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5th Annual NW Regional AMT SKILLS COMPETITION
Andy Dodson | Spokane Community College
Another year brings more opportunity for aviation maintenance students from colleges around the Northwest Region to showcase their skills as they compete at the NW Regional Aviation Maintenance Competition.
In keeping with WAA’s continued efforts of aviation related education and awareness, this year’s competition is bound to entertain and educate the general public, while providing a challenging series of maintenance related events.
Volunteers from Boeing assist as competition judges
The event enters it’s fifth year and is shaping up to be bigger and better than ever. The 2020 competition features eight teams from around the Pacific Northwest, two more than last year’s competition. Aviation Maintenance Technology Schools (AMTS) fielding teams this year have undertaken rigorous internal vetting processes in the months leading up to the competition to select their most skilled students to represent their school in this annual competition.
The schools participating in the 2020 competition include Big Bend Community College, WA; Clover Park Technical College, WA; Everett Community College, WA; North Idaho College, ID; South Seattle College, WA; Spokane Community College, WA; Idaho State University, ID, and Trinity Aviation Academy, WA.
The number of competitive events has grown in 2020 as well. Competitive teams will show case their aviation knowledge as they perform eleven competitive events during this one day competition. Last year’s competition featured eight different skills events.
Each event is designed to test typical aircraft mechanic skills and knowledge that an AMTS student encounters during their training experience. Aviation industry members in the audience will be watching closely in hopes of recruiting future aircraft mechanics for their company.
Not only has the event grown is size and scope, but sponsors have stepped up their game too in terms of awards. Thanks to the generosity of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, the first place winner of the 2020 competition will compete at the national Aerospace Maintenance Competition, part of the Aviation Week Network’s MRO Americas conference, held April in Dallas Texas.
The Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air sponsorship pays air travel and hotel costs for a 6-person competition team.
Aircraft Maintenance Discovery Day SUNDAY, FEB 23 2020
For most people flying is an exciting adventure. It’s a fast and efficient way of traveling for both work and pleasure. Thousands of people do it every day all around the world. However, the flying part is only a portion of the story. What goes on behind the curtain, in the hangar, is the real magic. Have you ever wondered “who keeps those big, complex air machines flying every day, and what does an aircraft mechanic really do?”
If you have, you’re the exception. Most people don’t give it a thought. In an effort to educate and increase awareness about aviation maintenance as a career, a consortium of eight Aviation Maintenance Technology Schools in the Northwest Region, called the Fighting 147, is sponsoring an “Aviation Maintenance Discovery Day” during the NW Aviation Conference.
The event will include several interactive aviation maintenance activities designed to allow the general public to experience “hands-on” what an aircraft mechanic does on the job. Instructors and students from several AMT colleges will be on hand to demonstrate and coach anyone who wants to get involved in a variety of fun and interesting aircraft maintenance activities, such as: weighing an aircraft, rigging a flight control system, designing and testing a simple electrical circuit, securing a bolt with lock wire, and more.
CONNECT: AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE DISCOVERY DAY is for everyone, young and old. If you like aviation, then you should stop by and discover something new, maybe something you’ve never given a though about. February 23, 2020 | Showplex, AMT DISCOVERY AREA
Check out Teen Flights Exhibits
The TeenFlight Puyallup program is a 2+ year program designed to teach high-school level kids the vocational skills necessary to construct, maintain and fly the aircraft they built along with directly exposing the students to the various career opportunities through field trips, job shadowing and internships.
