PROFILE
and the word got out that we weren’t going to tolerate any stuff.” Leonard did well in school. It was just before Christmas, and a friend of Leonard’s in school who was ex- Navy and he decided to take their powerplant tests before returning home for Christmas break. They decided to take their tests with Mr. Baker, the chief instructor at the school. They figured out that if they could pass his test, they knew their stuff.
THE WORLD IS MY OYSTER They went over to the shop on a Sunday to take the tests. They both passed. “My buddy Dave asked him how much he owed him, and Mr. Baker said 25 dollars,” Leonard shares. “So I pulled out my checkbook and Mr. Baker told me, ‘No, no — I don’t want your money. Are you going home for Christmas?’ ‘Yes sir,’ I replied. ‘I’ll take a gallon of Chesapeake Bay oysters as payment.’ When I flew back to Tulsa after Christmas break, I had a gallon of fresh iced-down oysters with me. I went from the airport straight to Mr. Baker’s house. When he opened the door he saw what I had. He opened that lid and just stood there eating those raw oysters right out of the bucket. In March, when it was time to take my airframe tests, it was the same deal — Mr. Baker wanted oysters as payment. I paid for my A&P tests with fresh oysters from home!” After earning his A&P, Leonard
stayed in school to take three additional two-month courses — a second class radiotelephone operator course, a jet engine overhaul course and an accident investigation course. After finishing school, Leonard was
offered a job at PHI. However, his wife at the time didn’t like the idea of him being out two weeks and home a week, so he decided to move back home to look for a job there. There were a few jobs available for around $1.50/hour. Leonard
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expected that with his military helicopter experience he could earn more, so he kept searching. He went to interview with a company that operated Bell 47’s. “I had exceptional recommendation letters from a couple of pilots in the Marine Corps and a maintenance chief,” Leonard recounts. “The guy jokingly asked how I had talked them into signing the letters. He then turned me down for the job because I didn’t have enough experience. There I was with experience crewing 46s and 34s, and he said I didn’t have enough experience? I was so mad that I was a bit distracted, and I ended up running out of gas on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on the way home! “Fast forward two years — we
ferried a Skycrane to that same airport,” Leonard continues. “We were going to do a lift job the next day on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It was just after dark and I’m doing some quick maintenance on the aircraft. A guy walks up behind me and asks, ‘How the hell did you learn to work on one of these?’ It was the same guy who turned me down for that job. I said, ‘When you’re too dumb to work on Bell 47s, they give you one of these to work on.’ He didn’t even look up and said, ‘I guess you can’t win them all.’” Back to the job hunt. Leonard was getting frustrated that he couldn’t find a job. Then one day, he was flipping through a copy of Trade-a-Plane and noticed an ad for a company out of Philadelphia that was selling rotor blades. “So, I call them up,” Leonard shares. “’You must have an S-58,’ I said. ‘Yes, we do,’ he replied. So, long story short, he hired me. That was my start at Keystone Helicopters.” Leonard ended up working at
Keystone Helicopters from 1971- 1973. He worked on the company’s Sikorsky S-58, S-56 and S-55 helicopters.
Leonard then went to work for
Erickson. He was working on the company’s Sikorsky S-64 Skycranes. As the company was taking delivery of its third Skycrane, Leonard was working with a Sikorsky mechanic that knew the aircraft. Then one day, the owner Jack Erickson asked Leonard if he was ready to take over the maintenance for that Skycrane. “I said, ‘Jack, I don’t even know how to preflight the damn thing,’” Leonard says. “’Larry (the pilot) seems to think you’re ready,’ Jack told me. So, I leaned over to Larry and said, ‘I’ll make you a deal. First time we land somewhere, and I don’t know how to fix this darn thing, you won’t jump in a rental car and go to the motel.’ ‘You have a deal,’ Larry told me. There were times I couldn’t get enough manuals pulled out, but that’s how I learned that aircraft — I HAD to learn! “To tell you the truth,” Leonard
continues, “I was tickled to death to work on those helicopters. They could have probably cut my pay and I wouldn’t have said anything. I really enjoyed working on them!” Eventually, Erickson wanted
Leonard to take over the maintenance for all four of its Skycranes. He was barely home maintaining one helicopter. He eventually decided to leave Erickson. He left on good terms, and Jack Erickson told him the door would always be open if he wanted to return. Leonard went home and collected unemployment for a few months. Then his next job opportunity came up — one that would change his life and the lives of more than 100 young people forever.
TEACHING Leonard got a job at Delcastle Technical High School as an instructor. The school taught many trades including brick laying, carpentry and aviation. “I had to go to college to get my teaching
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