October_2021 - 7

Kristi Burns, 38, Heavy Maintenance Structures Supervisor, Airborne Maintenance and Engineering Services, Hillsboro, OH
K
risti Burns has been a dedicated employee, striving for compliance,
meeting deadlines, achieving organizational and customer
goals, building teams and always looking to do more, said Trevor
Dunn, project manager at Airborne Maintenance and Engineering
Services who nominated Burns for the 40 Under 40 award.
Burns started her career in the aviation field at the age of 16 when
she became a teen sorter for the airline, then moved to the ramp,
where she assisted in loading of the aircraft. Her next endeavor was
in Airline Sort Maintenance, where she aided in keeping the sort
operations up and running. Then she had an opportunity to move
over to the Airline Shops, where she started as a cleaner, working
on the cleaning of multiple components to keep the shops on track.
When they needed additional help, she would assist other areas:
the wheel and brake shop, engine shop, wire shop, structure shop
and manufacturing, as a floater, all within the airline. Then, as
the airline operations wound down, she transferred to MRO and
continued to help when and where needed as a utility technician.
While being a utility tech, she went to school locally to obtain
her airframe license to become a structures tech then continued
with OJT's to test and obtain her P rating. " This shows her initiative
to always go over and above to support the mission, " noted Dunn.
When transferred to the hangar, she sought opportunities to expand
her knowledge, participating in engine runs, marshalling, towing
and other facets of the operation.
" Kristi seeks out opportunities to mentor
those that want to get into the aviation
industry, as she herself was mentored by a
slew of individuals as she worked her way up
in her career path both in the airline and the
MRO, " stated Dunn. " She encourages others
and promotes others to achieve their goals
in this industry, giving them opportunities
to succeed. She has had many of her own assigned technicians
come from the internal Structural Tech program and had those
on her established team participate in the mentoring themselves.
Burns attended general familiarization classes for Boeing
Airframes. She also has a designated training rating for MRO, PIT
(power industrial truck), has held an RII Authorization and AWR
(airworthy release) Authority, along with several customer and
MRO training CBT on a continual basis.
She does daily safety briefings, keeping her team updated on
critical topics within the organization and industry. " Kristi is always
striving to get to know and understand each of her internal and
external customer needs so that she can build trusting and reliable
relationships to meet their needs while reducing cost, while maintaining
a high level of reliability for them and the MRO, " Dunn said.
Wade Rogers, 34, Aircraft Maintenance Technician/Line Maintenance DTW, Delta Air Lines, Dundee, MI
W
ade Rogers had a general idea late in high school that it was his
destiny to swing wrenches of some type as a few close relatives
of his are mechanics in various trades. It was when a recruiter from
the local A&P school came into his electronics class and gave a
presentation that he says he realized this is what he was going to do.
Rogers' career began in 2007 with Mesaba Airlines in DTW, working
on Saabs and CRJs. He spent the first four years of his Delta
Air Lines career at BWI then transferred home to Detroit where
he reports to work now, and hopefully for many years to come, as
he says his roots are deeply planted in Michigan.
In the past, Rogers won an internal Delta award - " Employee
of the Quarter Award 2Q 2012. " " I was line maintenance in BWI
at the time, working dayshift by myself, " he explained. " An A320
was about to depart when the crew noted an issue that needed to
be addressed. I figured out shortly that the problem could not be
MEL'd due to a conflicting MEL already on the A/C, therefore, I had
to repair one issue or the other. Long story short, the captain of the
flight specifically noticed me running back and forth from the office
to the A/C to make the necessary repairs in a timely manner, and
evidently that impressed him enough to put me in for the award.
My manager, dad and myself went to Atlanta to have lunch with
the VP of line maintenance and it was a neat experience. Though
it was just an ordinary day to me, it was nice to be recognized for
our everyday efforts. "
One way that Rogers' wife has offered his
services - against his will initially - to give
back was giving a presentation at his children's
school on career day. " She told me that
even if I influence the mind of only one young
person, it will totally be worth it, " he noted.
" She was right. "
Peter Adzema, AMT for Delta Air Lines,
nominated Rogers for this award. " He came
into Mesaba Airlines a 20-year old farm boy with a passion to work
and learn like I have never seen in my 24 years as an AMT, " explained
Adzema. " No matter what was broke on the aircraft - from engine
problems, to flight control problems, to even the worst job: a bad
lavatory. He was always there to do the job and use his remarkable
skills to fix the problems and make the aircraft ready for flight in
a safe and timely manner. Now we both work at Delta and every
day he comes into work, he asks the leads for the biggest problem
child aircraft or the biggest work package. Then, when he is finished
with his work assignments for the day, he comes into the lead's
office and asks who else needs help. I have never seen such great
work ethic from anyone in my 24 years in this business. He has
been to every aircraft-type school Delta has in its fleet and is run
and taxi qualified on all aircraft. He is the biggest asset to Delta
Tech Ops in DTW. "
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