If you are in the aircraft industry, there isn’t much that is more important than the tools you are using. Regardless if you are the owner of a small single engine aircraft or a member of a maintenance crew at a local airport, there is a lot of value in the tools that you are using.

I’ll never forget the first summer I spent at the hangar. It was the summer following my second year of high school. I had an adventurous mind running crazy, confined to the small town I grew up in. While it wasn’t used for commercial flights, our small little town had a single strip airport just outside the city limits.

The small single engine planes at our little airport were used for crop dusting more than anything. If you stored a plane in one of the small hangars, you were either a farmer with a lot of land to tend to, or someone with enough money to enjoy flying as a hobby. Either way, you were someone I admired.

Taking flight

My career as an aircraft mechanic started as a fantasy and grew into talent and skill. Working on these flying machines wasn’t near as much of an interest of mine as being in the air. I would spend entire afternoons in a lawn chair at the end of the runway watching the small planes take off and land.

I had spent two weeks doing this every day before an older gentleman approached me and asked if I would like to checkout his plane. It was nothing fancy, just an old worn out crop duster, but it flew. I had noticed the particular aircraft before. Because of how old it was, the owner would spend hours working on the machine every time he landed from a flight.

After giving me the first walk around, I started walking up to the hangar every time I would see Marvin land his plane. I would watch him as he would complete his post flight check and work on any issues the engine or other flying components had. As the summer continued, Marvin would spend more and more time explaining to me what he was doing and why it was important.

Tools of the trade

Marvin had more tools than I had ever seen before and he knew the purpose for and how to use every one of them. He would explain to me why he was using a specific tool and why it was a better option than using something else.

He began to teach me about tool control and why I needed to be knowledgeable about what I was doing and what I was doing it with when it came to aircraft maintenance. Sometimes I look back and think I learned more during that summer than all of the training and classes I had to take in order to become certified.

I am reminded of that summer and the knowledge I received from spending time with Marvin every time I open my toolbox in our shop. While the box itself is something I worked for, purchased with my first paycheck, it is as filled as it can be with all the tools he gave me as a graduation present. While several of the other aircraft mechanics have tools much newer than mine, they will never have as much value.

Author Bio:

Simon Hopes is a renowned author and social media enthusiast. It didn’t take me long to realize he was just as proud of the milbar tools he was using as the plane itself.