30 Aviation Jobs in 21 Years...
Today is the National Aviation Day. A unique day that celebrates the development of aviation. This is a special day to me since it is an echo of the first half of my career. Currently I live and breathe coffee, but before 2017 I was engulfed in the world of aviation. From manufacturing, operations and research, I had over 21 years with 30 jobs in aviation. Why so many jobs? In one simple term: contractor. There were a few jobs as a ‘direct hire,’ but most were contract so I could enjoy the fun of traveling, acquire unique experience on shorter projects and move on to the next one. The reason of why I jumped into aviation in the first place was because of the influence of a magical place close to where I grew up; Dayton, Ohio.
Figure 1: Dayton, Ohio; the Arcade Building
Dayton, Ohio
This is the home of some of the most famous inventors including the Wright Brothers, Charles Kettering, John Janning and more. In fact, we had the highest per capita invention ratio for any city in the US in 1890 (1). The culture of invention brought new organizations like the Barn Gang to create a foundation for their efforts quickly inventing the electric starter for cars. The Barn Gang would eventually became DELCO (2).
I loved aviation growing up, it was a part of our pride in this city. With Dayton’s rich community of inventors in the late 1800’s, it is no wonder the Wright Brothers caught the bug of invention and joined the tides to push the boundaries. Even though their 1903 Wright Flyer is in the Smithsonian in Washington DC, their rich history is detailed in an even bigger and older aviation museum, the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum located where? Here in Dayton, Ohio of course. See Figure 1.
Figure 2: Wright Patterson Air Force Museum, SR71, XB-70 Valkyrie
Having access to the world’s largest and oldest Air Force museum as a kid clearly influenced my love for aviation. Seeing old pictures or hearing stories about airplanes are helpful, but looking with your own eyes at giant rockets towering over crowds and walking under airplanes ten times larger than your house has a deeper impact on a child’s imagination. You feel the plane’s presence. I cannot recommend going to this museum more. Later in life, I would return to the museum and see some items I once ran into when I was working NASA, it was a surreal experience.
Figure 3: Job at NASA: Charles working on ETVCG.
The Humble Beginnings
Before starting in aviation I finished a 2 year education in electronics engineering at Miami Valley Career Technology Center (MVCTC). This replaced my junior and senior years of high school and gave me a huge skillset in electronics before graduating. Then I left to my first real job in aviation creating wire harnesses and installing them into airplanes. This wasn’t that exciting so I quickly shifted into aviations technician work; I thoroughly enjoyed troubleshooting avionics systems on airplanes. My career in manufacturing lasted about 7 years and I pivoted to technical writing for technical manuals for airplanes. I fully admit not enjoying working third shifts or in the freezing cold for line maintenance at a few jobs, so I shifted my career to technical writing when an opportunity popped up. Did you know that you are not stuck in your current career? I didn’t at the time and it was a breath of fresh air to realize I was not stuck. I loved airplanes but my goals in life were changing and I didn’t want to move around as much.
Figure 4: Charles working in Hawker 800XP
Career Shift to Technical Writing
Who enjoys writing technical manuals? I did actually. My daily tasks involved writing the maintenance I used to perform in operations (aka line maintenance). It was fun because I loved aviation. Everyone has to create boring spreadsheets and research something, but when the subject matter is exciting and continually evolving the typically mundane tasks shift to fun challenges of learning and development making a difference in the aviation field for others to benefit from in some way. And in this case, that was to make their tasks as easy as possible to perform maintenance if something broke (corrective maintenance) or prevent something from breaking (preventive maintenance). Many years later I would get pulled into another fun challenge: reliability engineering.
What in the world is reliability engineering? It is better known as R&M engineering Logistics Engineering (or logistics/aka loggy). My job was to perform an analysis (so many...) on the engineering of each system, sub-system and component of an airplane and identify if anything needs to be re-engineered and then define what level of maintenance will be performed in order to help the aircraft meet the life cycle requirements defined. Doesn’t that sound like fun?! Yes and yes! This was the down and dirty work of digging through someone’s design and then essentially troubleshooting it to see if they missed anything. The creative aspect involved in troubleshooting the results was definitely my love language.
In the end of my aviation career I would finish 5 years at NASA on ISS (international space station) helping train astronauts on the instructions I crafted, The Spaceship Company, helping define maintenance for WK2 and SS2 (White Knight 2, Spaceship 2) and finally KSU (Kansas State University) as a researcher for an FAA project for UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) helping define maintenance requirements for UAS.
Figure 5: The Spaceship Company, White Knight Two (WK2)
Figure 6: Spaceship Two (SS2) Landing After Test Flight
I will end with the question that most aviation enthusiasts love pondering. What is your dream airplane to own? Mine is definitely the Grumman Goose. It would have to be the updated version with the PT6's and retractible pontoons.
I think my love for that airplane (seaplane) started with an old terrible TV show called the Golden Monkey. It then was reasurred in Duck Tales (surely the Sunchaser was a Grumman) and then finally Indiana Jones (Pan Am, but still a seaplane).
The seaplane is a call to exploration as the photo here demonstrates. Fewer limitations for takeoff and landing mean more places to explore. I may not be looking for buried treasure, but who knows. This adventure has been a fun one so far, so I'll keep it on the bucket list.
(Figure 7).
Figure 7: The Grumman Goose (with PT6 upgrade)
I am thankful as I ponder the many aspects of aviation I was blessed to enjoy. Here is to the continued celebration of such a wonderful time with so many great people doing things they love. To my many friends still in the field, I hope you have a great aviation day!
- Charles Nick
Post Script
Some of these experiences are shared in more detail for a TEDx talk I gave a few years ago: https://www.ted.com/talks/charles_nick_inspiration_breeds_tenacity?subtitle=en
References:
(2) https://www.thedaytonmagazine.com/the-barn-gangs-first-recruit/
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