Frank M. Atria, 37, is the Director of Maintenance for the GEICO Skytypers (SNJ-2 Corp).
After college he decided to go back to his first passion, aviation. His passion was nurtured by his uncle, Frank "Spin" Spingola, who served in the Air Force during WWII as an aircraft mechanic on B-17s stationed in England. Spingola later worked for American Airlines as an A&P mechanic.
While attending Wilson Technological Center's Republic Airport campus in Farmingdale, NY, Atria stopped at Skytyper's hangar and found a mentor in director of maintenance, Randy Kreutzer. He volunteered to help out around the shop after classes which resulted in a part-time position as a mechanic's helper. When he finished school he joined the team in a full-time capacity. He worked alongside Kreutzer for the next couple years, learning from a lifetime of experience. After Randy passed away in 2012, flight leader Larry Arken became his mentor.
Atria worked his way from mechanic's helper, to A&P technician, lead mechanic, chief of line operations, and was offered the director of maintenance position in November 2015. As director of maintenance for the GEICO Skytypers airshow team his responsibilities include all aspects of maintaining and budgeting for the aircraft. Working with a staff of mechanics and pilots who operate the six North American SNJ aircraft circa 1940. Although still hands-on with the day-to-day maintenance, responsibilities also include the scheduling of personnel, inspections, routine maintenance, and modifications. Many upgrades have been made to bring the fleet of WWII trainers into the 21st century. Through a recent partnership with Planelogix he has been able to bring his maintenance tracking into the future with its cloud-based maintenance tracking platform. Atria was nominated by Brenda Little, public affairs officer, GEICO Skytypers, who says: Frank is an avid learner and continues his education through formal classes and certification programs, but always appreciates the opportunity to hone his skills through hands-on learning from others. At this point in his career, Frank tends to spend more time sharing his knowledge with others, returning the favor he’s received from so many. Aside from his skills as a mechanic, Frank always maintains a positive attitude. Recently, I witnessed Frank leading his team, with help from a few others, complete an incredibly difficult repair requiring around-the-clock work to avoid issues with the airshow schedule. While maintenance and repairs are critical, it’s a completely different dynamic to facilitate a major repair from a remote facility while traveling to and from airshows. Unexpected major maintenance issues can be overwhelming under most circumstances, however, doing this from a traveling shop, while maintaining five other aircraft to perform daily for an air show … that’s a different story. Long hours, perseverance and tenacity resulted in repairing the damaged plane in time to perform in the show’s final performance of the weekend.He was also nominated by Larry Arken, squadron commander, GEICO Skytypers. Arken says: Atria is smart! He has instituted policies and procedures that make the maintainers more efficient and enhance the quality of their work. These policies have improved communication between aircrew and the maintainers - which ultimately leads to safer flight operations. He is a leader! Originally the student, Frank is now the teacher - he has trained several line mechanics for our team. He is tireless! He and his team will - and have - worked long hours on an aircraft that has a maintenance issue to make sure it flies the next day when we arrive to brief and fly an airshow.Along with his A&P he also holds an Inspector's Authorization. His goal for his first year as director of maintenance is to obtain the Diamond Certificate of Excellence award for the shop. He has also been featured in World Airshow News (July/August 2014) in its series "Airshow Grunts." He gives back to the industry by speaking each year to the upcoming class of aircraft maintenance technicians at Wilson Tech. He has also set up an internship program with Wilson Tech. "Being part of an airshow team provides me the opportunity to promote the industry across the country hopefully inspiring others to follow their dreams of aviation," he claims.
