The Amt Awards Program

Checking it Out

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Apr 3, 2003
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And the Winner is
The AMT Awards program

By Bill O’Brien


It is the start of the spring allergy season! So my first sneeze is my reminder to give everyone a heads up that this year’s 2004 FAA’s Aviation Maintenance Technician (AMT) awards program contest has less than six months to go before it ends on Dec. 31.

The 2004 contest prizes are over the top and I will get to them shortly. But before I do, I need a moment of your time to cover the AMT program and the contest for the uninitiated.

The program: The AMT awards program was started in 1993 and provides for FAA recognition of maintenance or regulatory training for the mechanics, repairmen, Part 147 students, and uncertificated folks working full-time in Part 121/135 air carriers. Individuals are recognized with a bronze, silver, gold, ruby, or diamond tie/lapel pin plus the appropriate certificate based on the training received. You can earn a bronze award for six hours of training, a silver for 12 hours, a gold for 26 hours, a ruby for 60 hours, and a diamond award for 100 hours of training. Last year more than 24,000 AMT awards were issued.

Employers can also receive an FAA award based on the percentage of their eligible employees that earn an AMT award. For example, a company can earn a bronze AMT Certificate of Excellence if 5 percent of their eligible employees get an AMT award. More committed companies can earn an AMT silver certificate for 10 percent, or a gold for 15 percent, or a ruby for 20 percent, or the diamond Certificate of Excellence if 25 percent of their eligible employees earn any one of the five AMT training awards. If the employer trains 100 percent of his workforce under the AMT program, he is eligible for the top award, a 100 percent

Diamond Award of Excellence plaque issued by the aircraft maintenance division in FAA headquarters. Additional information and how to apply for this program is in Advisory Circular 65.25, Aviation Maintenance Technician Awards Program. The AC is available at your local FSDO or on the FAA’s web site: (http://www.faa.gov/avr/afs/ under information and advisories).

The contest: The AMT contest is managed and run by an all-volunteer industry group of exceptional individuals that have joined together to help foster training for mechanics and technicians by promoting the AMT awards program. This all-volunteer group calls itself the AMT Safety Awards Program and steering committee and is composed of the following individuals. The chairman is Tom Hendershot of Frontier Airlines; in the secretary position is Jennifer Baker of Baker School of Aeronautics.

Other members are: Jim Smith, director of training for Delta Airlines; Mike Mulcare of the Aviation Maintenance Career Commission; Hasnain Ansari of Swiss Port; Matt Thurber, Aviation Maintenance magazine; Greg Napert of AMT magazine; Brian Finnegan of PAMA; and Paul Jones, FAA inspector out of the Nashville FSDO who serves as a nonvoting, FAA adviser for the committee. These folks deserve at the least a large thank you for all their hard work from all of us, because they are the ones who petition the industry to donate prizes and set up and run the contest drawing every year at the PAMA convention.
Now for the prizes:

Grand Prize is sponsored by Delta Airlines
Winner and one guest will receive:

1. A four-night vacation to any Delta domestic city in the U.S. contiguous 48 states.
2. Air transportation from any Delta domestic city.
3. $300 spending money.

Aircraft Electronic Association sponsored prize:

1. Round-trip coach airfare to/from AEA 2006 Convention
2. Lodging at the AEA Convention hotel for three nights.
3. Full convention registration for the 2006 AEA Convention and Trade Show.

AMT Magazine sponsored prize:

Winner will receive $500.

Aircraft Technical Publishers sponsored prize:

Winner will receive a one-year subscription to the Aircraft Technical Publishers U.S. Regulatory Library on CD-ROM or DVD.

Alaska Airlines sponsored prize:

The winner will receive two coach round-trip tickets on Alaska Airlines anywhere that Alaska Airlines flies.

The Association for Women in Aviation Maintenance sponsored prize:

The winner will receive a one-year membership in the Association for Women in Aviation Maintenance.

Aviation Data Research sponsored prize:

The winner will receive the Aviation Data Research, PMA Parts Finder CD-ROM with one year’s worth of updates.

Aviation Maintenance Magazine sponsored prize:

The winner will receive a one-quarter page four-color advertisement in one issue of Aviation Maintenance magazine.

Baker School of Aeronautics sponsored prize:

The winner will receive:
1. At no charge, a five-day inspection authorization course at Baker’s School of Aeronautics located in Nashville, Tennessee.
2. The Baker’s Inspection Authorization Kit.
3. The FAA testing fee. The test will be administered if the winner meets the FAA requirements.
4. Five-night stay at the Wilson Inn.
5. Transportation to/from school and the airport provided by the Wilson Inn.
6. $400 to help cover training expenses.

CAE Simuflite sponsored prize:

The winner will receive a maintenance initial training event of his/her choice at CAE Simuflite’s Dallas/Forth Worth, Texas, Training center. (Not including travel, lodging, or food.)

FlightSafety International sponsored prize:

The winner will receive attendance in the online Principals of Troubleshooting Course.

Frontier Airlines sponsored prize:

The winner and a guest will receive one round trip ticket to any destination that Frontier Airlines flies.

Professional Aviation Maintenance Association sponsored prize:

The winner will receive:
1. Free one-year membership or renewal in PAMA.
2. PAMA logo polo shirt.
3. PAMA baseball hat.

Skyway Airlines sponsored prize:

The winner will receive two round trip positive-space tickets to anywhere that Midwest Airlines or Midwest Connect Airlines flies.

Superior Air Parts sponsored prize:

The winner will receive:
1. A Hawkeye Boroscope Kit # HH12kit.
2. A Fluke Autoranging Digital Multimeter

# FLUKE 12.

Tdata sponsored prize:

The winner will receive a one-year subscription to Tdata’s IA approach regulatory library on CD-ROM with biweekly updates or a one–year subscription to Tdata’s new MTrax maintenance-tracking software.

Timco sponsored prize:

The winner will receive a Snap-On gift certificate in the amount of $2,000.

US Airways sponsored prize:

Two positive-space roundtrip coach-class domestic tickets to include Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

Women in Aviation International:

The winner will receive a complimentary registration to our annual March conference and a one-year membership.

In closing, I would like to remind you that your odds of winning one of the 20 prizes listed above are better than any odds for a state lottery. But like a state lottery you have to participate in the AMT program in order to be eligible to win. It is not very hard to participate. Upon earning one of five AMT awards the FAA inspector will submit your AMT application to the AMT awards committee. Your application will then be added to the others and put in the big drum for the drawing at the PAMA convention in May of 2005. But even if you do not win a prize you do win! You got yourself some maintenance training and training like that is like having money in the bank. Now that you’ve been reminded, does anybody have a tissue?


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