2023 AMT 40 Under 40 Maintenance Professional: John Shearer — A&P, IA, Shop Supervisor, Skytech
For most of his life, John Shearer was interested in aviation. Growing up near Grand Forks Air Force Base, he caught the aviation bug during one of their air shows. After high school, he would join the Marines where he worked on V-22 Ospreys.
Today, he’s the shop supervisor for Skytech’s Rock Hill facility in South Carolina, where he “does a wide range of work.”
“Anywhere from scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, things that come through the shop, tire changes, inspections, major repairs, troubleshooting, AOG recovery and logistics. Whatever customers may need,” said Shearer. “We work with quite a few operators from the Piper PA-28 and PA-46s to the Pilatus PC-12s and 24s. So I work with an incredibly wide range of individuals, from Part 91 private owners just getting into aviation to Part 135 charters, hospital flight departments, and government agencies. So I talk to all sorts of different people daily about different problems.”
With every day offering something new and different, Shearer said he likes the variety and said no two days are the same.
“Yesterday I was on an AOG in North Carolina and today I'm back in South Carolina. Next week, I'm not entirely sure,” he said. “We got AOGs going today, so I'm working with our road crews on that. We got customers that are buying new airplanes, so we're helping them sort out avionics issues and how to load databases and getting them spooled up on the latest Garmin things. So every day's different, which I really enjoy. It doesn't get stagnant.”
Shearer works with leaders of the industry in the Piper PA-46, Pilatus PC-12 and PC-24 programs.
“So being at the forefront of a lot of things is awesome. I was able to go to the very first PC-24 maintenance courses, got to go to Switzerland and do that and see the factory and meet everybody that make it happen out there,” said Shearer.
