The Vintage Aviator Ltd

The Vintage Aviator Ltd, based in Wellington, builds aircraft, engines and propellers from the World War One period. Using the same standards as were used over 90 years ago to create exact replicas, the Vintage Aviator supplies private collectors, museum displays and movie sets.

“It’s definitely a unique place to work,” says Don McCracken, General Manager for the last 4 years. Don manages a team of 60 staff and contractors, including architects, digital designers, machinists, aircraft engineers, aircraft fabricators and engine overhaul specialists.

Don currently has 6 staff training with ATTTO, two Modern Apprentices in Aeronautical Engineering and other trainees completing national certificates in Aeronautical Storekeeping, Aeronautical Engineering - Aircraft Structures, and Aeronautical Engineering (Specialist Support).

“The staff are very enthusiastic to learn. Training on the job means that the skills they get are able to be used here in the workplace; they are directly related to what they're doing every day,” he says.

“We use conventional engineering methods that are currently used throughout industry today to produce something that's quite unusual, so we see training as just a normal part of getting the right skills into staff that they need to do the work.”

To support staff in completing their training, the workplace pays for courses and allows time in the day for people to do their study. Trainees are also supported by ATTTO Aviation Industry Training Advisor, Wilton Wilton.

“Wilton has been very good at keeping our trainees on track. He’s been providing a bit of ‘Wilton Motivation’ to keep our guys on top of their training which is good!” says Don. 

In August, Don attended an ATTTO Assessor Professional Development Course, designed to give workplace managers the ability to assess staff in-house.

“I would very much recommend this course to others. I found it to be very good, very good, and I learnt a lot from it. As well as learning about ATTTO I found it was a good backgrounder to understanding the concepts of assessment and evidence better. We increasingly need to provide evidence for the CAA approval system, so I found learning more about these concepts was very useful,” he says.

General Manager Don McCracken