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John Greenhill is celebrating 50 years in aviation after dedicating over half of his life to working on keeping thousands of aircrafts safe and in the air.
Mr Greenhill joined the army in 1972 and was going to go in as a motor mechanic after taking the exams.
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“They said I was too good for that and that I should do aviation,” he said.
Mr Greenhill admits he had never thought about working on aeroplanes but once he started he never looked back.
He spent six years in the army before deciding to leave and work as a welder for a year.
“I then saw an ad for an aeroplane engineer at Cudal for Hazelton Airlines and I applied for that, got an interview and was there for 23 years,” he said.
When the company went broke, Mr Greenhill moved to Dubbo to work with Airlink and David Miller.
“That was 20 years ago last October [2021]…so I’ve only had two civilian jobs in the past 50 years,” he said.
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To keep his interest, Mr Greenhill worked hard to get all of his licences to work on every part of the aeroplane.
“There’s always something different to do and I’ve tried to build up my skills throughout the 50 years,” he said.
Mr Greenhill’s favourite thing to work on is the electrical side of things, as it is more of a “challenge”.
“It’s a bit of a challenge, seeing as all the wires are white and have little numbers on them” he said while laughing.
A career highlight for Mr Greenhill was when Hazelton Airlines sent him to Sweden for six weeks to learn about the avionics of the Saab aircraft.
“I asked if I could also do the airframe exam without doing the course and they said yes, so I did that and only got one question wrong,” he said.
“Going over to Sweden and going into the factory and watching them build the aircraft was a highlight.”
Mr Greenhill has seen a lot of changes in his time as an engineer.
“Not so much in the engines and airframe but in the electronics with the radio, the safety gear, the traffic collision avoidance technology and the GPS of course,” he said.
The engineer has had a few challenges over the years but one that comes to mind is when a brand new Saab aircraft came into the workshop with a problem.
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“Everyone threw their hands up in the air and didn’t know what was wrong with it and I battled on and on and on and found a faulty piece of wire in the aeroplane,” he said.
Another challenge was when they sold an aircraft to Airlines of Tasmania who then had a problem and couldn’t work out how to fix it, so Mr Greenhill did what he does best.
“I just chipped away at it and sorted it out for them,” he said.
Mr Greenhill said he would like to encourage people to get into a career in aviation, because they are “running out” of engineers.
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“They are like me, they are getting older and there’s no one coming in,” he said.
“My son is an engineer too, I didn’t encourage him but he wanted to do it. So I would like to encourage people to do it.”
Mr Greenhill said while he only works four days a week, he can’t see himself retiring anytime soon.
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Hi! I'm Ciara and I've been working as a journalist for a number of years now, covering everything ranging from council, human interest stories, community news and sport. Got a story? Email me at ciara.bastow@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Hi! I'm Ciara and I've been working as a journalist for a number of years now, covering everything ranging from council, human interest stories, community news and sport. Got a story? Email me at ciara.bastow@austcommunitymedia.com.au
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