certificate,” Leonard shares. “It was a whole new ball game.” Leonard quickly realized he
enjoyed teaching. He was able to share his knowledge and technical advice with his students — things that he had learned the hard way over years of working on helicopters. Leonard had a vision to have the school certified under 14 CFR Part 147. He put together a plan and presented it to the FAA. The FAA accepted it. Unfortunately, the school decided not to pursue Part 147 certification. Leonard didn’t give up. He knew he could help give his students a pathway for having successful careers in aviation maintenance. He talked to the FAA and got approval to sign their time off under Part 65 for the hours of OJT/work performed while they were under his instruction. This would give them the opportunity to take their A&P tests based on experience. He also networked with local aviation companies to help get his students jobs once they received their A&Ps. Some were able to work aviation jobs to help earn extra spending money while building up their experience before they got their certificates. The students respected Leonard and appreciated all he was doing to help them. Many would even go to the shop at the school on weekends to expand their knowledge and gain experience. Leonard would take side jobs in the evenings or summers when school was out to help supplement his income. Eventually Leonard retired, but was doing some work for Peter Wright purchasing museum pieces. In January 2003, he went over to Piasecki Aircraft Corp. (Frank Piasecki invented the tandem rotor helicopter) and talked to Fred Piasecki, one of the owners. He knew Piasecki had six radial engines left over from the company’s Helistat
program and wanted to know if he could have them to give away to some Marine Corps groups that had restored some H-34 helicopters. Piasecki let Leonard have the engines. He asked what Leonard was doing. Leonard said he was retired. Piasecki said, “You’ll never be retired,” and asked Leonard if he would like to work part time acquiring parts for the company’s SpeedHawk program. Leonard accepted the offer and started working for Piasecki Aircraft.
PIASECKI AIRCRAFT The aircraft Leonard was hired for at Piasecki was the SpeedHawk (X- 49) — a technology demonstrator. The aircraft was based on a Sikorsky Seahawk helicopter and was modified with a vectored thrust ducted propeller (VTDP) in the back and lifting wings (taken from an Aerostar FJ-100 business jet) on the fuselage. Leonard’s first task was to get parts
for two hydraulic systems. “I said, ‘Fred, why do you want this junk? This aircraft has very good systems in it.’” Leonard says. “Well, it didn’t take me long to learn what it meant by isolating systems in the aircraft. We had two redundant hydraulic systems on the SpeedHawk just for all the modifications we had done to the aircraft.” Leonard went from working 30-hours a week at the beginning to more than 40 hours a week. His part time job had become a full-time endeavor. Leonard did a lot of work on the SpeedHawk. The maintenance tasks Leonard performed on the aircraft were groundbreaking. The team was learning as the project went along. There were no maintenance manuals for what they were doing. He was working with the team to develop maintenance procedures as each challenge presented itself. THEY wrote the maintenance book. At that time Leonard was chief of Quality and was
the person responsible for releasing the aircraft for every test flight. The SpeedHawk made its first flight in June 2007. In total, the helicopter made 79 flights totaling 86.6 hours. Leonard continues to work for Piasecki Aircraft to this day. He is still involved on the company’s experimental projects. Every day presents new challenges and new opportunities for learning. “It’s been fun,” Leonard says. “You can’t put this kind of stuff on a resume, but it’s been great experiencing all the different things I have and learning every step of the way.” On January 10, as the FAA
kicked off its Charles Taylor Master Mechanic presentation to Leonard it played a short informational video about Charles Taylor for the benefit of the non-aviation attendees at the celebration. As I was watching the video, I
realized how appropriate it was that Leonard was receiving the Charles Taylor award! Although the award celebrates 50 years of violation-free work in aviation maintenance, I believe the award meant much more to many of those in attendance. Charles Taylor built the engine that powered the Wright Flyer into the history books — even when engine manufacturers of the day told the Wright Brothers it couldn’t be done. There were no maintenance manuals for Taylor to reference. He was designing and learning as he went along. These past years at Piasecki have been along those same grounds for Leonard. He continues to work on new projects. The majority of the time, he has no maintenance manuals. He is learning as he goes. And he has passed on his knowledge to more than 100 of his students who will continue to celebrate his impact and legacy for generations to come!
11
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
