Now, the Rest of the Story

April 9, 2014
A Town Hall Meeting with industry experts, a keynote from Ralph Hood, a chili networking event, and a concert by Aaron Tippin were all part of the AviationPros LIVE 2014

Last week AMT gave the top winner of the 2014 Aerospace Maintenance Competition. Well, there's more to the story.

There were more prizes to more teams and more that AviationPros LIVE offered to attendees.

The 2014 AMC had 28 teams registered that competed in 16 different events. The teams were from five countries this year: Canada, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Australia, and the United States. The winners:

• Schools Category: First Place: Team Redstone, Second Place: Salt Lake Community College, Team 2, and Third Place: West LA College.

• General Aviation Category: First Place: Flight Options.

• Commercial Category: First Place: UPS, Second Place: Team FedEx, and Third Place: Team Alaska.

• MRO/OEM Category: First Place: Boeing and Second Place: TIMCO.

And the Charles E. Taylor Professional AMT Award, which is an award that is presented to the single most professional-looking, professional-acting, highest team spirit and over all epitome of today's skilled aircraft maintenance technician: Geoff Hyatt from Team ALAEA, the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association. Among the many prizes he received was the Golden Wrench from Snap-on Industrial.

Look for photos in the May issue of AMT and the AviationPros and AMTSociety websites.

A Town Hall session, moderated by Airport Business Editor Ronnie Garrett and Ground Support Worldwide Editor Steve Smith, opened the event with industry insight from Rosemary Vassiliadis, director of aviation at the Clark County Department of Aviation; Tom Hendricks, president of the National Air Transportation Association (NATA); and Rick Angor, senior manager of GSE-Southwest Region for Southwest Airlines.

Over the two-day event, exhibitors attended FBO and safety sessions as part of a new partnership with NATA, along with AMTSociety’s IA renewal program. Later the first day, Ground Support Worldwide presented its Leaders of the Year Awards and bestowed a Lifetime Achievement Award to the former Alan Janis of J&B Aviation, and attendees and exhibitors heard the entertaining thoughts and expressions of keynote speaker and Airport Business’ columnist Ralph Hood.

The event closed with a chili cook-off and special performance by country music superstar Aaron Tippin, who, accompanied by band members Lee Bogan on guitar and Lendell Black on keyboard, thrilled attendees. Those at the performance learned Tippin’s passion for aviation went far beyond the performance. Tippin is an avid aviation enthusiast who is a certified pilot, licensed flight instructor, and aviation maintenance technician (AMT).

The Cygnus Aviation team will be working to top this year’s event; next year it will be held March 10-11 at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas.