PROFILE
supervision) as his retribution. “If the repair came out good enough (and I had to go sell it to the owner), then the school would let me use that as an official repair as part of my curriculum,” shares Townsend. “It was a tough situa- tion. The customer was very upset. It was the first cranky customer I had ever dealt with. “In the end, everything worked out fine. I was able to handle the situation. The customer was pleased with the repair work and the paint scheme — so much so that he would often brag to others that I was the guy who dinged his airplane and did such a good job fixing it. It actually turned into somewhat of a reputation builder. “I share that lesson today with the technicians I work
with, whether they are young or whether they are my se- nior partners. Nobody should get disciplined for an honest mistake. We all can learn from my lesson.” Brad earned his A&P while working at Elliot. He worked
at Elliot for around three years. When he left to take the next step in his career path, he was working as line manager for the company.
AVIONICS SCHOOL One of the things Brad realized early in his career was that he didn’t want to be just an engine mechanic, airframe mechan- ic, welder or other specialized aircraft mechanic. He wanted to do it all. “I didn’t want to be limited,” he shares. “I under- stood what an A&P could do. I wanted to do it all. People kept telling me that was impossible. But I couldn’t understand why somebody would want to become compartmentalized in an aviation maintenance career. I wanted to be faced with challenges and fix problems on all parts of the aircraft!” Townsend realized that a way to become a more well-
rounded mechanic was to further his education. A technician at the instrument shop at Elliot told him about Minnesota
09.10 2009
12
Area Technical College in Alexandria, MN that offered an Associate’s degree in avionics. He sent in his application, and was accepted to the two-year program at the school. Townsend shares, “There are no requirements under the FCC for a set number of hours, but it ended up being around 2,500 hours — it was even more intense than A&P school.” Brad worked at the Bellanca factory while going to
school. He would also fly parachute jumpers in the summers to make extra money. He also managed a drive-in theater as well as being a handy man at a local resort (which entitled him to stay rent-free at the resort.)
AVIONICS JOBS Townsend graduated from the avionics school and had two Associates degrees in his pocket. He and four of his friends drove down to Kansas City to look for avionics jobs. One of their stops was at King Radio. When King Radio found out the applicants in front of them had gone to avionics school, the company asked the group if they would mind taking an aptitude test. They agreed to take the test. It was a 25- question test, and they all finished it in around 10 minutes and aced it. “An employee from King Radio came into the room yelling at us, accusing us of cheating,” Townsend tells D.O.M. magazine. “There was a proctor in the room with us and she confirmed that she had been there the whole time and that we hadn’t cheated. So the employee asked if we would like to take company’s engineering test. We said, ‘Sure, why not.’ We all passed it. All five of us were hired as engineering assistants.” Brad started off in the bearing lab at King, working on
gyros. He also worked in the VHF and HF labs. He was exposed to a wide variety of avionics technology at the company including the large-scale integration lab that grew digital chips for the miniaturization of King products.
DOMmagazine
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 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72
