Brian Ford

From a young age, Brian had a complete fascination with aircraft and engines. He attended Aims Community College – Aviation Department in Greeley, CO where he completed his private pilot license. Then he transferred to Metropolitan State University – Denver because of their four year degree program in aviation. In class, he felt like he didn’t have much in common with other students. Brian was interested in humanitarian work and backcountry flying – both of which required an airframe and powerplant certificate. His classes and classmates were mostly focused on the airlines. He began looking at other options.

Brian enrolled in Redstone College in Broomfield, CO and started an A&P certificate program. “I was excited,” Brian recalled. “The passion of wanting to know more and getting into the details and systems; I was chasing that.” After graduating in 2008, he and his wife moved to Alaska. He briefly worked for Rust’s Flying Service, maintaining float planes, before they decided to move back to Colorado in anticipation of the arrival of their first child.

Back in Colorado, Brian worked for a flight school where he had apprenticed as an A&P student. He became the Director of Maintenance for their 12 aircraft. “It sounds fancy but I was the only guy working maintenance there so I was also scrubbing bellies and cleaning aircraft,” Brian laughed. “I learned a lot about maintenance and maintenance planning.”

After that he returned to Redstone College as an A&P Instructor. He taught every single airframe class they had. “That was the first time I realized how atypical it is for an A&P to also be a pilot,” said Brian. “I was teaching instruments and avionics, because I also used them.” His hands-on experience in the hangar and in the cockpit made it easier to teach the material. “It’s one thing to teach from a textbook,” Brian explained, ”but when people ask questions, if you’ve never actually used them in an airplane, it’s hard to describe how that works.”

Later, Brian became a maintenance instructor at Frontier Airlines in Denver. The experience was eye-opening. “It made me recognize where I had some preconceived notions about air carrier operations.” Brian recalled. Ultimately; he realized that there are a lot of similarities across commercial and general aviation and that “managing time, making schedules and maintaining reliability” keeps planes flying safely regardless of whether they’re flying for part 121 or 135 operations. After working for Frontier, Brian moved to California and began working for ACI Jet.

I got my pilot license in 2005 and, wanting to know more about how aircraft work, completed my Airframe and Powerplant Certificate in 2008,” said Brian. “I worked in General Aviation, and as an instructor at an A&P school as well as a major airline.” His path brought him to ACI Jets where he is now the Avionics Manager. Along the way, Brian has had the goal of learning more and more about the ways that people engage with the industry.

Brian’s advice for job seekers is this: the community is small and it comes down to networking and who-you-know. After a medical issue with a family member necessitated a move to sea level, Brian reached out to a connection in California who recommended he contact the DoM of ACI Jets to see if they were hiring. They weren’t. Even still, they made a place for Brian and invested in his professional development.

He also argues that there is no one size fits all when it comes to general aviation. “Having a meandering path is okay,” said Brian. “I don’t want people to get hung up in not knowing exactly what they want to do – choose to make the most of opportunities and learn from them.”

Lastly, Brian gave some insight into what he’s looking for as a manager. “Regardless of what you’re troubleshooting, mindset is the most important thing to me,” said Brian. “That includes attention to detail – especially with installations – if what you did looks terrible, people are going to be concerned if it’s right.” He also encourages future aviation maintenance technicians to obtain their aero IT certification – connectivity being an important passenger impact item.

Last updated May 5, 2020