PROFILE
If you ask Brad R. Townsend, “What is the most important trait to possess as an aircraft maintenance professional?” he would quickly reply, “Integrity.” It is a character trait that has guided him throughout his entire career in aviation maintenance. Townsend is the incoming chairman of the National Business Aviation Association’s (NBAA) maintenance committee. Like 25 others on the com- mittee, Brad is a volunteer — donating his time and efforts to give back to the industry that has given him so much. It is not only Townsend’s integrity, but his passion and drive to never stop learning that have al- lowed him to have a successful and reward- ing career in aviation maintenance.
HOOKED AT AN EARLY AGE Brad was exposed to aviation early in his life. His father wanted to be a fighter pilot, but never had the opportunity. So he satisfied his passion to fly by becoming a private pilot. Brad’s father would often take him flying. “I can remember sitting on a stack of five pil- lows in the copilot’s seat of my dad’s airplane when I was around five or six years old so I could fly with him,” Brad shares. “I enjoyed flying the airplane whenever my dad would allow. But my dad would often get upset with me because whenever he would take the controls back, I would fall asleep. The combination of noise and motion were very conducive for me to easily fall asleep. My dad would spend his hard-earned money to take us flying, and there I was — sleeping when I wasn’t flying.” Brad shares that his dad was his biggest
mentor. He constantly stressed the impor- tance of integrity to his son. “My dad was my hero. He ingrained in me the most precious characteristic — integrity. To this day I lean back on the integrity lessons my father taught me. ‘There’s really nothing you can do to save a liar,’ he once told me. ‘They are done for. If you tell the truth, at least you can walk with your shoulders back and head held high. You may get fired. You may get disciplined. At least you can sleep with yourself at night. You can say you did the right thing.” Townsend’s father also taught him to work
on cars, fostering the mechanical aptitude he would later put to use as an aircraft me- chanic. “I was overhauling engines with my dad when I was ten years old. I didn’t really
09.10 2009
8 TBradownsend
» CHAIRMAN, NBAA MAINTENANCE COMMITTEE
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