Dean Pusateri
Quality Manager | Cessna Citation Service Center, Wichita, Kansas
As part of our effort to profile directors and managers in different areas of aviation maintenance, D.O.M. magazine wanted to profile a quality manager for this issue’s cover story. This month, we interviewed Dean Pusateri, quality manager for the Cessna Citation Service Center at Wichita, KS. Pusateri is an A&P/IA and also holds an FAA Major Repair, Alteration and Airworthiness Organization Designation Authorization (MRA ODA). This authorization allows him to approve data for major repairs and alterations, issue airworthiness certificates and approvals and performaging aircraft inspections and records reviews on behalf of the FAA.
Pusateri shares that he wasn’t one of those people that grew up around aviation. His family moved to Wichita in 1981. When he graduated from high school, he was trying to figure out what he wanted to do. “It was a bad time for aviation back then,” Pusateri says. “In Wichita, aviation is big. When times are tough in aviation, like they were at the time, work gets pretty scarce here in Wichita. Even minimum-wage jobs were taken by laid off aviation workers.”
U.S. Navy
With work scarce in the area, Pusateri decided he wanted to join the Navy. As he was sitting with the Navy recruiter going through the different specialties he could go in, one stood out. “When the recruiter mentioned aircraft maintenance as an opportunity, I thought that sounded interesting,” Pusateri shares. “That’s how I got my start in aviation.”
After boot camp, Pusateri went to A School as a machinist’s mate (engine mechanic). He honed his engine maintenance skills on the Navy’s P-3 Orion while stationed at
Moffett Field, CA. While in the Navy, he did six-month tours (TDYs) in Adak, Alaska, Japan, and Iceland. With his TDYs typically starting after Christmas and lasting through July, Pusateri spent a lot of time maintaining engines in very cold environments. “The P-3 is a very large airplane, and we didn’t have the luxury of hangaring the plane every time we worked on it,” Pusateri tells D.O.M. magazine. “The work was outside just about every night. We spent a lot of our time out on the ramp.”
A&P School
After spending four years in the Navy, Pusateri moved back to Wichita and enrolled in A&P school at Wichita Area Technical College (WATC). While he was in school, Pusateri was able to expand his aviation experience and make a little extra money by working part time at several general aviation companies. “I worked at Yingling Aviation as a line service guy, towing and fueling airplanes,” he shares. “I also worked at Boeing for almost a year.”
Airframe Experience
Pusateri was able to expand his airframe experience when he landed a job with an FBO at Westport Airport. “Westport Airport is where I started to do a lot of airframe work,” he tells D.O.M. magazine. “The owner was notorious for buying any kind of airplane that had major structural damage. We would put it on a trailer and bring it back to the hangar. We would tear it apart and repair it. I was able to do a lot of major structural and engine work. The job didn’t pay a lot, but it was a very fun job and I learned a lot.”
We asked Pusateri if he felt the experience gained while working at the jobs while he was attending A&P school was beneficial. “Absolutely,” he says. “In the Navy, I never had the experience of flying an airplane. But I got to fly almost every day working in general aviation. I got to do engine runs by myself and would sit right seat flying the airplanes. I learned a lot about general aviation.”
Air Midwest
After graduating from A&P school, Pusateri went to work for Air Midwest. “That was probably one of my favorite jobs,” Pusateri shares. “It was tough, but it was a great job. Within the first few days, I was allowed to do pretty much any job on the airplane. I learned about taxiing airplanes on an active airport. I also learned a lot of troubleshooting skills. It was a great job opportunity right out of A&P school.”
Cessna
In 1988, after about a year at Air Midwest, Cessna was hiring in Wichita. Pusateri landed a job as a mechanic at Cessna. He was there for around 2 ½ years. Advancing as a mechanic meant advancing through different mechanic Grades. Mechanic Grades were based on both knowledge and seniority. Pusateri started out as a Grade 5, and advanced to Grade 3 mechanic. Then he realized that with so many mechanics working alongside him, moving up a grade would be challenging. “There were a lot of people ahead of me, so advancement was slow at that time,” he tells D.O.M. magazine.
Making the Grade
An opening became available in Cessna’s inspection department. It was a Grade 2 job, which meant Pusateri would be able to skip a grade if he got the job. Pusateri applied for and got the job in the inspection department. He worked the newly-established fifth-shift — four 10-hour days, Thursday through Sunday. “There was one supervisor on the shift,” Pusateri shares. “I often worked alone, and I would often go out on the floor and coordinate with the maintenance crew, helping out in any way I could to get the job done.”
Pusateri worked in the inspection department for around three years, gaining experience along the way. He worked not only with fellow inspectors, but interacted with the maintenance department and customers often.
On to North Carolina
Cessna leadership started talking about building a new maintenance facility in Greensboro, N.C. Pusateri applied for the quality manager job opening at the new facility. “I got the job,” Pusateri shares. “I wrote my first repair station manual there. I also learned the duties involved with being a quality manager. I was wearing safety and environmental hats as well. That was my first supervisory job.”
D.O.M. magazine asked Pusateri what helped prepare him for that first supervisory job. “I have always had a passion for learning new things,” he says. “That passion for learning drove me into leadership. No matter what job I had, I always wanted to learn more. The Navy was also a big help. They would always drive everyone to solve problems at the lowest level. I try to do that with my job today. I want everyone to understand what the business is about, what their role is, and how their role fits in to the organization’s goals.”
Pusateri was at the Greensboro facility for around five years. His wife was originally from Kansas, and the family wanted to relocate back to Wichita. “We really wanted to get back home,” Pusateri says. “Unfortunately, there were no job opportunities with Cessna at the time in Wichita. So I took a job with Learjet (Bombardier) in Wichita as a maintenance supervisor for the company’s flight test department.”
Working in Flight Test
In the flight test department, Pusateri was involved with all the new production flights. His team would prepare the aircraft for their production flights and also certify it. He did that for seven years. He worked on the Lear 45 and Lear 60. When the Lear 45 project started ramping down, Pusateri took a temporary job with Bombardier in Toronta as part of the Global Express team. “I was there in the early part of the Global Express program,” he shares. “I got there with serial number 11 and worked through number 36. I learned a whole different culture of how they did business, and gained experience working with Transport Canada.”
Pusateri went back to Wichita and worked in Bombardier’s experimental program as a controller. “I sat in on all the pre- and post-briefs associated with the experimental flights,” he tells D.O.M. magazine. “The other controllers and I would run the briefs. We set up the weight and balance, made sure any discrepancies were signed off and gave a final release for the aircraft. When the aircraft came back from the test flight, we would take notes of any discrepancies or findings from the flight and get them taken care of.”
He did that for around six months. Then the Challenger 300 was getting to the point of certification, and Pusateri was involved with the first 30 airplanes manufactured in Wichita until the program was moved to the company’s Montreal facility.
Back Home with Cessna
In 2005, Pusateri had an opportunity to go back to work for Cessna. “I took a job as the environmental, health and safety (EHS) coordinator,” he says. “I worked with the quality manager, whom I had known for 20 years. It was really good timing, because he was getting ready for retirement.”
Pusateri was EHS coordinator for about a year before he got promoted to quality manager. During that year, he was not only learning the responsibilities of being the EHS coordinator, but was being groomed to take over the quality manager responsibilities as well. “I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time,” he says.
Managing Cessna’s Quality Department
Pusateri shares that his job as quality manager at Cessna is quite different from the quality manager job he held at Cessna in Greensboro. “We had a 45,000-square-foot facility at Greensboro,” he tells D.O.M. magazine. “Here, we have more than 477,000 square feet. At Greensboro, we had around 60 employees. We have nearly 500 employees based at the Wichita Citation Service Center. We have a lot going on here.”
Teamwork
Although Pusateri is responsible for managing the quality program at Wichita, he works closely with the quality managers and management teams at the company’s seven other service centers. “Every two weeks we have about an hour meeting between the quality managers where we discuss safety and quality issues,” he shares. “We share what our ‘wins’ and our ‘losses’ are. We also share information from our audits, whether it is an FAA, ISO, EASA or other type of audit. We help each other out.”
Pusateri has a team of 40 inspectors working with him in Wichita. He also has a quality assurance supervisor and a quality coordinator that work for him. “I have great people who help me,” Pusateri says. “If I didn’t have my staff, I would be in trouble. I can’t do it all, and I rely on them a lot.”
The Quality Mindset
D.O.M. magazine asked Pusateri what type of mindset makes someone successful in the quality department. “Communication skills,” he says. “It seems like anytime we have a problem it is because communication failed somewhere. If you are able to maintain and continuously work on communication, you have a great chance of success and providing a safe quality product.”
We asked Pusateri what he enjoys about working in quality. “Every day, I get around 50 questions,” he shares. “I like helping out and finding the answers if I don’t know them. I also enjoy the pace. There is a lot going on here. It is an ongoing opportunity to learn.”
What qualities does Pusateri look for in potential quality inspectors? “I look for people who are really interested in inspection,” he says. “I ask job candidates, ‘Why do you want to come to inspection?’ The people who I am interested in are the ones who have been mechanics for several years and have the desire to learn more. Mechanics are task driven. They are given policies and procedures and they follow them. But many of them don’t understand why those policies and procedures were developed. When you come to the quality side, you need to understand that the rules and regulations are black and white. But there are also areas that are not well defined — they are in a gray area. It is important to thoroughly understand the regulations and know how to safely work in those gray areas. How do we make this a safe product? How do we meet all the regulations? And all the while, we are also concerned with the customer’s schedule.
“Inspection is one of those jobs where you are going to be challenged every day,” Pusateri continues. “Inspectors are kind of referees out there who throw the flag when they need to. I tell my inspectors that the most important thing to do every day is have continuous communication with the maintenance crews. If you see an issue, just don’t turn around and walk away. You can’t walk away from a problem. You need to deal with it. You need to communicate what the problem is and help figure out a solution to help get it corrected. You need to be a coach. You need to help them not fail in their jobs.”
What tips would Pusateri give to someone wanting to advance in their career as a mechanic or inspector? “Allow yourself to grow,” he says. “Step out of your comfort zone and try new things. Learn new parts of the business. And most importantly, never stop learning!”