Editor's Viewpoint

April 8, 2005
Plenty of activities at this year's Aviation Industry Week trade show.

Plenty of activities at this year's Aviation Industry Week trade show

Another fun Aviation Industry Week trade show has come and gone. Last month, thousands of industry professionals gathered at the Las Vegas Sands convention center to attend Aviation Industry Week, the joint GSExpo and AS3 convention. I always enjoy the opportunities trade shows offer such as seeing the latest products and services, attending technical seminars, and networking with other industry professionals.

There are a few events at the show that I found exceptionally exciting. The first was Ground Support Magazine's industry leader award luncheon. The staff of Ground Support Magazine (a sister Cygnus publication) presented Continental Airline's Jim Houck with its first annual Leader of the Year award. The room was packed with industry experts to recognize Jim for his accomplishments in the industry. Attendees also enjoyed a truly entertaining presentation by the keynote speaker Ralph Hood. For those of you who have never had the opportunity to hear Mr. Hood speak, if you ever get the chance to hear one of his presentations, don't pass up the opportunity! He had the whole room rolling in laughter. Ralph's personal experiences in aviation coupled with his sense of humor make for some truly entertaining banter.

The second night of the show featured PAMA's Chili Cook-off, which was a great success as usual. AMT was there with a tailgate party-themed booth. Hundreds of people attended the event, consuming some great chili and cold beverages. More than $6,300 dollars was raised, which benefited the Professional Aviation Maintenance Foundation (PAMF).

But the event that I truly enjoy seeing each year is the Professional Aviation Maintenance Olympics (PAMO). Six teams competed in this year's event, with returning champion, the Arch Rivals from Midcoast Aviation, looking to repeat their championship. Other teams included the Hot Wrenches from Bombardier, Dassault Falcon Jet's Team Falcon, Team GDAS from General Dynamics Aviation Services, Southwest Airlines Maintenance, and JetBlue Airways.

It is always exciting to see the teams compete in this annual competition. The PAMO committee has developed some great events for the participants that include safety wiring, troubleshooting, AD research, rigging, hydraulic line fabrication, and hardware identification. The champions get their names emblazoned on the PAMO traveling trophy and get to display the trophy in their facility for the whole year. Even though one team comes away as the champion, no team loses in this event. The fun, excitement, and camaraderie experienced by the participants is clearly evident. Their companies get the benefit of some great exposure by showcasing the true professionals that work for them.

If you are up for some fun competition, now is the time to start putting together a team for next year's PAMO competition. Start talking to your managers now and get them to support your maintenance team in next year's event. Talk your co-workers into joining a team to compete next year. Maybe next year your team will be the one to claim the PAMO traveling trophy. For more about PAMO, go to www.pama.org.

For some highlights and pictures from this year's AIW show, be sure to turn to page 58.

Thanks for reading!