Living next to a helipad might be one of the best ways to become enamored with aviation. That’s how it happened for Josh Riehle.
“As a child, our house was next to the helipad for one of the local hospitals. I would ride my bike up to the edge of the field and watch the aircraft arrive and depart with fascination,” said Riehle, a Purdue graduate who earned an associate’s degree in 2002, a bachelor’s degree in 2004, and a master’s degree in aviation maintenance in 2009.
Riehle, now director of quality at HAECO Cabin Solutions, said after he came to Purdue he “was hooked” by the hands-on nature of the programs in Purdue Polytechnic’s School of Aviation and Transportation Technology.
“I was able to taxi a B737 aircraft, work with various engines, and learn about the vehicles that I had searched out every time I heard a noise in the sky as a child,” Riehle said. “From there that love of aviation has taken me all over the world, allowing me to continue to learn and grow.”
Riehle, a member of the school’s Industrial Advisory Board, was named a winner of Aircraft Maintenance Technology’s 2016 Next Gen Awards in November.