News

PAMA Presses for National Aviation Maintenance Technician Day

The Professional Aviation Maintenance Association (PAMA) has set its sights on having President Bush sign a resolution designating May 24 as National Aviation Maintenance Technician Day to recognize the Wright brothers' First Flight Mechanic Charles E. Taylor and all certificated aviation maintenance professionals.

Strides have been made recently in pursuit of their goal. "Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), have resolved to sponsor our resolution to establish May 24 as National Aviation Maintenance Technician Day," said Brian Finnegan, PAMA president. "In a "Dear Colleague" letter to all members of the House and Senate, Reps. Lungren, Oberstar asked their colleagues to join them as original co-sponsors of this resolution."

Finnegan stressed that an outpouring of industry support would be needed to finally recognize Charles E. Taylor. "Please call, write, and/or fax your congressman and senators and request they support National Aviation Maintenance Technician Day as an original co-sponsor," said Finnegan. "If you can follow that call up with an email, you can be all the more effective."

PAMA representatives are stressing that perhaps the fastest way to find out how to contact members of congress is online by visiting the PAMA website at www.pama.org where they have placed instructions.

The timeline for contacting members of congress, according to Finnegan, is crucial. "Please do it right now. With the "Dear Colleague" letter released on January 31, Congressional staff will be anticipating your call. Once the "Dear Colleague" letter does arrive in their offices, constituent support is essential to earn their vote in support of the resolution," said Finnegan.

Sikorsky Offering Avtrak's GlobalNet Maintenance Management Program

Sikorsky owners and operators can now sign up for the company's new Helotrac II, new generation Web-based maintenance tracking program, which is based on Avtrak's GlobalNet maintenance management system.

This agreement combines Avtrak's Web-based maintenance and compliance tracking services with the direct support of Sikorsky's in-house customer support organization. "Through our association with Avtrak, Sikorsky operators will now be able to use a single, real-time, Web-based system to manage their entire fleet," said Sikorsky's maintenance manager, Ray Lemoine.

"With our GlobalNet system, we have taken the complex job of tracking the maintenance on an airplane or helicopter and made the interface to that data as real-time and as easy as possible," added Dennis Steinbeck, vice president, sales and marketing for Avtrak, Inc. "We simplify it like a traffic light. Green lights mean the aircraft is compliant. Red lights mean they are not. Yellow lights tell them that a compliance item is coming due soon."

"You are not only able look at your screen and see what is and is not compliant, but also from a maintenance planning standpoint you can go in and request a `do list' for any period of time you are interested in," he continued. "I can get a list of everything I need to do in the next six-months or 30-days or whenever, so I don't have to take the airplane down again."

For more information, contact Avtrak at 303.745.5588. On the web: www.avtrak.com -- by Dale Smith

Air France and KLM join forces in contract with Chile's LAN

Santiago, Chile-based LAN airlines last month signed a component support contract with Air France Industries (AFI) and KLM Engineering & Maintenance (KLM E&M). It is the first time AFI and KLM E&M act jointly, offering skills from both companies almost as if they were a single entity [they are not, although they both belong to the Air France KLM group]. Henceforth, Miami, Florida-based subsidiary Aero Maintenance Group (AMG) is the European group's bridgehead for expansion in Latin America.

The 10-year contract covers the carrier's fleet of 24 Boeing 767-300ERs, on a per flight-hour basis. It will also cover the 10 further 767s the airline plans to add by 2008. The logistics platform and component pool will be located at AMG's facilities. AFI today has a 40-percent stake in this 80-employee component repair provider and is planning on increasing this figure.

"Depending on the technology used and on the flows of components, they will be repaired either in Miami or in Europe, at AFI or KLM E&M's facilities," Bruno Delile, AFI's senior VP for business and industrial development, explained during a phone interview in mid-January. He added that Miami - a 4-5 hour flight from Santiago - is a major cargo hub for LAN. Separately, Air France now has a direct Paris-Santiago flight. Progressively, repair capabilities will be set up in Santiago for equipment that is difficult to transport. "Evacuation slides, for example, are considered dangerous goods," Delile said.

The contract includes guaranteed delivery times. "For AOG [aircraft-on-ground] parts, these times are given in hours; for less critical parts, it is a matter of days," Delile said. AMG is currently receiving new repair and test equipment for its additional responsibilities. -- By Thierry Dubois

EXTEX and Helitech Join Forces to Increase PMA Parts Distribution in Australasian Region

Larry Shiembob, president and CEO of EXTEX has signed an agreement in December with Helitech to sell and support EXTEX products and increase his company's presence in the growing Australasian market.

"We have very good relationships with a couple of Choice Alliance member companies down there already. But really being so far away, in order to get our message out to the end-users we really need a good quality, local distributor," said Shiembob.

Helitech is a division of Sikorsky Aircraft Australia Limited, and is a market leader in product support, component and spare parts distribution and MRO work for helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft in the Australasian region.

As part of the agreement, Helitech will distribute EXTEX's PMA parts to its established fixed-wing and helicopter customers in Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand and parts of Asia. "They have a good fixed-wing base as well as helicopter customers and they also have a good relationship with Qantas," Shiembob added. "So we're hoping that it will cross all those markets."

Shiembob also said that with the price differences between EXTEX's PMA parts and OEM parts being what they are Helitech's target will be the people who are really using their aircraft and helicopters to make a living. "The guys who are counting their pennies," he said. "What's going to be a bit different for us is this deal is going to include APU parts, as well as the Rolls-Royce 250 series engine and the Pratt & Whitney PT-6 series parts we produce."

"They [Helitech] will be supporting the engine shops, but at the same time they will be marketing to the end user," Shiembob said.

"Teaming with EXTEX is a way to provide better service to our customers," said Bede Rocks, commercial development manager for Helitech. For more information contact EXTEX at: (480) 682-1831. Web: www.extex.com -- By Dale Smith