When Your Mechanic Cares Too Much
Bryan Wheelz
I would like to introduce you to Bryan Wheelz, someone who cares about safety of our traveling public from a maintenance perspective, and he is sharing his passion to improve aviation safety. He told me that his parents taught him “right from wrong. Good and bad. Ethics, integrity and having a morale compass. (Integrity),” and to “always do the right things for the right reasons”. Bryan cares about what he does. He cares about doing the right job for the right reason. I’m thankful to have people like Bryan in our industry, setting standards and someone who is not afraid to speak out.
Bryan created a Podcast: The Good. The Bad. The Ugly. You won’t believe what you hear on this Podcast. It’s definitely uncensored. And for all you mechanics who need a support system, this is the place for you! Safety Culture touches every aspect of aviation and could determine the outcome of your flight. Thank you Bryan!
Please meet Bryan Wheelz:
In aviation, safety should never take a ‘back seat’ or be any less of a priority. As it pertains to aviation, safety IS the priority.
The flying public places trust in aircraft crews and aircraft mechanics to preform to the highest of standards and professionalism yet in the past 14 years as an aircraft mechanic, I have seen safety take the ‘back seat’ over and over again. Why is this?
One commonality:
cost savings/ profit. (Money.)
Argue it all you want but as airlines and aviation maintenance companies expand and grow larger cost cutting on: labor, benefits, salaries, training, parts, tooling, equipment and maintenance continues. All because of greed, competition, complacency and the “all mighty dollar”.
I see it happen every day; leadership pressuring crews to go faster, fly longer and squeeze every second of time they can to permit more flights so that the company can generate more revenue.
Mechanics are equally pressured to go faster, work longer and ‘put the blinders on’ when performing maintenance on aircraft. And what happens when the ‘Barney Fifes” or the “Dudley-do-rights'” speak up? The leadership forces those people out one way or another. They do this by colluding with human resources and other like-minded managers to create the envious, ‘paper trail’- and thats all human resources needs legally. Then POOF. “Your Gone jack!”
I have worked on the largest and most complex aircraft in the world. I’ve been a mechanic, GENFAM instructor, supervisor and a manager in nearly every facet of aviation maintenance and while in these roles I have enacted positive change to the culture and the environment and yes, I have made enemies along the way.
The relatively young, inexperienced, and feeble-minded supervisors and managers that are now the majority of those companies leadership, are threatened by people like myself. People who are confident, experienced and posses the knowledge and skill set to make positive changes to the culture, the work environment and ultimately safety.
This needs to be done through educating about the risks of ‘cutting corners’ and the importance of integrity under strong-arming pressure! The more people you can reach through education the better.
But it extends beyond that; educating young leadership before they fall into the trap of the ‘good’ ole’ boy’ club where they become consumed and manipulated by toxic mentalities that have become the norm and essentially promote an unsafe industry!
If history has shown us anything; Human Factors and the ‘dirty dozen’ play a huge role in the industries incidents and accidents. Many of these instances could have been avoided had people been made aware, educated and communicated to each other. Poor communication has played its part in the lack of safety. The unwillingness of leadership to both accept and promote an atmosphere where its encouraged to speak up and be heard has resulted in employees being quiet for fear of retaliation. Remember, I’ve been ‘on the other side’ and know that to be absolutely true!
I’ve seen, with my own eyes the ‘behind the scene’ antics that occur in aviation maintenance management. So I know just how much emphasis is not put into creating a safe, efficient, and integral culture.
The foundational premise of my podcast, “The Good the Bad and the Ugly: The Aviation Maintenance Industry- Raw and unscripted” is not only a source of personal ‘venting’ but a source for the unaware to be educated and for those who work within the aviation maintenance industry; to have a ‘voice’. A person who is not afraid nor intimidated.
It’s a humorous but raw and uncensored podcast that exposes the reality of what aircraft mechanics deal with daily and what actually goes on in the industry behind the scenes.
I have expanded it somewhat beyond the ‘nitty-gritty’ to include answering aviation maintenance related questions, discuss serious aviation industry ‘happenings’ and discuss aircraft technical information. Though the foundational premise of my podcast remains the same, “Make Aviation Great Again!” Promoting safety through education based on mine and others knoweledge and experiences.
My podcast streams on 12 platforms. The main podcast channel can be found at: https://anchor.fm/bryan-wheelz
You can also search by name of my podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, IheartRadio, tunein, Listennotes, Stitcher, Breaker, Castbox, Pocket casts, RadioPublic and spotify!
Your can reach me at:
I leave you with this:
“Never compromise your integrity.
And always do the right things
for the right reasons”
~Bryan ‘Wheelz’
Enjoy the Journey
XO Karlene
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