As the Director for the Aircraft Maintenance Technicians Association I am dedicated in promoting the proud craft & profession of today's skilled AMTs. In doing so I have been able to lend my energy to other endeavors to achieve the goal of raising the public's awareness of who Charles E. Taylor was and the men and women that have followed in his footsteps.

One of these endeavors is my position as a Director for an organization called the AMT Society, WWW.AMTSOCIETY.ORG. Being a Director for the AMT Society I have been given the opportunity to help create the AMT Society's "Maintenance Skills Competition". On March 18 - 20th, 2008 at the Dallas Convention Center during the Aviation Industry Expo we held our First Annual MSC.

The Maintenance Skills Competition was created to provide a platform and format whereby today's professional AMTs can compete head-to-head against each other in events that highlight just some of the many responsibilities that each and every AMT carries. The MSC is open to any licensed A&P Mechanic, any student enrolled in an FAA Part 147 school and any member of the United States Armed Forces involved in the aircraft maintenance field.

The Maintenance Skills Competition was not created to promote one group of AMTs over another. Just the opposite! The MSC allows the public to see first hand exactly what today's and tomorrow's AMTs do in order to provide safe, airworthy aircraft. There was a Team and Individual events. The Team portion of the competition consisted of 11 different events with each being given 20 minutes to complete. Penalties were assessed in the form of time infractions. The total amount of time used to complete each event plus any time penalties were added together and the team with the lowest combined time from all 11 events was awarded 1st, 2nd & 3rd place awards. The Individual portion consisted of three of the 11 Team events with the same scoring criteria.

There were 9 teams that competed and they all were the epitome of what today's professional AMT is. As the Co-Chairman for the 2008 MSC I am proud of the way both professional and student AMTs performed and portrayed our proud craft & profession.

The teams that competed were:

American Airlines

American Eagle

Continental Airlines

AMT Society's Tulsa Chapter - Team Tulsa

Redstone College

Aviation Institute of Maintenance with teams representing their Dallas campus, Atlanta campus, as well as teams from their Southwest and Northwest regions.

The pictures above were taken at the MSC. Continental Airlines was awarded 1st place, Aviation Institute of Maintenance NW was awarded 2nd place and American Airlines was awarded 3rd place. A timing criteria was used to determine who was awarded 1st, 2nd & 3rd place awards and prizes. There were no losers in this competition because all the participants are professional displaying the knowledge, skill & integrity that are the basis of being aviation's true "Faces Behind Safety".

The events were created and judged by the following leaders in the aircraft maintenance community.

1: Safety Wiring Event- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

2: Hard Ware Identification Event- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

3: Avionic Troubleshooting Event- CAE SimuFlite

4: Electrical Troubleshooting Event- Duncan Aviation

5: Avionic Troubleshooting Event- Spirit Avionics

6: Charles E. Taylor Written Test- AMTA

7: Windshield Drilling Event- Perkins Aircraft Windows

8: G IV Main Wheel/Brake Event- Alberth Aviation

9: APU Event- Dallas Airmotive

10: Piston Engine Event- Superior Air parts

11: Composite Panel Inspection Event- Tarrant County College