Maintenance Competition Highlights Need to Foster Future AMTs for Industry Survival

The recent NBAA Maintenance Competition helped to highlight the organization’s desire to bring up future personnel, providing students a chance to show off their skills and nab some helpful scholarships.

The competition saw more than 60 students from 5 schools come together to pit their skills against one another, followed by a keynote speech by Barrington Irving. He pushed the kids to enter the business aviation world, saying there was “much to offer.” Not one to forget his roots, he described himself as entering the biz with “three holes in the bottom of my shoes,” adding that he never would have imagined ending up where he stands today. 

The event gave plenty of attention to the current crop of professionals, too. Coinciding with the conference, the FAA presented its Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award to founding member of the NBAA Maintenance Committee Stephen Stodolski. The award recognized the Pratt & Whitney alum for half a century of service to aviation safety and writing. Additional events provided more than 1,100 attendees plenty of chances to earn credits for their Certified Aviation Manager and Inspector Authorization certifications. 

“With a theme of ‘Maximizing Your Personal Toolbox’ every keynote and education session, networking event and fundraising opportunity was focused on the future of the business aviation maintenance industry and encouraging attendees to share what they learned with their coworkers and colleagues,” said NBAA Director, Environmental and Technical Operations Stewart D’Leon, CAM.

“Thank you to NBAA Maintenance Committee Chair Doug Gordon and Vice Chair Nate Dietsch and the entire committee for their leadership and willingness to introduce new features to the conference,” he said.

FMI: www.nbaa.org