Antonio Adrian

Software Engineer

Junior Software Engineer

I managed to develop a groundbreaking booking system in this industry, helicopters operations are very complex, and we benefited greatly from having an automated system that gave us the edge over rival companies. Sadly, due to a health issue, we will be ending our operations soon.

This job had a very interesting technical challenges in order to materialize our game concepts. I spent countless hours programming Arduinos (C/C++) and Raspberry Pis (Python) in order to build the suite of sensors and gadgets that form part of the riddles and that monitor the progress of the team that is playing. This was also the first time where the code that I was writing had interaction with the physical world which introduced a lot of new variables and problems that have to be taken into account while programming.

My biggest challenge in this period was when Heli Aviation bought by Babcock and it was decided to change the maintenance tracking system. However, they dropped the old system before contracting the new one which left us in a position where we were unable to operate, we grounded the fleet for two weeks while I developed a system that would let us keep going, it was far from perfect but it was praised by the LBA and let the company run for another two years until Babcock decided to shut the branch down after a row of bad corporate decisions that led into bankruptcy.

After a year of non-flying work, I'm let into the Air Operator's Certificate and start working as a pilot, however being a new pilot I don't get to fly all the time, so in parallel I'm also working in the Continuing Airworthiness department, there we make sure that the helicopters are flying safe and legally, by planning the required maintenance according to the manufacturer and the European regulations.

This is a common initiation job for new pilot, the main purpose of this job is to ready the helicopters according to the flight schedule.