Director of Maintenance (D.O.M.) magazine. Two years later, we launched Helicopter Maintenance.
(This has been the extremely condensed version of my
career to this point!) Do you see the irony – how my career path has taken
me from the oil industry to aviation maintenance and eventually publishing? It’s it ironic that I just received news about a new AC from the FAA discussing oil and gas exploration on airports? Some of us mechanics like our publisher Greg were exposed to aviation at a young age. Others like me have taken a more non-traditional path to get to where we are today. Whatever the path we took, we are part of this family of aviation maintenance professionals!
Thanks for reading! – Joe Escobar
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HelicopterMaintenanceMagazine.com June | July 2016
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