Like many of his colleagues, Luke Czapla had an unusually strong fascination with all things mechanical from a young age. His father helped him appreciate the engineering of aircraft, machinery and other technology by taking him and his brother on a regular basis to many museums, fly-ins and flights with his pilot friends. “These experiences, coupled with a strong sense of adventure led me to realize in my teens that I wanted a job working on planes, boats or trains. Of course, aviation was my top choice,” Czapla noted.
He says he is grateful to have had many mentors at different times over the years. It’s hard to name just one, but he is sure they know who they are. “There are many that gave me lots of technical advice and taught me how to perform my job with precision and hone my skills,” Czapla explained. “Just as crucially, they also taught me how to manage the pressures, challenges and stressors that are often inherent in the day-to-day operations unique to this industry."
Czapla began his career in 2008 at Rhoades Aviation (BAK). At first, he performed standard FBO duties such as fuel service, cargo loading and basic customers service tasks. A few weeks later, he was sitting in an In-Doc class for their 121 Convair and DC-3 operation as a flight follower and assisting maintenance shortly thereafter. “It was a massive amount of information in a world that was very new to me,” he commented. “Luckily, most of the people there had decades of experience and took the time to pass on their knowledge."
After his time at Rhoades, Czapla was determined to acquire his A&P in order to open more opportunities. While studying for his A&P, he performed other intermittent on-the-job-training while working fulltime at K&R International, where he dealt with many international airfreight carriers. Once he attained his license, Czapla joined SkyWest Airlines in SBN as a R.O.N. mechanic. “This was a much faster pace environment, but thanks to good management and training, it was a fun and rewarding transition,” he explained. “I again had the privilege of working with some wonderful men and women who took the time to teach me all the quirks of a new aircraft. I took on the role of crew lead while in SBN and found it to be a very rewarding experience.
A few years ago, Czapla transferred to SkyWest’s DTW base. Here he finds himself in a variety of roles in the hangar and the flight line performing a mixture of mostly non-routine maintenance and troubleshooting, RII duties or on road trips.
In addition to this year’s AMT 40 Under 40 Award, Czapla has also nabbed the FAA AMT Silver Training award in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Eventually Czapla says he would like to move into a management position, but right now, is having too much fun being hands-on with aircraft.
