Dear ADMA,

First off, I would like to apologize for a long overdue career update on my part. It was always in the back of my mind that I needed to fill you in on how your scholarship has aided me in my career path, but I never made work of it. Having recently glanced at the scholarship award letter you sent, I decided that I owed you a sincere synopsis of return on investment. Please accept this email as my attempt to make up for many “check-ins” that were due over the years.

I received a scholarship from you in 2006 when I was attending what was then Westwood College of Aviation Technology in Broomfield (Denver), CO. Your scholarship helped me financially at that point in that it made it easier to not worry about working solely for the sake of covering tuition (or the consequent debt later on), but could instead focus on my education. As a result I was awarded the Outstanding Student award at graduation.

I was working as an intern in a corporate flight department at the time and just getting my feet wet in that segment of aviation. I found that I liked the corporate environment which in turn influenced my decision to take a job with Duncan Aviation in Battle Creek, MI, after graduation. I hired on with the Bombardier Challenger team working on 600 series Challengers. After the initial breaking in period of simply learning how things are done in the aviation world I was able to catch on quite quickly and found that my mechanical aptitude was up to the task and just as important, I enjoyed the work.

For the next period of years I was able to work my way up through the tech levels at Duncan and became a Lead Tech within 5 ½ years of starting out completely “green”. As my career developed in the Lead role I found that I had to also develop interpersonal and planning skills in a more acute and specific way. It was always a challenge and work in progress, but I’m happy to say that it was consistently enjoyable.

My team eventually also took on Global Express responsibilities as Duncan made their move into that market. I was the first tech at any Duncan Aviation facility to lead a Global Express inspection and also Duncan’s first ever 8C inspection on Globals (the biggest Global inspection). I was able to play a key role in getting the Global program going at Duncan and was always in the process of improving our hours and quality. Eventually, most of my lead time would be spent on Globals with an occasional Challenger 604 or 300 project as well. I was also able to get run and taxi qualified on three Bombardier airframes.

I spent 8 ½ years at Duncan and can honestly say that I still looked forward to going to work most days. I left Duncan Aviation in October 2015 to take a position at Stryker Corporation in Kalamazoo, MI, with their flight department. Along with two other mechanics, I manage and maintain two Challenger 605’s and a Global 5000 GVFD. My responsibilities include making sure that the aircraft meet their daily flight schedules, troubleshooting as needed, planning and performing inspection events and traveling as a flight attendant/flight tech as necessary which has allowed me to see a lot of different places in the world I never thought I’d make it to. I’ve enjoyed this transition greatly and truly feel blessed to be working with some great people that have created a professional department with a small family feel.

At this point I’m not sure what is next and right now I’m content in my current position. We’ll see where I’m being led down the road. All that said, it’s been a great ride so far and I want to thank you again for awarding me the scholarship over 10 years ago. Getting into aviation was a complete career change for me since I had been in the work force for about nine years after having graduated from college. As I alluded to at the beginning, I hope you count my career path as a great return on investment for your organization. I can assure you it was greatly appreciated and put to great use. I was even telling one of our interns about your scholarship the other day, so your generosity is hopefully going to carry forward even now to a new generation of techs. Thanks again.

Regards, Brad Ongna

Aircraft Maintenance and Inspection Manager

Stryker

Kalamazoo, MI

[email protected]