John Coon - Director of Maintenance | StarPort

What career path do you take if you have a degree in animal husbandry? Become an A&P mechanic, of course! Or so it was with John Coon, director of maintenance for Sanford, FL-based StarPort. We sat down with Coon to learn how he went from being a farmer in Massachusetts to being a director of maintenance in Florida.

John Coon grew up in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. His uncle owned a farm, and Coon spent a lot of time working on the farm. After graduating from high school, Coon thought he would enjoy a career in farming and decided to pursue an education in animal husbandry. He attended State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill (SUNY Cobleskill) and graduated with a degree in animal husbandry.

After graduation, Coon went to work for some local farmers. His goal was to save some money and eventually own his own farm. “Unfortunately, I soon realized that my dream of owning my own farm was just not going to happen,” he tells D.O.M. magazine. “It was financially impossible. I eventually gave up on farming.”

Coon then worked a variety of jobs including construction. “I realized that it just wasn’t working out,” he says. “I wasn’t happy and I decided to find something else.”

Some of Coons friends worked in aviation. They asked him if he had ever considered a career as an aircraft mechanic. Coon thought he would enjoy working on aircraft. For him, it was the romance of aviation that caught his attention. He was mechanically inclined and enjoyed working with his hands. He also had experience working on automobiles.

A&P school

So Coon started looking at A&P schools in the Northeast. Eventually, he came across Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL. He applied to the University and was accepted. “I sold everything I had and packed up my little blue car and drove down to Daytona Beach,” he says. “It was a total life change. In Massachusetts I had a job. I had money to spend. There I was, in Daytona Beach, going back to being a broke college student.”

Coon says that even though his financial situation took some getting used to, the difference in weather was a little easier to take. “I was working construction in Massachusetts — working in freezing weather pouring concrete and pounding nails in the bitter cold. Once I moved down here to Florida I knew I was never going back.”

Coon went through the two-year program at Embry-Riddle. He earned his A&P and an associate degree.

After finishing school, he was ready to go out and get a job. Unfortunately, the timing wasn’t the best. “Eastern Airlines was just about going under at that time, and there weren’t many jobs available in the industry,” Coon says. “When I was a student at Embry-Riddle, I heard stories from everybody of how the airlines would come in and hire the entire class of graduates. Of course, after I put my two years in, the airline industry was in a slump, and that didn’t happen to our class.”

One of Coon’s instructors suggested he stay in school and study avionics. “The thought scared me at first,” he says. “I knew nothing about electricity. Electricity scared the heck out of me. But I decided to enroll in Embry-Riddle’s avionics technology program. It was an engineering/avionics program. We learned component-level avionics. We studied differential equations and C++ programing. It was quite the program. It was 163 credit hours, and was the biggest program on the campus. Unfortunately they don’t offer it any more.”

Coon attended courses year-round, and graduated in three years with a bachelor degree in science and aviation technologies. He graduated third in his graduating class.

Armed with a degree and advanced avionics training, Coon was anxious to start working in aircraft maintenance. The job market was different than three years earlier, and Coon had two job offers. One was working for Delta Airlines at Chicago O’Hare as a night mechanic. The other was from Sanford, FL-based CE Avionics. “I decided I wasn’t leaving Florida,” Coon tells D.O.M.magazine. “So I accepted a job at CE working as an installer for a lot less money than I could have made at Delta.”

Coon went from being an installer to working as a bench technician. Then he became a line technician. “I spent most of my time at CE Avionics as a line technician,” he says. “I had a van and I would drive all over the state of Florida to fix aircraft. I went to just about every airport in Florida. I worked independently. There were no set hours – I stayed there until the job was done. I enjoyed the job, and did that for eleven years.”

StarPort

In 2006, Coon took a job at StarPort as its avionics manager. It was Coon’s first management job. He went from working by himself in different locations throughout the state to managing a group of avionics technicians. It was quite the transition for him. “It was a shock,” he says. “It was a big change for me. It took a while to become comfortable with the responsibility of the position — the hiring and firing, the reprimanding, giving raises, the whole thing.

“The biggest challenge for me was dealing with all the different personalities,” Coon says. “I’m one of those guys who likes to get out there and work shoulder-to-shoulder with the guys. I’m not in the office hiding. I like to teach and mentor.”

We asked him if he received any formal training on his new responsibilities such as budgeting. “No,” he says. “It was trial by fire. I had to learn how to put together budgets and use the software we use to run the business. I had to learn how to quote jobs. I had never done that before. That’s a science in itself. Thankfully, some of the guys here helped me out during the transition.”

Transition to director of maintenance

A year and a half ago, there were some management changes in the company, and Coon was asked to take over as director of maintenance. He had to learn even more. “I had to learn everything,” he says. “I went from having to know about the avionics shop to having to learn about everything in the hangar.”

As Coon gave us a tour around the facility, it was evident he was extremely knowledgeable about everything going on there. We asked Coon how he has managed to learn so much in the short time he has been the DOM. “I had other managers and supervisors to lean on. They helped me out and taught me everything I needed to know. I also read magazines like D.O.M. to gain more knowledge. I sponge up as much information as I can.”

We asked Coon what his style of management is. “I’m a listener,” he says. “I listen and ask questions. I ask my way through problems. I’m not a yeller. Everyone gets upset, but it’s not worth getting frustrated and bent out of shape over it. Being an avionics person out on the road by myself, I learned not to let things get to me. There’s no reason to get frustrated. Just figure out the solution and move on to the next job.”

A change in culture

There has been a culture change in the maintenance department since Coon became DOM. “The previous management team wasn’t hands-on,” he says. “They weren’t out on the floor. They stayed in their offices all the time. But I am more of a hands-on guy. Just like I did when I was avionics manager, I am out in the shop interacting with the guys as much as I can. I was personally frustrated with the management team when I was the avionics manager. When I was offered the DOM job, one of the reasons I accepted it was because I really wanted to affect change here.

“Part of that change is how we do business,” Coon continues. “We want to represent honesty, integrity, transparency and attention to detail. I saw the dysfunction of how the previous management team worked. I saw the complacency that was in place in their culture. We want to do things differently.”

Coon says that the focus on change has had a positive effect on the employees. “Before, complacency existed at all levels,” he shares. “When I was avionics manager, it would drive me crazy because it seemed technicians would frequently stand around and do nothing. Now they work with passion and purpose. It’s unbelievable the change I have seen in them. It just took me talking to them and saying, ‘I believe in you. This is what I expect out of you. Do you accept it?’”

New employees

When looking for new employees, Coon likes to hire graduates from his alma mater whenever he can. “It’s nice having Embry-Riddle nearby,” he says. “I try to hire a lot of kids out of Embry-Riddle. I have a gentleman here I hired right out of school last year, and he is fantastic. He is very sharp and has good working skills.”

Sometimes Coon hires someone who is already working in the industry. We asked Coon what he looks for in potential new hires. “I look for someone with a positive attitude,” he tells D.O.M. magazine. “I always look on a resume for job travelers. There are some in this business who work six months here, six months there. They move around a lot. I like to see someone who has worked somewhere for three or four years. That is a big plus in my book. Those people have shown that they can settle in to a company. They are adaptable.

“Education is always important,” he continues. “I like to see associates or bachelors degrees. I also like to see training on the resume. It shocks me when I see a resume come across my desk from a mechanic who has been in the industry for 15 years and has not had any additional training.”

Tips for success

We asked Coon what tips he would give someone for having a successful career in aviation. “If you want to be in this business, and you want to be successful in it, you need to go to Embry-Riddle,” he states matter-of-factly. “And if you want to be an A&P mechanic and be valuable, take the avionics line maintenance course they offer. That is invaluable — it will help you out a lot.”