Age: 25
Years in Aviation: 6
Benjamin Zemaitis is currently repair station inspector and lead A&P mechanic at Cirrus Aircraft’s factory service center in Duluth, MN.
Zemaitis started off joining the Wisconsin Air National Guard right out of high school as a crew chief on F-16s. While doing that he went to school at Blackhawk Technical College in Janesville, WI. After school he was hired at Cirrus Aircraft where he was put through the paces learning how to build up engines to doing all the engine fuel setups on the final assembly line. About a year later he inquired about a job at Cirrus’ Factory Service Center. Shortly after landing the job hequickly worked up the ranks and became an inspector after six months and then a lead after just a year on the job.
According to Dan Henchal, director of maintenance at Cirrus Aircraft, “Ben is an outstanding AMT, and progressing faster than any other A&P that I have come across over the years. He’s very computer literate as it pertains to diagnostics, troubleshooting, advanced avionics, and electrical. He is fast tracking into leadership roles within the repair station, and so eager to learn new techniques. Ben is reliable, dependable, has a great work ethic, and is always willing to invest whatever time is required to complete a task.”
Zemaitis was motivated to get into the aviation industry from his father. “My father always had an airplane, well sort of one anyway,” he says. “He had a broken down Ercoupe. He would always let me go out into the garage where he would show me how to fix odds and ends. Mostly crawl into the tail or any tight places that were hard to reach to do a little cleaning. Although there have been many different mentors in my life my father would hands down be my greatest mentor, giving me my first glimpse into the aviation world.”
Some of the advanced training that he has completed includes the Cirrus maintenance, composite, and the CAPS course. He is scheduled to be going to Williams International for FJ33-5A and Cirrus Vision SF50 Maintenance Initial training.
