Editor’s note: This interview has been adapted from an episode of The Helicopter Podcast and edited for length, clarity, and flow. Responses may combine excerpts from longer answers while maintaining the speaker’s original intent.
Vertical Plus: You originally planned to pursue a career in medicine before joining the U.S. Air Force. How did you end up in helicopter maintenance, and what kept you in the industry?
Keith Moreland: I graduated and started with the University of Alabama and realized after one semester that that’s not affordable for me. So I went into the U.S. Air Force as a medic, but that got shifted over when I graduated boot camp. They said, ‘You’re now our crew chief on helicopters.’
That’s kind of how I got started in helicopters. I will admit I was not happy with that because my father had me working on boats and motorcycles when I was a young man, and I didn’t want anything to do with mechanics. Here I am today, a vice president of a large MRO helicopter company.
My course plan was medic, but I’m happy with where I am today. I love the helicopter industry. I love aviation. I love all the relationships that I’ve been able to develop over the years, so it’s been great.
V: Many helicopter maintenance technicians begin their careers in the military. How does that experience prepare them for a career in civilian aviation, and what are some of the biggest adjustments they face during that transition?
K.M.: You travel with your helicopter when it goes on a temporary duty assignment, you maintain it throughout the process, and you have to be able to do electrical troubleshooting and minor structural repairs if something happens to the aircraft off base. You’re responsible for getting the aircraft back to the home base. It is a great career pathway through the military.
The transition coming from the military into the civilian world can be difficult. A lot of the guys have Chinook experience, and it’s a hard transition. Even for me, CH-53s and H-3Es are big helicopters, and a lot of these civilian helicopters are small. They’re fragile. You’ve got to be careful where you put your hands, where you put your feet. You can cause a lot of damage.
The thought process by some is that a helicopter is a helicopter, and that’s not the case. There are some similarities, and there are also a lot of distinct processes within each helicopter.
V: Communication between pilots and maintenance technicians is critical to safe operations. Why is that communication so important, and what should it look like in practice?
K.M.: Communication between the aircrew and the maintenance crew is essential. It goes both ways. When they see a pilot who’s willing to step in and fill that gap and help out, the maintenance crew responds, and we go above and beyond to make sure that we accommodate the pilot and support him and his mission.
It’s important that when you’ve performed maintenance on an aircraft, when the aircraft is ready for a mission, go over it with the aircrew. Say, “Hey, we’ve got the aircraft ready to go, but can you get in and check everything out?” Use that pilot’s knowledge. Ask them questions. That helps build trust, and the pilot is more at ease because he understands better what you’ve done to the aircraft that he’s about to get in. That’s really important.
V: The industry continues to face a shortage of maintenance professionals. Is the challenge finding applicants, or finding the right applicants?
K.M.: It’s not for the lack of receiving resumes. I’m very picky as I look through the resumes. There are certain things most managers look for. If a guy has worked on helicopters for the last 10 years, but he’s worked for 15 companies in 10 years, that’s a red flag for most managers. There’s an issue there if you don’t have any longevity.
I look for A&Ps. If you’re going to be a helicopter technician, it’s important that you have that airframe and powerplant license. It tells me you’re serious about your career and you’re really wanting to grow in this industry. It’s more important that I focus on their attitude and see how they would fit in with our team.
V: For someone just graduating from A&P school, what advice would you give as they begin looking for their first job?
K.M.: Be yourself. Be honest. If you’re asked a question and you’re not sure about the answer, it’s OK to say, “I don’t know, but if given the opportunity, I could do the research and get you an answer.”
Be very positive with your responses and show eagerness that you’re really willing to work and that this is where you want to take your career path.
There’s a lot of opportunity for fresh A&Ps out of school if they come in with the right attitude. One of my best top mechanics here at RSG is an A&P that we hired fresh out of school. He’s been with me now three years, and I’m so amazed at his growth process.
V: Building a successful maintenance organization takes more than technical expertise. How do you create a positive work environment where people want to stay and succeed?
K.M.: We have a great team here. We do a lot of team-building events. We do cookouts every month for the team, big events at the Fourth of July, Christmas parties, and things throughout every month. We pay quarterly bonuses. There are lots of things we do to create a positive environment.
I’m not going to keep a person on my team that’s got a sour attitude because it spreads throughout the organization and makes it very difficult to achieve our jobs at a safe level when we have distractions.
Within an organization, you need to eliminate all single points of failure. The things that I do here daily, I make sure my managers below me are in the loop because we’re not promised tomorrow. If I don’t do a good job of keeping my team informed with what’s going on behind the scenes, how can anyone step in and pick up?
I’ve got a great team around me. I tell them all the time, ‘You guys make me look good because I’m not really that good.’
V: How has RSG evolved over the past few years, and what areas of the business are driving that growth?
K.M.: We’ve really grown in the last year and a half to two years in our completions role. That’s really become a staple with us. We do a lot of refurbishments, taking old helicopters, upgrading the avionics packages, interior, paint, reworking the whole helicopter, and basically returning it to a new state.
We have a full-blown engineering group, as well as RSG Products for our STCs and PMA. We’ve got several STCs in work right now that I think will be interesting when we unveil those to the market and give some relief on some sticking points.
We’re actually looking for property right now to expand our company. We’re out of floor space, and we’ve had to turn work away.