PROFILE
Brad had to leave King Radio after almost three years at the company. His mom and dad were having problems later in life, and he moved back to Minnesota to work with them. He was going through the local newspaper one day and saw an ad for an opening at Honeywell in their avionics department. He had heard the company was going to build laser gyro cruise missiles, and thought it would be interest- ing to work on cutting-edge technology. He applied for a job and was hired on the spot. At Honeywell, Brad worked on a variety of projects with the company’s engineers. But he shares that he felt some- what out of place. “It was frustrating. I was training guys on the bench that were coming out of engineering school at the University of Minnesota. I had been to school for four years and nobody was recognizing that. This became the seed that sprouted NBAA’s advanced technician certifica- tion program, Project Bootstrap, four years ago. “My lab director could sense my frustration. He suggested
I transfer over to Honeywell flight operations. He told me the company needed an engineering technician in its flight operations because it was moving from military to commer- cial programs. It would soon be building commercial avion- ics systems. He said that when I wasn’t working on new program engineering support, I could work on the com- pany’s corporate aircraft. I had an interview with the DOM. He asked me if I could put together some specifications so the mechanics could fix a problem they were having on the angle of attack (AOA) system on a GII.
CORPORATE AVIATION “I passed through security, went out to the hangar and opened the door. I saw three GIIs before me painted Mat- terhorn white with wide blue stripes, and I immediately fell in love. I stayed up until two in the morning working on the AOA problem. We eventually found a bad relay and fixed it. The boss called and asked how I felt. I told him that it felt good. He said, ‘You’re hired.’ That was the first night I slept on the couch in the office.” Honeywell was Townsend’s first exposure to the world of
corporate aviation, and he liked it. He worked at Honey- well for 11 years, working as the avionics lead and the lead technician in the company’s flight department. Following another test of character separating Townsend
from Honeywell, his next corporate aviation job was chief of maintenance for American Express. The company was opening up a single-airplane flight department in Minne- apolis. It would be a satellite department to the company’s main operation in New York. Townsend’s experience and knowledge in avionics coupled with his A&P landed him the job. Brad worked for American Express for 10 years. When the company decided to shut down the Minneapolis flight department, he was able to use some networking contacts he had made to land his current job as flight operations manager of maintenance for a major telecommunications company in Kansas City, MO.
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TEAMWORK If Townsend’s ranks integrity as the most important char- acter trait to have, then teamwork would probably come in a close second. He is quick to recognize the importance of teamwork to an individual’s success. “I am fortunate to have worked with some great team members over the years,” Townsend says. “Some examples of great team members are my fellow aviation maintenance professionals at my current job — Renee Ghering, Jeff Wilson and Bruce Robbins. I work with a great team here at work. I rely on them. I couldn’t do my job without them.” Though Townsend is the chairman of the NBAA mainte- nance committee think tank, he is quick to pass credit to all members of the committee for the hard work it does on be- half of the aviation maintenance community. “There is a lot to be done in our industry. And it won’t happen with one leader. It will happen with many people realizing their lead- ership qualities and working together for the good of our industry. It will happen in areas like the NBAA maintenance committee. I work with a great team of volunteers on the NBAA maintenance committee. We have a great leadership team on the committee — Marlin Priest (vice chair), Kevin Smith (secretary) and Jim Janaitis (former chair). Nobody gets paid. All of the terms are temporary. Of vital mention are Eli Cotti, NBAA’s full time staff liaison and director as well as Steve Brown, NBAA vice president. Some people may have the perception that we are just here for business aviation. We’re not! We are here working for the benefit of all technicians.”
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