Pro RP: What is your current position?
Director of maintenance for Helicopter Institute and Longhorn Helicopters. We are a Part 141 flight school, a Part 135 operator, a Part 145 repair station, and maintain just over 20 rotorcraft representing, at one time, five different manufacturers in-house. Helicopter Institute functions as a one-stop shop for pretty much any training need folks can have in rotorcraft aviation. If it’s done in a helicopter, we do it or train it.
RP: Tell me about your first experience with helicopters.
My first experience with helicopters came from watching my family start their first flight school, Palm Beach Helicopters. I joke that the earliest “video game” I remember was a flight simulator in a trailer we kept outside the hangar at the school. My entire youth was rotorcraft exposure, so it’s difficult to pick a “first.”
RP: How did you get your start in the helicopter industry?
I went to school for aviation maintenance at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth, Texas. After three years of night courses and working during the day, I tested for and received my airframe and powerplant certificates. Before I was certified, I worked as an apprentice for about a year at Double T Aircraft (now Emerald Arrow) at Meacham International Airport doing sheet metal and composite work.
RPMN: When and how did you choose the helicopter industry? Or did it choose you?
My parents started their first flight school in West Palm Beach, Florida. I remember them hanging the sheetrock and painting rooms. I was young enough at the time that I didn’t really know the significance of what was happening around me, but I remembered the determination it took them to create a rotorcraft flight school from scratch. Throughout my youth, I followed my parents to Helicopter Association International (now Vertical Aviation International) events and shows all around the United States. I had the privilege of meeting industry professionals from all different sectors of rotorcraft aviation and spent many hours absolutely enthralled in their golden-days stories of helicopters.
10 Nov/Dec 2024
My professional aviation career started when I was officially hired at Helicopter Institute. With my childhood leading to heavy exposure to all facets of helicopters, it was a natural progression to continue into rotorcraft. Despite the A&P certificates and years of being surrounded by the industry, the adage “an A&P is a license to learn” became as obvious as the blue sky on a sunny day. I quickly realized that even a full childhood of exposure wasn’t enough to properly prepare someone to venture into the helicopter industry confidently. It took several years for me to truly feel like a “professional.”
RP: If you were not in the helicopter industry, what else would you see yourself doing?
If I hadn’t gone into aviation, I would like to think I would have pursued music professionally. I always had an ear for it, and I still enjoy playing music as often as I can from home. If I ever had to leave the rotorcraft world, I feel it prepared me well to pursue any other field. The irony of starting a rotorcraft flight school from the ground up is that the skills you learn along the way often have very little to do with actual aviation. Building walls, laying carpet, tile work, fixing air conditioning units, and many other “facilities tasks” lead anyone who has built a small business to feel confident to take on any task.
RP: What do you enjoy doing on your days off?
As aviation keeps you very busy, it’s always good to catch up with friends and family that aren’t in the industry. I’m a huge foodie, so exploring new restaurants and finding good live music around Dallas-Fort Worth is always a blast.
Meet a otor
Austin Rowles
I had the opportunity to meet many members of the esteemed “Twirly Birds,” met several presidents and chairpersons of HAI, several CEOs of rotorcraft manufacturers, and met massive swaths of the amazing boots-on-the-ground people that make up the helicopter industry at large. It is impossible to be exposed to that many amazing people and not want to continue their legacy in this amazing industry.
RP: Where did you get your start flying or maintaining professionally?
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