It’s good to the industry come together again.
The work never stopped during the depths of the pandemic. If anything, plenty of MROs saw their workload grow with all the planes grounded.
Getting out to Heli-Expo in Dallas was a breath of fresh air. Getting to see old faces and new is always a great time. And seeing more than 2,000 people back together after so much time apart is wonderful to see.
But the most encouraging thing I saw happened just before I left the show.
As a colleague and I were wrapping up at Heli-Expo, we spotted Diesel Dave and Heavy D aka, the Diesel Brothers coming into the show to look at helicopters. Don’t know who the Diesel Brothers are? Well, your kids do and that’s what matters.
After checking Instagram, it turns out they were at the show because Heavy D purchased a Black Hawk.
My love of all things mechanical and eventual foray into automotive maintenance started as a child watching car shows on weekends and seeing how things were built. Anyone with similar interests in my age range has the same story. YouTube and Instagram are building these same passions for today’s youth.
According to a 2017 study by New York Life and Fatherly, sites like YouTube are among the leading influencers for children when it comes to shaping future career goals. It beat out personal passions, parental influence and experiences by a longshot.
Aviation maintenance has lacked these kinds of programs. And the ones that do exist are geared towards their audience of today, not tomorrow. Seeing a hit YouTube show broach into the aviation maintenance zeitgeist opens an opportunity for attracting more talented youths to the field.
The A&P talent pipeline isn’t going to grow overnight. It’s going to take a lot of hard work and creative thinking to get it flowing again. But finding creative ways to engages today’s youth via non-traditional outlets like these should be on all out minds going forward.
Diesel Dave was kind enough to take this photo of me for a friend’s 10-year-old son who stream their show every morning while he’s getting ready for school. And now he’s asking questions about helicopters.
