Angela Garvey, Navigating Aviation, works with a team of professionals that work and support colleagues in the field of aviation
Michael Goodhart
Bachelors of Arts in Psychology with a Minor in Philosophy
Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) licensed Airframe and Powerplant Technician (engineer in AU and Europe)
In essence, my life ‘in aviation’ began when I was about 5 years old, which is to say, around the age of my earliest memories, one of which was watching from my front porch the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds fighter jet aerobatic team swooping and rocketing through the sky at a local airshow. The combination of sheer power, grace and especially precision activated something within me that felt very familiar and magical.
One could even say it felt like a past life connection to these amazing machines, and my passion for learning about every aspect of aircraft, from piloting them to how they work mechanically on a technical level eventually lead to obtaining my FAA Airframe and Powerplant license.
But before that transpired, my true love for helping people initially manifested in attaining a Bachelors degree in Psychology and Minor in Philosophy, practicing for four years as a counselor, with a focus on working with children and adolescents experiencing a diverse variety of mental and behavioral disorders, some of which were quite severe and extremely challenging. I’ve always had a way of easily connecting with people and feeling via an innate sensitivity how to best support them in life and this has brought great joy, even within difficult situations.
My deep love of all things aviation eventually pulled me into the aircraft maintenance field as a licensed FAA A&P mechanic, as previously mentioned, and my career accelerated rapidly, working on Boeing and McDonnell Douglas commercial airliners at a heavy maintenance MRO facility and attaining experience on every aspect of the systems on these aircraft as well as structural repairs and sheetmetal fabrication of parts and eventually moved to another state and was one of the youngest technicians working at Pratt & Whitney Canada, performing turbine engine overhauls/machining and hot section inspections, as well as becoming engine run/taxi qualified on the corporate jets we were working on.
All that came to a screeching halt when after I performed a task on reassembling a critical oil line on a PT-6 engine and accidentally installed a retaining clip on the wrong side of a bracket, the line experienced a severe leak upon the initial engine run on the helicopter it was installed on and they had to discharge the fire bottles after getting a fire warning in the cockpit due to the overheating of the engine after losing oil pressure.
This was absolutely devastating to me and the thought that I could have caused someone to be injured or even lose their life due to my oversight was too much to bear, even though my lead and the inspector missed the error themselves and they insisted it was merely a training issue for everyone. I left aviation at that point to pursue work in the solar and wind power industry, despite numerous attempts from the Director of Maintenance at P&W to convince me to stay and come back when he ran into me around town (we were neighbors).
13 years later, with aviation still running strong in my blood and never truly feeling fulfilled or joyful in my other renewable energy endeavors, I returned to aircraft maintenance in 2014 and have not looked back since, building a multidimensional level of expertise on a broad array of aircraft, everything from single engine Cessna’s and Piper aircraft, to turboprops and commercial airliners, even working on U.S. Air Force KC-10 aerial refuelling aircraft. Everything but helicopters … yet … but now I am prepared to dive head first into any project as I have done the internal work of deepening my self-worth, looking at life as if there are no mistakes, only opportunities for growth, and now am working as an inspector at a corporate jet MRO facility here in North Carolina, USA after two years as an aircraft maintenance controller for a fleet of aerial survey airplanes, performing on-call hotline duties for all our pilots with maintenance issues all over the country.
All this experience, including my Psychology and counseling background has positioned me where I can offer true support to a varied array of aviation professionals dealing with a multitude of challenges, just as the one I shared that unfortunately lead to me prematurely leaving a field I deeply loved and had much to offer. I always look at every aircraft I am working on as if it is filled with people, considering how every one of my decisions could affect their safety, and I bring that sense of care and consideration to all my work in supporting individuals in this amazing industry of aviation, one that has brought me so much joy, connects people from around the world and is filled with the same wonder I experienced as a child watching that airshow!