In the tropical paradise of Honolulu, Kyle Deardorff repairs and maintains a fleet of small turboprop Cessna Caravans that make important local deliveries for FedEx: “Their wide-body jets can’t land at many of the smaller islands’ airports, so FedEx relies on our Caravan Feeder department to get their cargo where it needs to go.”

Originally from York, PA, Deardorff worked at Southern Airways Express for two years gaining experience on the Cessna 208B Caravan before moving to Hawaii to join FedEx. While PIA’s sheet metal classes helped prepare him to maintain planes corroded by Hawaiian saltwater, Deardorff says one of his most challenging PIA classes turned out to be the most indispensable: “the dreaded electrical class.”

“While it is very challenging, this is a course you cannot go without in the aviation industry because the avionics packages effectively mean most of these airplanes are computers with wings,” says Deardorff. “Having a good understanding of how to read a wiring diagram is critical for effective electronics troubleshooting, and PIA helped equip me with the proper knowledge to do this confidently.”