Day in the Life of a Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer in Malabo

Introducing Vamsi Krishna Basavaraju from our site in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, who plays a valuable role in the global support of our customers as a Licensed Maintenance Engineer.

Could you start by introducing yourself and describing your work?

Hi, I’m Vamsi Krishna Basavaraju, part of the Jet Aviation Dubai (JDXB) team working as a Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (II) in Malabo. My primary responsibilities include line and base maintenance checks, flying onboard for outstation support and responding to AOGs. Flying onboard involves flying as an extended crew member on outward flights from Malabo to support the customer and aircraft at other destinations. This adds a real benefit to the customer as it ensures that if we come across any issues, there is already a team onboard who are able to immediately identify the issue, arrange for parts, fix the aircraft and fly back, thus reducing the ground time.

How did you come to work at Jet Aviation? When did you join?

After spending some time working in the aviation industry in India, I applied for an open position at the JDXB facility and joined the team on October 3, 2016. There are a few of us in Dubai who are assigned to Malabo, and we take turns in supporting the station. I take the lead and take care of additional station activities, as well as stores and quality support. Typical rotations are one to three month assignments.

What makes working at Jet Aviation Malabo unique compared to other line & base maintenance stations?

The Malabo line station is very unique. Unlike other stations, we interact with highly demanding customers on a daily basis, all while representing our brand and work culture in the best way possible and ensuring continuous support around the globe. Any aircraft movements are coordinated directly, and we are usually informed of these at a very short notice. Outside of work, our biggest challenge is the language. Working in a Spanish/French speaking country, we are continuously working towards improving our language skills!           

How is Malabo connected to the Dubai MRO facility?

In 2017, our customer came for a maintenance check and was very happy with the service provided at the Dubai base station. After their check, they decided to continue the same level of service back at their home base. The JDXB team now provides maintenance, planning, supply chain and GSE support for the Malabo station.         

Could you describe what a day in your role is like for you?

A regular day starts with a customer meet and greet in the Hangar. We also discuss pending or upcoming maintenance activities, equipment/part status, and flight movements for the day.

We receive support from our planning team for ongoing or upcoming work orders and get in touch with our stores for any incoming parts or shipping of unserviceable parts. The stores team also helps us to identify tools that are due for calibration or when consumables are expiring. When we have aircraft movements, we fly onboard to support aircraft at outstations and upon return, we immediately prepare the aircraft for the next departure. The fleet averages about 40 hours of flying per aircraft in one month.

“I am an enthusiastic person by nature and like to push myself to extend my boundaries. This station puts everybody in a challenging situation as we are a small team and are required to assume multiple roles.”

Do you face any challenges with being far away from our other stations?

Two big challenges that we face at work are the three-hour time difference with Dubai, so communication between both stations can be challenging at times, and poor/slow internet connection which makes data transfer very challenging.

Nevertheless, we have managed to identify our issues and are improving working conditions by allocating dedicated personnel at JDXB to support our operations. Internet conditions have improved significantly compared to our earlier days.

What has been your favorite highlight/experience so far at Jet Aviation Malabo?   

I am an enthusiastic person by nature and like to push myself to extend my boundaries. This station puts everybody in a challenging situation as we are a small team and are required to assume multiple roles. Here, I have been continuously engaged with various departments like planning, stores, GSE and working closely with our quality department, supporting them with the local authorities for our annual station audits and aircraft ARC inspections. I have gained a lot of work experience while flying onboard and dealing with AOG’s including customer handling.

A personal highlight was assisting with extending the maintenance capability on a Falcon50 from line to base and successfully completing the first base maintenance check here. It was a wonderful effort by a 12-member team, involving multiple departments.

Would you like to share any final comments?

In 2017 we started the support of a maintenance check on a Falcon900 and today we stand as a successful company, supporting four VIP aircraft.

I’ll always be thankful to Amir, Bubba, Hardy and Taher for the constant mentoring and support, for all the hard but necessary lessons taught, for believing in my skills, and making me part of this amazing journey.

Thank you Vamsi! It was fascinating to hear about a day in your life.

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