In his role as manager – ProOwnership Maintenance, Textron Aviation, Caleb Gibson leads a team of maintenance specialists, all serving in a director of maintenance-like capacity for Beechcraft King Air and Cessna Citation aircraft operators who, while owning and operating the aircraft themselves, could use a little extra help managing the maintenance on their aircraft.
“We're a small team with a small clientele. We're not out there gunning for anybody's business. There's lots of other folks in aviation that make their money managing airplanes. But this is a small program with the intent of supporting those folks who may be new to entering service with operation of a King Air or of a Citation and are willing to use our factory-owned service network for their scheduled inspection events. And as such, we serve as a D.O.M. in your pocket,” he described.
Gibson has attained the FlightSafety Master Technician on the Beachcraft King Air 300 series and the Cessna Citation 525 series.
He says one of his favorite things about working in the aviation industry is that personal integrity and responsibility are key to the job.
“[It] is not just a nice-to-have as is the case in some other industries, but it's the absolute baseline expectation for all of our dealings with each other. And to me that's pretty incredible. So, I enjoy working with other folks that are passionate about airplanes, yes, but also just are incredible people, are willing to invest in those around them, bring their best work to the table, and just conduct themselves with the professionalism,” Gibson said.
When working through a problem an aircraft is experiencing and knowing how much their operator cares for it, he says it becomes more of an emotional object than merely a machine.
“It's the joy and the challenge of dealing with people. Of course, everyone's aircraft is the most important one in the world to them, and even becomes almost an extension of their family,” Gibson said. “And so working through unexpected issues when they arise, in order to find the best possible path to get them flying again into their next destination safely, that is a challenge. Not a bad thing, but definitely a challenge at times.”
