James Wynbrandt

Turboprop owners have a variety of modification options available for boosting the performance and handling of their aircraft. Among the rarified King Air 350 crowd, Blackhawk Modification’s new XP67A Engine+ Upgrade is gaining traction in the bid for the modification-of-choice title, delivering jet-like speeds at turboprop costs without sacrificing King Air utility. The speed surely […]

With demand for their skills growing, aviation maintenance technicians can have their pick of career paths, and Lynze Price was determined to explore them all. The Troy, Alabama, native decided in high school that she wanted to be an aircraft mechanic, and after researching educational options for earning her FAA Airframe & Powerplant mechanic certificates, […]

A new job title is appearing in classified ads for aviation and aerospace professionals: repair and test technician. “A repair and test technician is a jack of all trades,” says Royce Wagner, who holds that title at GE Aviation’s Leading Edge Aviation Propulsion (LEAP) engine manufacturing and repair facility in Lafayette, Indiana. “You have to […]

The growing need to launch satellites, scientific experiments, International Space Station supplies and other goods into orbit is fueling demand for payload integration specialists, technicians who install cargo on board and ensure it deploys from the rocket as designed. “It truly is a mechanic’s job. It’s turning wrenches, working with high-pressure fluids and gases, and […]

Swarm intelligence, or swarm theory, refers to decentralized, self-organizing systems, such as flocks of birds, whose actions “enable relatively simple individual entities to produce complex behavior when operating with other simple entities,” says Michael Campobasso, CEO of Embedded Control Designs (ECD). The field is quickly moving from theory to practice as specialists like Campobasso seek […]

Regional air carriers are on a well-documented pilot hiring binge, creating “one of the most exciting times ever” for aspiring airline pilots, says Captain LaMar Haugaard, director of pilot development, and chief pilot at Horizon Air. But recruiters remain selective, weighing candidates’ training backgrounds, flight experience, and even non-pilot qualifications, Haugaard says. Trainees should keep […]

While we don’t have hard figures on their ranks or the number of jobs that exist, demand for aerial firefighter pilots is increasing, industry experts say. “There are opportunities, but it’s not very well-organized,” says Dean Talley, an air tanker captain and board member of the Associated Aerial Firefighters. In fact, operators “are having a […]

Today’s airborne law enforcement (ALE) pilots perform more than police work. At the California Highway Patrol (CHP), law enforcement is halfway down the list of aircrews’ seven missions, superseded by emergency response, homeland security and rural roadway patrol. “All these missions are about public service,” says Lt. Mike Sedam, commander of CHP’s Office of Air […]

No realm of piloting provides more career opportunities than government, or public service, flying. The Armed Forces, federal agencies, state aeronautics divisions and aviation departments, and county and municipal authorities employ pilots to operate what is by all accounts the world’s largest fleet of fixed- and rotor-wing aircraft and remotely piloted aerial vehicles. The numbers […]

Seniority. It’s the rank among peers “that rules an airline pilot’s life,” says Paul Templeton, a pilot employment expert and retired airline captain. “Seniority determines almost everything you do — what crew base you’re assigned to, what equipment you’ll fly, and your monthly schedule.” Templeton, creator of the PilotJobs.com blog and a director at airline […]