When asked how it felt to be named Young Aviator of the Year at the New Zealand Aviation Industry Association Awards last month, his reply was a typical Kiwi answer.
"It’s not bad, aye?"
The former Waitaki Boys’ High School student credits his mum for putting him on to an engineering course.
"Out of high school I didn’t really know what to do, [but she] found a course and I went into that and it just snowballed from there."
He then specialised in aviation engineering and has been with Heliventures for the last three years.
"When I got qualified I had heard [Heliventures, near Oamaru] were looking for an engineer and it was post Covid so there was no travel or anything happening.
"It’s a great place to work.
"Craig and Nicki [McMillan] are awesome.
"They look after us all really well."
Mr Ruddenklau, 27, loves the challenges he faces day in day out.
His day-to-day work is very paperwork heavy but he also oversees the maintenance of the five helicopters at Heliventures.
Their helicopters are used for tourism, government work and agriculture as well as assisting Fire and Emergency New Zealand and Land Search and Rescue.
It was very rewarding for Mr Ruddenklau to see the helicopters he worked on fly out and help people.
His award comes at a time when aviation engineers are few and far between.
He hoped to inspire any high school graduates to take up the profession.
"Just for people to see that aircraft engineer is a job because not many people know about."
