AMT Day 2009

I would like to wish everyone a happy AMT Day for 2009! I will be posting photos of the different celebrations from across the industry as I receive them so please visit the AMTA web sight, WWW.AMTAUSA.COM, over the course of the next few weeks or so. Events will range from big to small across the country. There will be some companies/organizations that might not be celebrating AMT Day this year because they simply might not be aware of it. But that is okay because these companies can be informed by the celebrations taking place this year and next year AMT Day will be even bigger!

If your place of work is recognizing AMT Day 2009 please send me photos and information so I may show others the growing respect for our proud, skilled craft & profession. For more than 100 years of aviation one thing has remained constant and that has been the ever increasing standard that the AMT profession holds itself to.

I would like to thank those from across our industry in recognizing just some of the men and women that are the true "Faces Behind Safety" in aircraft maintenance. I also wish to thank all of you for your support in the AMTA which is enabling the AMTA to achieve our goal of placing Charles E. Taylor back into his rightful place in history and the thousands of skilled AMTs that have followed in his footsteps. I wish you all a very happy AMT Day 2009 and a happy Memorial Day weekend! Sincerely, Kenneth MacTiernan Director AMTA

To help celebrate AMT Day 2009 American Airlines held a mini-Maintenance Skills Competition where a team of management AMTs competed against a team of TWU Local 565 AMTs in four events that were also competed in during the AMTSociety's Maintenance Skills Competition held in Las Vegas on March 10- 12th, 2009. This mini-MSC was held to remind people that AMTs have the same responsibilities across the spectrum of our industry. The events competed in were a safety wire event, GIV main wheel removal/installation event, C.E.T. written test event and an electrical/avionic troubleshooting event. each event was given 20 minutes to complete and the total time used from each event plus any discrepancies assessed by the respective event judges were added together to calculate a final overall score for each team. The Union team won.

American Airlines also purchased a bronze bust from artist Virginia Hess to have on display at DFW's Maintenance Hangars. Plans call for having this bust on display at the terminal in the future so the public can see who the first aircraft mechanic was and in turn think about those skilled professionals who maintain A.A.'s fleet of aircraft. To help unveil this bust were Ken Durst, A.A. V.P. Line Maintenance, Blair Gregg, Southwestern Regional Manager and Bob Redding, A.A. Executive V.P. Operations.

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Harrah's Entertainment in Las Vegas, NV celebrated AMT Day 2009 for the AMTs that maintain Harrah's fleet of aircraft by holding a bar-b-que for everyone.

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AAR held their AMT Day celebration on May 20th, 2009 with the leadership team stepping up to the grill cooking hamburgers and dogs for all of the AMTs and support team. The MRO took time to recognize the achievements of the 500 plus AMTs at the facility that have earned FAA training awards which included 5 Diamond Award recipients. The Indianapolis facility also received the Diamond Award for the fifth straight year for 100% participation in the program. In addition to the training awards AAR Indy took the opportunity to recognize the entire team for their hard work and the progress they have made in implementing lean processes and improving the value of the product they provide to their customer. AMT Day at AAR is about recognizing the achievements of our people and celebrating our profession, said Danny Martinez Vice President and General manager of AAR Indianapolis.

Banyan Air Service of Florida again held their AMT Day celebration for their skilled AMTs. Banyan Air Service is a leader in aircraft maintenance thanks to the leadership in Banyan management and their skilled, professional AMT work force.

This year it took three chefs to grill all the hamburgers, hot dogs and barbequed bologna for the over 140 attendees at the 5th Annual AMT Day Picnic hosted by Baker's School of Aeronautics in Nashville, Tennessee.