After more than three decades working as a crew chief for American Airlines’ maintenance operations at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Gary Percy switched gears and began teaching high school students about aviation at Olive-Harvey College. Percy spoke with Lindsay Bjerregaard about his experiences transitioning from MRO to teaching and ways in which the aviation industry might be able to tackle workforce and instructor shortages.

What was your career path in the MRO industry and how did you first get started in youth workforce initiatives?

I got hired by American Airlines in 1984 after I got out of the service. I was in the Navy and fixed planes there. [At American] I became a crew chief and worked with a team who taxied and fixed the airplanes. I worked at the terminal and then at the hangar.

Around 2015, the chief pilot would have schools like Southern Illinois University come out for field trips, and they asked my colleague Jack O’Callaghan and myself to help out and bring students to the hangar. We would do these field trips every once in a blue moon and other schools, including Purdue and Lewis University, would come out. I knew a lot of educators and politicians from being on the Citizens’ Advisory Council at my local school district and we thought maybe we should expand the program and get younger people really interested in aviation. Then the 2018 Boeing study came out about the shortage of mechanics, and we just expanded from there. American’s management was very supportive of what Jack and I were doing.

I took an early buyout and retired from American Airlines in May 2021 during the pandemic. After I retired, I continued to do youth field trips for American Airlines for a couple years and [the program] is still going. I took my Olive-Harvey class out to the hangar for a field trip last July and they absolutely loved it.

[Editor’s note: You can read more about these initiatives here.]

What led to your decision to become an aviation instructor and what was that transition like? What are you teaching now at Olive-Harvey College?

American Airlines donated an MD-80 engine to [the Chicago campus of] Aviation Institute of Maintenance (AIM) and Evie Garces, who used to be station manager for maintenance here in Chicago, invited me to the signing ceremony because they have a partnership with AIM now. At the AIM signing ceremony, I ran into Cheryl Freeman, dean of College to Careers at Olive-Harvey College, and we got to talking. [A few months later] I got a call and she wanted to hire me, so I started teaching there in February 2023.

Olive-Harvey has a partnership with AAR. I teach high school juniors and seniors in a dual-credit program. They pass our general course and they get into AIM. They can finish and get their airframe and powerplant (A&P) license in about a year and a half by doing dual-credit. They still go to high school and they come to Olive-Harvey in the evening. We teach the general portion of the [A&P] test and they go from there.

Did you face any challenges trying to transition your industry knowledge to the classroom? If so, what was most challenging?

The funny thing is I’ve never taught in a structured environment. Part of my job description as a crew chief was to teach mechanics, but it wasn’t in a classroom—it was, “Let’s go out on an airplane and I’ll show you how to change a starter.” So, I was a little apprehensive, but the students were fantastic and I really enjoy it. It’s not as difficult as I thought it would be. The hardest part was probably figuring out what I could take from my experience at American and how I could transition that into a classroom. I have a lot of work experiences that I relate to the students and they’re kind of awestruck by some of this stuff. One example now, with Chicago’s cold and snowy weather, was that several years ago an MD-80 got stuck in a snowbank at O’Hare during white-out blizzard conditions. We were digging them out with our bare hands. The kids were like, “Really?” and I said, “Yeah. It’s amazing what you do, and the experiences are unbelievable.”

There weren’t as many challenges as I expected. We teach five blocks, 101 through 105. This week is the first time I’m teaching 103, which is about publications, regulations, shop safety and human factors, which are all courses and training I’ve had at American as part of our annual training. I’m familiar with human factors and the ‘Dirty Dozen,’ complacency, fatigue and all that kind of stuff, so it’s not as difficult as I thought it would be.

ATEC has reported that the industry is facing a big shortage of qualified aviation maintenance instructors. Why do you think more experienced technicians aren’t considering this as a potential career option? How do you think the industry can do a better job recruiting new educators for these types of roles?

During the pandemic, all the airlines started shedding heads to help the bottom line. Several local schools wanted to hire me, and Olive-Harvey is still looking for instructors. I’ve asked a few guys I worked with who have retired if they’d be interested in teaching, but I get hard ‘no’s from them. Maybe they’re enjoying retirement or maybe they think it’s more difficult than it proved to be for me. I think a lot of them might just be burnt out after 30 years outside in the cold and don’t want to do that anymore. But teaching is totally different. I think airlines could probably do a better job of transitioning retirees into that field because it’s going to help airlines in the long run anyway. Airlines could help find instructors and partner with schools to get the word out [about the instructor shortage].

Do you have any predictions for what the future might look like in the MRO industry?

I follow electric and hydrogen aviation quite a bit and bring what I read to my students. When I started in the Navy right out of high school, I worked on an airplane with a reciprocating engine with cylinders, pistons and a propeller. In school and when they come out to the hangar for a field trip, I show students a picture of the airplane I worked on and then show them the Boeing 787 we’re standing by. I tell them that, other than the principles of flight, these two airplanes have absolutely nothing in common. I say, “Here’s where I started my career and here's how I ended my career. There is no telling how you will end your career in aviation. You’re going to start on a 787. What’s going to be here 20 years from now?”