Sean Brown: No More Car-Wash Blues

Somebody once said that working at a car wash produced "low-down, mind-numbing, working-at-the-car-wash blues." Ask Sean Brown at General Dynamics Aviation Services in West Palm Beach, Florida about that and he'll also tell you that nailing wooden shipping pallets together for a living does the exact same thing.

"That was really back-breaking work," Brown grinned, recalling the days before he decided to pick up a wrench and start working on airplanes.

"It was hard work and it wasn't going to ever get much different, but I was a lot younger then and a job, well, it was just a job," he said.

Brown, 35, said it was a newspaper ad that caught his attention and would ultimately aim him at the airport.

"A local community college had this ad about becoming an airplane mechanic and I thought it was something I could do, so I went for it," he said, adding that up to that point in his life aviation wasn't really something he was into.

"I had built some model airplanes as a hobby and had flown remote-control airplanes and I thought that was pretty cool, but I hadn't been really interested in aviation at that point in my life," he said.

"I got into it and found I liked it and except for just one semester, I had perfect attendance because I just wanted to do it right."

It was a friend he made during school who helped Sean get his first taste of real-world maintenance.

The friend's family, as it turned out, ran a charter airline, and there were venerable Boeing 727s needing daily attention, so it was on the tri-holers that Sean initially found himself working.

But, like in all professions-especially starting out and still without a ticket-Sean's duties were anything but glamorous.

"I got all the nasty, dirty jobs that none of the other mechanics wanted," Brown recalled. "I didn't even have my license at that time, so I got put on whatever needed doing that was being avoided by everyone else, and it wasn't very pretty, but it was a great character builder."

Graduation day finally came and the newly minted mechanic headed out to find that first paying job, but life still lacked a certain silver lining.

"I got on with an [operator] who was hauling freight and passengers, ran an air ambulance, and also had their own engine shop, so there was plenty to do and I got a lot of experience on a lot of different things just out of school," Brown said. "It was good experience and helped me learn what I needed to do."

Three years of that and Brown moved up to Signature Flight Support at PBI and better work, this time on fast-movers housed and worked upon in stellar facilities.

His initiative and that ethic wrought in the bowels of 727s began paying off as Brown moved up to more responsibility. When Signature sold out to General Dynamics, things continued moving skyward for Brown.

"There's a lot of training opportunities that take place here; Signature was a good place to work, General Dynamics is a great place to work," he said. "There's a lot of interest here in getting the job done right and meeting customers' expectations, and we are given a lot of support toward making that happen."

Today, 10 years after getting on with what was then Signature, Brown plays a supervisory role, watching over three crews involved in round-the-clock efforts on both heavy maintenance projects as well as walk-in work.

"On the heavy maintenance projects, there's a real sense of accomplishment in taking a problem, diagnosing it, and then fixing it so the airplane can return to service," Brown said. "On the [walk-in] work, you just never know what's going to come through the door, what it's going to take to get it back in the air.

"There's challenges on both ends of that type of work and it's something that really appeals to me...and I think the rest of the people who are here, or frankly I don't think they'd be here," he said.

Looking back on his time so far spent on the business end of a toolbox, Brown reflected that if anything could be changed, it might be the time being a supervisor takes away from being on the floor...a common complaint.

"I have been able to progress in my career here and I believe that not only I have a future here, but [so does] everyone here and anyone who might be interested in coming here if there was an opening. I like the supervisor's role I'm in now," Brown said.

"I think, though, that you get into this business because you like the hands-on aspect of it; the sense of accomplishing something and achieving a goal like getting the airplane back in the air or solving problems," he said. "As a supervisor, there are different challenges you [encounter] in making everything run smoothly, but you do-at least I do-miss actually doing the work because that's what you first get in this business to do."

Brown paused a moment, looked off, then added, "I'll say this, though; it's still a lot of fun to come to work!"- By Bob Howie