Safran USA Employee Spotlight

March 24, 2016

Troy Lewis, Training Network Manager, North America at Turbomeca

Earlier this month, Safran underscored its products and services for helicopters at HAI (Helicopter Association International) HELI-EXPO in Louisville, Kentucky. During HELI-EXPO, the helicopter industry’s largest gathering, Turbomeca employee Troy Lewis was honored by HAI with an award for excellence.

This month we are highlighting this employee who has been instrumental in establishing a number of key training programs at Turbomeca.

“Success requires teamwork. Respect your colleagues and work towards a common objective.” - Troy Lewis

Who: Troy Lewis, Training Network Manager, North America at Turbomeca.

What: Upon joining Turbomeca in 1991, Lewis worked in the Quality department as a parts inspector. He then moved on to occupy various positions, including quality lead and quality control manager. In 2008, he became customer training instructor, a role which positioned him to work as a lead with Turbomeca’s corporate team in France. He was recently appointed training network manager for North America. In addition to overseeing the training network, Lewis enjoys instructing when his schedule permits. His goal is to ensure that training courses “instill in customers the confidence to be more autonomous and comfortable with Turbomeca engines.”

Where: Lewis is based at Turbomeca’s facility in Grand Prairie, Texas. He conducts training at the company’s Texas training facility and at customers’ maintenance facilities around North America.   

Why Turbomeca: Lewis began his aviation maintenance career with a company dedicated to repairing large turbofan engine components before joining Turbomeca: “I wanted to be more involved with a complete engine, and helicopters have always fascinated me since I was very young.” He particularly enjoys the opportunity to travel around the world and meet people with different backgrounds. “Our instructor team is the best group of individuals I have worked with in my 30-year aviation career.”

Challenges: Although Lewis views his career as rewarding, he admits that it comes with its challenges. “The biggest challenge would be to provide the customer a training course that exceeds their expectations. We have to continually study multiple engine variants and prepare for each course. We usually have 10 students with various levels of experience and have 30 hours to complete the course with them.”

Commitment to excellence: For Lewis, ensuring excellence in customer training is his primary commitment. “Our training notes, presentations and instructors are continually reviewed and audited to ensure that we are maintaining the current standards. We work closely as a team, along with other departments, to identify areas for continuous improvement.”

Proudest moment: Lewis’ proudest moment was being selected by HAI for the Rolls-Royce Excellence in Helicopter Maintenance Award. “I was both honored and humbled to be selected by the HAI committee along with the nominees in other award categories who performed amazing things. I feel very strongly that it takes more than one person to be successful. I can think of a whole group of coworkers who deserved the honor just as much, if not more, than I did.”

Keys for success: For Lewis, the three keys to a successful career at Turbomeca are passion, teamwork and understanding. “If you are passionate about your job then it should not feel like a job at all. Success requires teamwork. Respect your colleagues and work towards a common objective. Learn as much as you can about the functions of your job and those of your colleagues. An old philosophical quote says it all: What I hear I forget, what I see I remember, what I do, I understand. You need to do the job to understand it.”