State of AMTSociety Address
First and foremost of items this month is remembering Charles E. Taylor’s birthday on Sunday, May 24. If your organization is planning on having a program, please let Barb Zuehlke or me know about it. Send us the details and photographs so we can publish them in the next issue and post them on the web sites.
The Maintenance Skills Competition (MSC) is one way for us to show the entire world what a great craft we represent; it truly is the epitome of what our profession is all about.
I would like to take a moment to inform all of you about the senior management of Continental Airlines. On Tuesday, April 7, Larry Kellner, chairman and CEO; Joe Ferreira, vice president of technical operations; and Jeff Smisek, president and COO, traveled from Houston to Cleveland to honor the Cleveland operational line maintenance team for placing first for the second consecutive year in the AMTSociety MSC.
They took the team to breakfast and spent the day with them. This certainly speaks volumes on the way that senior management feels about the aircraft maintenance technicians employed at Continental Airlines. Ferreira also sent an email to Cleveland Maintenance Operations stating “Three-peat 2010 in LAS.”
In addition to Continental Airlines, American Airlines had a two-page story in the April 2, 2009, issue of the “DFW People — The Airport Newspaper” which described in great detail the involvement that American Airlines had in the MSC; it entered three teams and sponsored two jet engines for the tach generator removal/installation; hydraulic pump removal/installation; and engine troubleshooting.
Team Colorado was recognized with a standing ovation on Saturday, March 21, 2009, at the General Aviation Awards program which featured a sit-down dinner and the country and western band Break Even. Travis Valine, director of aeronautics for Colorado, and Chuck Sicotte, manager of the FAASTeam Northwest Mountain Region, made the presentation of medals to each team member. The Denver local FAASTeam managers also made presentations; 78 people attended this event.
As you can see, we are finally getting the message to people of who we are, what we do, and that safety, training, and personal integrity are what our job is all about.
Due to the amount of money AMTSociety raised from the annual golf outing and donated to the Northrop-Rice Foundation an additional 10 scholarships were granted to individuals in pursuit of further education in the field of aviation or avionics. This is in addition to the $1,500 Charles E. Taylor and $1,000 William “Bill” O’Brien AMTSociety scholarships. Once again thank you to Haggan Aviation, all the event and hole sponsors, as well as the golfers who participated to achieve this great accomplishment and make this donation possible. It clearly emphasizes one of the goals of AMTSociety.
Stay safe.
— Tom Hendershot
Board of Directors: Peter Zeeb, chairman
Peter Zeeb graduated from high school in 1979, and attended college in Watertown, WI, when he realized this was not the plan he really wanted. He talked to several people, including his father’s pilot cousin, and decided he wanted to be in aviation. He found Teterboro School of Aeronautics, an A&P school that was only 53 miles from his parents’ house. He commuted for two years and graduated in the summer of 1981 with his A&P certificate.
He walked into the FBO at Morristown, NJ, Aeroservices, and found a position with Certified Aircraft Maintenance, a company that did maintenance for the flight school. One of the corporate tenants based at Aeroservices was the McGraw-Edison Publishing Company that was operating a Falcon 20. Zeeb got a part-time job as a cleaner on the Falcon 20. Personnel in the flight department befriended Zeeb and told him he needed to complete his college degree. That sent Zeeb to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) to look into the university’s aviation maintenance management degree. He was able to take night courses at a local community college and work for Certified Aircraft Maintenance during the day.
Three weeks prior to graduation at ERAU’s Daytona Beach, FL, campus, Zeeb was contacted to maintain a Falcon 10 for Scott Foresman’s corporate flight department. Zeeb flew up to Palwaukee Airport to visit/interview with the director of the aviation department. Zeeb got the job and flew back and forth every weekend. Upon graduation, he drove to New Jersey to attend FlightSafety Teterboro for Falcon 10 training. Two years later, Refco Inc. called and he spent two years there.
A former co-worker advised Zeeb about the director of maintenance position at Management Air Service in Wilmington, DE, where he worked for 13 years until the company closed down the flight department. Zeeb then interviewed with Harrah’s Entertainment and accepted the job as director of maintenance, a position he has held for the past seven and one-half years. During that time, Harrah’s has stayed aggressive as it purchased other companies and their aircraft. In the process, it has been involved with numerous models of aircraft and Zeeb has completed 19 aircraft transactions.
Zeeb has a strong drive for teamwork and with the flight schedule that Harrah’s Entertainment utilizes, there is obviously weekend and holiday assignments. Zeeb schedules himself into the rotation just as he does other AMTs. He is also on the Honeywell advisory board and the NBAA Maintenance Committee. Additionally, he finds time to mentor high school students participating in career days programs to promote aircraft maintenance as a career. He is helping to revise AMTSociety student chapter bylaws. He also serves as the co-chairman of the Golf Committee and was responsible for working out the details to play at Rio Secco Golf Club in March 2009.
Zeeb and his wife Peggy have been married for more than 25 years and have two daughters: Laura, 24, and Caitlyn, 20. They reside in Henderson, NV.
