Field Service Engineer Helps Airlines Bring New Planes Online

Making sure new airplanes enter service successfully is a big deal. As a member of the Honeywell Global Entry Into Service (EIS) team, Sr. Field Service Engineer John Chow is on the front lines whenever a new aircraft type is delivered to an airline anywhere in the world.

For example, John will spend most of October in Brazil, working with Embraer and Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras as the carrier starts service flights of their newly delivered E195-E2 regional jet. The aircraft is equipped with Honeywell’s Primus Epic 2 integrated avionics system with RDR-4000 weather radar and maintenance connectivity systems using a wireless server unit and wireless data LAN management unit.

Life on the road is not novelty for John, who spends about 30 percent of his time away from his home base in Seattle to cover Europe, Asia and South American regions. In addition to supporting the EIS effort, he works directly with operators using Honeywell avionics products to retrofit, modify or upgrade their aircraft.

John also supports the Aerospace Technical Support (ATS) network, Honeywell’s global resource dedicated to providing customers with the best-possible service. The ATS team is accessible 24-7, 365 through the MyAerospace portal or technical support hotline (855-808-6500 in the U.S. or 602-365-6500 internationally).

After joining Honeywell’s space systems operation in 1995, John moved on to the commercial aviation world and got his feet wet in the Product & Customer Support side of the business during what was supposed to be a three-year posting in Beijing. He extended his tour and ended up supporting China’s rapidly growing airline fleets for 10 years.

“I really enjoyed my assignment in China,” said John, who was born in Taiwan and speaks fluent Mandarin. “It was a great opportunity for me to learn about the aviation industry in the Asia Pacific region and to help operators understand the broad range of avionics systems and products Honeywell can provide to improve the safety and efficiency of airline flight.”

Learning is a priority for John, who recently accepted the challenge of helping install a Honeywell Aspire 200 satellite communications system on a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter based in Virginia. “I wasn’t that familiar with the Aspire 200, but I was able to familiarize myself and prepare to successfully complete the task and helped a customer in need,” he said. “That’s really what being a field service engineer is all about.”