Midcoast Aviation Wins Maintenance Gold Medal for Third Straight Year

For an unprecedented third straight year, a team of aviation maintenance technicians from Midcoast Aviation, the "Arch Rivals," took top honors during the recent Professional Aviation Maintenance Association's (PAMA) Aviation Maintenance Olympics. Midcoast maintenance crew chief Bill Fields also earned top individual honors in the safety wiring contest and was recognized as "TechnAthlete of the Year" for his overall performance during the annual competition.

"Last year, Midcoast became the first PAMA Olympics participant to win top honors two years in a row, and now we've won gold for the third consecutive year," said Vinnie Venditto, Midcoast's avionics project administrator and team coach. "We knew it would be extremely challenging to 'three-peat' against some highly capable competition, and we are thrilled to have earned the honor. We also recognize that it is our aviation customers who really benefit from our performance."

In addition to coach Venditto, the Midcoast team included Tim Kennon, lead avionics inspector, and Brian Bauwens and Fields, both aircraft maintenance crew chiefs.

The competition was held March 28-30 during PAMA's Annual Symposium and the Aviation Industry Week trade show in Las Vegas, NV. The Olympics are a series of judged events involving three-person technician teams and individual competitions in safety wiring, troubleshooting, data research, rigging, electrical connectors, hardware identification and hydraulic line fabrication. Competitors are judged on safety, quality, accuracy and speed of work undertaken. This year's competitors included teams from Bombardier Aerospace, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Raytheon Aircraft Co., and the Association for Women in Aviation Maintenance.

Midcoast has competed each year during the five-year-old annual event. Midcoast teams won the bronze medal in 2002, the silver medal in 2003 and gold medals in 2004, 2005 and 2006.