July-August 2022 - 19

Michael Goudreau
A&P Mechanic, Piedmont Airlines
Prior
to joining Piedmont Airlines, Michael
Goudreau spent five years in the Marine Corps,
working on F-18s as a structures and hydraulics
mechanic.
" Fundamentally, it was anything that had to do
with flight controls, landing gear, anything that
hydraulics ran through as well as sheet metal repair,
composite repair, that kind of stuff, " Goudreau
described.
Age: 32
Hometown: Vienna, Virginia
Alma mater: Aviation
Institute of Maintenance
Someone I look up to in the
industry: Richard Ricketts
Favorite hobby: I've gotten
into board games recently.
Favorite thing about
aviation: The challenge of it.
Once out of the Marines, Goudreau attempted
to find a career in computer science, but discovered
it wasn't for him and turned back to aviation
- receiving his A&P from the Aviation Institute of
Maintenance in Manassas, Virginia, in 2020. He
has been with Piedmont Airlines ever since.
Goudreau said his experience in the Marines led
him to aviation.
" Through meeting people and being forced into
the aviation side of things, which I kind of just took
a stab in the dark. I was like, 'I don't know if this is
going to be for me but let me take a shot at it.' I
just was like, 'Okay, this is something that I really,
really love, " he recounts.
Today, Goudreau says what he enjoys most about
his work is the flexibility it requires of him.
" It's mostly line maintenance that I do down here.
I really enjoy being able to see the planes that I fix
out here on the line go and take off, as well as I just
enjoy the fact that it's not the same thing every
day. Because I have worked in a hangar environment,
and it kind of got to the same couple things,
like, it was the same four or five things every day.
So, it is nice, you're walking in, you don't know
exactly what's going on, and you just have to be
flexible, " he said.
" I get to work with my hands and the fact that it's a
challenge, " Goudreau continued. " And I just enjoy
rising to that challenge every time, as far as, since
it's a line maintenance aspect, it's you don't know
what's coming as far as, 'Hey, there's a plane that's
broken.' As far as the way that we run it, we get calls
from maintenance control. We're kind of just an
on call. 'Hey, you got to go fix it' and you just have
to be ready and you got to be able to roll with it
and diagnose the problem. So I kind of just look
at it as a, not necessarily a game, but I enjoy the
aspect of, I don't know what's coming, so I kind
of have to be ready for everything and anything. "
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John M. Hardin, A&P, IA, Gold Seal, MCFI
Chief Mechanic and Chief Instructor, Terrell Aviation
Age: 36
Hometown: Terrel, Texas
Someone I look up to in
the industry: Alfred Joseph
Louque
Favorite hobby: Playing
music
Favorite thing about
aviation: The part that
keeps you focused, like
you can't really be thinking
about what's happening
next week or tomorrow, just,
got to stay in the airplane
with what's going on at the
moment.
As chief flight instructor and head mechanic of the
family-owned and operated FBO Terrell Aviation,
John Hardin said he is often at the airport seven
days a week. Hardin's parents bought the FBO in
the early '90s.
" I got like 13,000 hours, over 7,500 hours of it is
teaching. A lot of the students went around and
started buying airplanes. So, we help maintain all
their airplanes and keep the airport rejuvenated
that way, and keep all the flight school airplanes
going, " he said.
Recently, Hardin received his Master CFI for the
second time, holds a gold seal CFI, and has had
his IA for three years. Previously, he had worked
under his father before his passing.
While Hardin has worked on aircraft his entire life,
he stumbled into the flight instructor side of the
business.
" I was working on my instrument when I was in
college, and one of the guys that was the instructor
out there at the airport at the time, he got a
job somewhere, didn't tell anybody. So, when I
showed up for a lesson, there was nobody there
to teach that day. And a couple of his students
were showing up, asking where he was at. I was
in the shop waiting for him to show up too, and I
was like, 'You know? I could probably do what he
was doing.' So I went and did a couple of cram
courses real quick to knock out my written exams.
And I traveled around Kansas and Arkansas and
a couple other places to get my instrument and
commercial real quick. And I started teaching in
08, " he recounted.
Hardin says he enjoys flying and maintaining aircraft
for different reasons: " It's never the same
thing twice. As far as flying goes, it keeps you right
in the moment. You don't have time to really think
about what's happening next week or tomorrow.
As far as the maintenance side, it takes, surprisingly,
it takes very little to stand out in the crowd.
When I look at some of the guys that have been
maintaining some of these airplanes, they come
to our shop, and I'm like, 'How did you miss that?'
Just trying to be accurate. It's been a lot of fun
just going through and getting things in rig and
having a customer come back and tell you how
much better the airplane flies. "
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July-August 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July-August 2022
