In these cavernous hangar-size classrooms at the remote far end of Lagoon Drive near Honolulu’s airport, you could say this is a quiet week, save for the constant roar of nearby aircraft. The University of Hawaii school year doesn’t start until Monday. Yet about a dozen aviation maintenance students are already at work on-site, poring through thick manuals, grinding away on projects.
This is the kind of dedication it takes to become the technicians who keep the nation’s planes and helicopters in airworthy shape to fly safely.
It’s also a sign of the momentum growing at Honolulu Community College’s aviation maintenance program as it launches a historic expansion.
For the first time in the roughly 80-year history of the Pacific Basin’s only aviation maintenance training program, an airline company is investing in it directly by diverting some of its paid employees to serve as instructors.
The innovative arrangement between Hawaiian Airlines and HCC means the training program can eliminate its two-year waitlist and double enrollment to 100 students. Officials say they’re not sure if it’s the first time any airline has supported an aviation maintenance program this way, but it’s certainly rare.
Hawaiian Airlines employees Bill Kinsley and Jason Anderson, who have about six decades of front-line experience between them, will be teaching classes for HCC’s Aeronautics Maintenance Technology program, nicknamed AERO. Together with a preexisting program in which program students can work as paid part-time apprentice mechanics at Hawaiian, the airline will be investing about $1 million per year in this career pipeline at HCC, a spokesperson said.
“We are enthusiastic to have our employees share their on-the-job expertise to inspire and prepare Hawaii students for successful careers in aviation,” Jim Landers, senior vice president of technical operations at
Hawaiian Airlines, said in a statement. “As the hometown airline gearing up for another growth phase, we also hope HCC’s graduates will consider joining our ‘ohana so they can enjoy a rewarding career right here at home with our company.”
The partnership also benefits the global aviation industry, which will need to hire an estimated 610,000 aviation maintenance technicians over the next two decades; the state economy, which continues to rely heavily on tourism; and local residents trying to find well-paying jobs so that they can afford Hawaii’s sky-high cost of living.
Graduates gain the knowledge and practical skills to obtain lifetime Federal Aviation Administration certification in airframe and power plant maintenance, Kinsley said. They can then pursue careers that can start around the $60,000 range, and potentially rise into the six figures with time, further training and experience. The certification also can lead to myriad other industries and careers.
More information about the AERO program can be found at honolulu.hawaii.edu/post/program/aero/. Applications for the spring 2023 semester are being accepted at apply.hawaii.edu/. The deadline to apply is Dec. 15. The spring term runs from Jan. 9 through May 12, 2023.
The Hawaiian-HCC partnership is one of the latest examples of increased emphasis on career pathways in education, locally and nationally. Everyone from classroom teachers to Gov. David Ige to President Joe Biden lately have stressed the need for stronger coordination and programs so students can progress smoothly from schools, through postsecondary education and training, into dependable, well-paid jobs.
The aviation maintenance technician’s job is not for the faint of heart, though.
The program’s website crows: “If you love working with your hands, are great at troubleshooting and have good analytical skills, a successful career in aeronautics maintenance could be in your future!”
But it takes grit, and substantial skill in — or willingness to learn — STEM fields such as math and science to power through the intense two-year associate’s degree program covering hydraulics, sheet metal, electrical installation and troubleshooting, welding, use of hand-held power tools, engine theory, troubleshooting and repair.
Second-year student Ronald Hata of Ewa Beach has watched his entering class of 26 students dwindle down to 15. “You have to be very self-motivated, or there’s just no way you’ll finish,” he said. While he’s often felt like giving up, he keeps pushing because he wants a career that will earn him enough to stay in the islands he calls home.
Once graduates become certified maintenance technicians, however, the pressure does not let up: Maintenance and repairs must be done on tight schedules to keep flights on time, and hundreds of lives can be on the line every time a plane takes off. It’s both daunting and rewarding. “There’s one standard, and you’re signing your name” to certify the aircraft’s safety, said Michael Willett, an AERO instructor and program liaison.
But there are also great benefits, such as the free flights on standby offered by many airlines including Hawaiian. Kinsley said technicians also gain kinship with a tight community of fellow technicians. “You’re with your brothers and sisters. You’re never out there alone,” he said.
Anderson says the trades are underestimated in their potential for personal growth and reward. He recalls how his initial dislike for schooling led him to go straight from high school into the Marine Corps. But then he was assigned to train as a jet mechanic and got hooked on the thrill of learning to maintain the massive machines. Seeing the vessels he worked on flying aloft “lit a fire” of passion that has carried him for 24 years so far in the aviation industry, he said.
Kinsley, trying to explain the appeal of the career that has consumed him for 36 years, fairly gushes: “It’s one of these things where it’s just awesome. They’re just awesome aircraft, and for you to be responsible for that, you’re the guy signing the log saying it’s OK to fly. … If you can stick with it,” he adds, grinning, “it’s worth it.”
