3 Questions with Silver Hunt

Learn every day, be curious and flexible – these are just a few personal qualities, that, according to Silver Hunt, Junior Airworthiness Engineer at Magnetic MRO, are much needed for the person pursuing a career in aviation.

Check out more of Silver's insights he shares with us in this #3QuestionsWith feature!

What was the most exciting project you have worked on recently and why it was exciting for you?  Silver Hunt: Most exciting project recently for sure was the project where we were helping Magnetic Leasing to buy two Airbus A321s from Vietnam Airlines. It was exciting for a multitude of reasons: first of all, the location: Vietnam is an exotic place with a rich history. It is exciting to go to a place in a world what you have studied about in school and see it with your own eyes. Secondly, I had the pleasure of working with two brilliant and experienced engineers, both of whom has about 20 years of experience in the business. It was an excellent opportunity to work beside people who could also educate you and share the knowledge they have gathered over the years. What is your opinion where the biggest challenges in your line of work in the last few months, and how have you and the team coped with these challenges? SH: I'd say the most significant challenge has been the travel restrictions that were implemented in the last few months. It has stalled many projects due to the fact that we cannot travel anywhere and nobody else can come to Estonia to perform physical inspections. This has been very costly and frustrating in our line of work, as many projects have to be postponed to the fact that we can’t send anybody from our team abroad.  To get around the situation, we adapted the new approach: we arranged a so-called virtual inspection and performed a physical inspection for the client that was filmed; we also took photographs of every aspect of the aircraft according to the contractual conditions and these images were sent with the report to the client for them to conduct their part of the inspection.  This solution eliminated the need for the client to send inspectors to Tallinn. What, in your opinion, are the most important personal qualities and qualifications for the airworthiness engineer? SH: I could name a few! First of all, communications skills are crucial: a big portion of the work means communicating with other people to get the necessary information. Flexibility is another personal quality we value greatly:  you have to be flexible to work outside of regular hours, work long hours and be open to travelling - quite often with very short notice! I also believe airworthiness engineer has to be curious: to stay on top of the game, you always have to better yourself and learn as much as possible daily. Aviation is an ever-evolving industry and regulations change all the time. Technical knowledge and understanding are also vital:  in order to be able to work through the tons of information, an engineer needs to be able to understand and analyze technical data.