2022 AMT 40 Under 40 Maintenance Professionals: Leonel A. Turcios, Avionics Manager, Million Air
Leonel Turcios finds reward in solving the complex, and sometimes confounding, problems of his field.
“What I enjoy most about my job is the fact that whenever you figure something out or whenever you solve an issue that’s been giving you trouble, that’s given a lot of people trouble, is very, very rewarding. It gives you a huge sense of accomplishment,” he said.
Turcios, avionics manager for Million Air, made his mark with the company by solving a problem no one else could.
“Million Air called the company I used to work for because they needed a little bit of help. When I got there, they had two aircraft that they had been working on for about two months. They couldn’t figure anything out and I had dealt with the issues before. So I knew what was wrong with them. So the issue that they had been having for about two, three weeks that they couldn’t solve on these aircraft, I solved two of them within the same day, and then I solved another one within a week. That’s what got me this position,” he described.
Turcios received his training from Texas Southern University, graduating with a degree in aviation science management. Starting his aviation career as a line technician, Turcios came into avionics three and a half years ago somewhat by accident. “I was taking an aircraft to what I thought was a maintenance shop at the beginning. And got through talking to the guy and asked him, ‘What do you guys do here?’ And he said, ‘Oh, we do avionics.’ So then I got to talk to him and told him, ‘If you guys ever need any apprenticeship people, let me know.’ He called me about week later, he said, ‘Come talk to me.’ I went over, talked to him, gave him my resume and I got hired.”
Turcios added that the sense of comradery and family that permeates aviation is one of his favorite overall aspects of the industry.
“The sense of community that everybody knows everybody. If I don’t know you, the guy standing right next to me will know you. And it’s also a sense of family in the aviation industry,” he said.
