NATA Industry Awards Continued from page 27 ATP/NATA GENERAL AVIATION SERVICE TECHNICIAN AWARD: George Terry the presenting sponsor of the General Aviation Service Technician Award for over 30 years, annu- ally acknowledging the exceptional performance of a licensed airframe and powerplant mechanic or radio repairman who A has practiced his or her craft for a period of 20 or more years. George Terry, who has served as Vice President, Director of Maintenance Operations at Corporate Eagle in Waterford, Michigan for the past 18 years of his three- decade career, says the recognition was unexpected. “I was taken by surprise by it, humbled—a lot of other people in our industry probably deserve it—and, ultimately, happy and honored to have my name and my work recognized as a part of that history of this important side of our industry,” Terry says. Terry says he’s been a hands-on learner ever since he was a kid, and jokes that he got his first job as a high school student working on cars and pumping gas, before making the switch to working on airplanes and pump- ing gas. From there, he went on to study at the Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and worked at several FBOs including Key Air in Oxford, Connecticut, before taking the Director of Maintenance Operations position as a VP at Corporate Eagle in the year 2000. “It’s funny how time flies: my daughter was about two and a half months old when we left Connecticut and came out here to Michigan, and now she’s a senior graduating from high school!” Corporate Eagle, Michigan’s largest and longest-serv- ing provider of fractional and managed business avia- tion, has had an astounding safety record during Terry’s Aviation Business Journal | 2nd Quarter 2018 ircraft Technical Publishers (ATP) has been tenure in the position, accident-free with aircraft flight hours totaling over 100,000 hours since his start date. “For me, it’s really about the day-to-day business of keeping everything running smoothly, solving problems as they come up, and preventing them before they do, and always striving to be member-focused,” he states. “I try to instill that in all of the maintenance team, member service is what we do here and we all play our part in it. Don’t miss the little things! I believe that the safety record comes as a result of that approach.” Terry says his favorite part of the job is train- ing new hires and mentoring his team mem- bers to advance in their own careers and take on increasing leadership roles at Corporate Eagle. “We have a good mix of experienced mechanics, which gives you that luxury to bring on and train new people,” Terry says. “I like hiring people right out of school so I don’t have to break bad habits: I can train them up properly the way I need and want them to be trained, and I get a big kick out of teaching them and watching them grow. I like to take them through the training manual personally, and I like to share stories about some of my mistakes along the way so they can learn from me instead of having to learn the hard way. My favorite thing is to put real problems in front of them during their training and have them figure out how to solve them, which is ulti- mately what this job is all about. I had good teachers and mentors when I was younger, good strong influences, and it’s just always been important to me to pass that on. It seems to be working, we have a lot of people who’ve been here for a very long time, and we’re very proud of that.” Raising up new team members and carrying forward both his safety record and his reputation for distin- guished service is especially on his mind this year, as Corporate Eagle is currently building a new headquarters. “We’ve been constantly growing since I’ve been here and now we’re putting a new footprint on the airport and moving into a new facility at the end of the year, so it’s always exciting and there’s a lot of new opportunity ahead,” Terry says. “We have a good bunch of people here and we’re all focused on taking care of our members and doing it safely, doing it quickly, and doing it well.” Continued on page 31 29
