Luke Hayes

Luke with his Visual Management project, boss, team mates and Vice President of Airbus.

First Month

My name is Luke Hayes and I have just finished my 2nd year of Aviation Engineering MEng. On the 22nd June I started a 1-year placement at Airbus in Filton, Bristol and so far have done 6 weeks here. I am working in Maintenance Engineering, mainly focusing on Landing Gear, however throughout the year I will be working on projects with Wing Structure, Fuel Systems and Spares.

The working environment I am in is an open plan office floor accommodating almost 400 people, mostly all working in Customer Services. I am based in a close-knit Landing Gear team consisting of 6 people, who I have found very easy to get on with and weeks ago I was already settled in and felt like I had been here a long time. The main responsibilities of my team are to answer customer queries related to scheduled maintenance and to develop the maintenance manuals of new and existing Airbus aircraft.

The first couple of weeks was familiarising myself with the people around me and learning about the job that they all do, as well as being bombarded with acronyms for everything, however over time I’ve got used to this. I attended as many meetings as I could, to get familiar with how the company works and what it is like working here.

The projects I have been involved in so far have been firstly a Visual Management tool in the form of an interactive PowerPoint presentation that is displayed on a big screen in the department. It’s purpose is to inform the department and passers-by of the detail and status of the work going on in the department and the successes and issues related to it. I am also working on a Finance Tool to better understand the cost involved in running an industry like this. These however are side projects to familiarise myself with other aspects of the company before I get involved in the proper work.

Having not even done 2 months here, I already strongly recommend doing a placement, especially with a large company, as you can gain insight into your chosen industry and valuable experience that you would never get at university.

Second Month

This is the end of my 10th week here at Airbus and the past month has been the best month yet!

I have started doing customer queries for the Long Range family of Airbus aircraft (A330, A340), which is one of the main parts of the job here. These consist of queries that airlines or operators have related to scheduled maintenance. These are sent by email and we have 10 working days to answer it by, unless they request a fast response. I have been responsible for and answered 4 so far and each one has been a good tool to learn the background to the subject or system involved. This has taught me the importance of communicating in a clear and professional way, often to people whose first language may not be English, and also how to work under pressure, as I even got a telephone call from a major airline asking for an answer.

A couple of weeks ago I attended an A350 Critical Design Review (CDR) which was a meeting on the latest developments on the design of the Main Landing Gear for Airbus’ latest aircraft currently in development. I found this very interesting and it was a good opportunity to get involved in the development of this new aircraft. Soon I will contributing more to this, as our team will start to write the maintenance manuals and analysis for the A350, with which I will be contributing to.

This week I have met many people in high authority within Airbus. One of which was the Vice President of Airbus, Charles Champion, and he was presented with the Visual Management tool that I developed and he was very impressed with the tool. I even had a photo taken with him! To put into context the hierarchy of management within Airbus, my boss is the head of UK Maintenance Engineer, and Charles Champion is 4 management levels above him!

Airbus is situated next to an airfield, so while I have been here I have started a lifelong dream of mine to learn to fly. As well as this, yesterday I attended a landing gear extension and retraction test (bottom picture) at the landing gear test facility here where I was standing a meter away from a full set of 5-tonne-each moving landing gear. Therefore, a placement isn’t all work and no play and can open many other opportunities to you!

I am thoroughly enjoying my placement and one piece of advice I have got is to take any opportunity you can academically and experience wise, as both are just as important as each other in getting a good job, and fast. Most of the guys who I work with didn’t do a degree at my age, but worked as an apprentice in a more practical role. They have a wealth of experience more than me, however it took them a long time to get to the position they are in now, and my manager was exactly the same. Therefore it is important to get as much qualifications as you can early in your life so that you don’t have to go back to study when you’re older or be limited in what job you can apply for. However, a degree on it’s own without any experience, even a Masters, is little on its own to guarantee you a job because there will be could be others with more experience than you and nothing to stick you out from others with a similar degree. Therefore a placement year is the perfect way to get the experience on your CV to identify you from others. This has trampled any doubts I may have had of doing a placement, and confirmed my decision to pursue the MEng route.