NCATT Proposes Center for AMT Training Development

A national consortium of partner educational institutions, the U. S. government, aviation businesses, and industry organizations has formed to address the needs of aircraft technician training and educational programs in kindergarten through grade 12 and post-secondary programs. This consortium has proposed the establishment of the National Center for Aircraft Technician Training (NCATT).

NCATT is a proposed aviation maintenance training center for excellence. "NCATT fills a void in the industry," said Floyd Curtis, principal investigator, NCATT and currently division chair of the aeronautical and industrial program at Tarrant County College in Ft. Worth, Texas. "The FAA has good intentions but is slow to evolve and change with the changing needs of the industry. We want to be on the leading edge." The purpose of NCATT would be to establish and adopt standards, curriculum, and certification programs for aircraft technicians in areas not addressed through Federal Aviation Administration certification and regulation, according to an internal NCATT description document.

The NCATT proposal developed from a recently completed National Science Foundation-funded project. That project included a national conference attended by aviation industry leaders, educational institutions, and government agencies. During this conference an industry-endorsed set of standards for aircraft electronics technicians was developed. Goals and objectives were set for five areas: standards and curriculum, accreditation and certification, faculty development, K-12 outreach, and computer-based training/database development/web dissemination.

That conference was the brainchild of Gordon Huff at the Minneapolis Technical Community College. Huff recognized a need in the industry for a set of standards for avionics technicians. "Some schools provide outstanding training for avionics technicians," Curtis said, "but there are no standards for certification. An A & P certificate is not even required--no certificate at all is in place for avionics techs. The FCC license is the `accepted' certificate but is not specific to aviation." An initial grant from the National Science Foundation provided funding for this exploratory period. During the conference, committees were formed and met and ultimately worked to develop the first set of standards for avionics technicians.

Those standards are the basis for the NCATT's initial-phase goal, which is stated as: "Create a national-level aviation technician education program including modules for specialties with an initial focus on aircraft electronics." As part of that goal, NCATT will work to develop an industry-endorsed aircraft electronics technician curriculum to be incorporated into certificates and associate degrees. "This is the first time that I know of the industry self-regulating," Curtis said. "It's a tremendous opportunity."

Another goal for NCATT is to create a national certification program for aircraft electronics technicians. "The NCATT certificate would not be a license to operate or perform maintenance, but an achievement standard--a certificate of recognition and completion of the approved curriculum," said Curtis. "We hope that these standards will be the key to professional competence for avionics techs. If I have a standard to hire by and someone has met that standard, I know that they have reached a certain level of competence that is recognized and valued in the industry," Curtis added.

The Center also hopes not only to keep in touch with cutting-edge changes in technology but to preserve "old" technology subjects not currently being taught or that may be phased out eventually in FAA-approved schools such as woodworking and dope and fabric. Additionally, they will attempt to provide standards for evolving technologies such as new composites and anti-terrorist technologies and specialized technologies such as non-destructive testing. All of this will be augmented by professional faculty development through the use of workshops and hands-on courses. The center plans to develop and deliver professional faculty development programs including production of supporting materials for distribution through web- and computer-based methods.

The group is in the application process for another NSF grant, with the final draft to be submitted in October. The notification for approval for this grant will be given sometime in the first quarter of 2005. They hope to receive a four-year grant for up to $5 million. "We plan to stand on our own eventually," Curtis said. The center plans to make many of these programs available for a fee. This will be part of the fee-based business plan the center will follow in an effort to become a self-sustaining entity once the NSF funds are depleted.

"The system we have now is not working," Curtis said. "We need a different approach to training avionics technicians. It's an extremely specialized area and we truly need experts, especially as equipment becomes more computerized and more integrated systems are installed in aircraft. We hope to be able to respond to this need." -- By Joy Finnegan

Rivetless Nut Plate Saves Hours of Labor

When avionics installers at Duncan Aviation were faced with yet another antenna replacement, they decided that it was time to figure out a better way of mounting the new antenna. Their options were limited and usually consisted of patching the old antenna location and installing the antenna on a fresh patch of fuselage skin or trying to rework the existing location to fit the new antenna.

Both techniques, although tried and true, have drawbacks. The existing antenna location usually has to be reworked to fit the new antenna, because hole distances are different and it may be very difficult to reach the back side of that area of the fuselage skin. Mounting the new antenna in a new location is usually not difficult, but could involve adding a doubler to strengthen the skin, plus the old antenna area needs to be patched.

Instead of opting for the best of two less-than-stellar choices, the Duncan technicians decided to try Textron Fastening Systems's new Cherry Rivetless Nut Plate. The Nut Plate is installed through a single drilled hole and doesn't need additional 3/32-inch flush-mounted rivets to secure it. The Nut Plate is installed by expanding its mandrel with a hand tool from the outside of the fuselage skin.

The Duncan technicians tested some Rivetless Nut Plates to see how they stood up to excessive torque to make sure they would be strong enough for the antenna installation. The excess torque, well above that needed to secure the antenna, stretched the Nut Plate into an hourglass shape, according to Jeff Truckey, avionics installation structures team leader at Duncan Aviation, "but didn't turn in the hole."

The new antenna's coax cable fit through the old cable hole, so no additional modification of the area was needed except for plugging existing screw holes and drilling new mounting holes for the Rivetless Nut Plates. "The entire project took only a few hours," Truckey said.

"Low-cost" DIRECTV for Business Aviation

Fifteen years ago teenagers were chanting, "I want my MTV!" Today, business travelers are saying, "I want my DIRECTV!" The only problem is, with a price tag of up to $350,000 per installation, only the true heavy iron operators can afford such a system. Now, a company called Flight Display Systems aims to change that.

FDS (www.flightdisplay.com), along with its strategic partner companies The Maintenance Group and DAC International have introduced the Ellipse Direct. By pricing the system at $99,650, the team has opened the door for satellite TV delivery to smaller aircraft.

"No longer does the size of the aircraft make a difference," explained FDS president David Gray. "With Ellipse Direct we can offer DIRECTV on virtually any business-class aircraft, from Gulfstreams to Citations and even single-engine turboprops such as the Pilatus and Caravan."

At the heart of this new capability is a new satellite antenna design that looks like a tiny AWACS dome. That antenna and its combination of faster, easier installation and improved signal delivery are what lowers the cost for Ellipse Direct.

While the new antenna may look like something off the Starship Enterprise, Gray said it's a combination of well-proven phased-array and state-of-the-art digital technologies. "The antenna itself is manufactured for us by KVH," he said. "We know this antenna will stand up to anything that a business aircraft operator will throw at it."

As proof that the concept is truly safe and sound, Gray said that during the design and development of the antenna and its unique mounting system, the engineering department at Georgia Tech did an evaluation of the airflow using computational fluid dynamics. "Their models showed that there is almost zero aerodynamic affect from the antenna," Gray said.

He also pointed out that the model showed that even if a bird strike took out one of the antenna's four supporting pylons, the antenna would remain firmly attached to the airframe.

Another primary goal of the new system was to provide dramatically improved picture performance. "The antenna uses a mechanically steered system that can change heading at a rate of 40 degrees per second," Gray said. "And it can acquire and track the satellite without need for input from the aircraft's navigation systems." That's another feature that simplifies the installation process.

According to FDS, the drawbacks of current competitive products are they require either a tail-mount antenna installation or a series of fuselage-mounted antennas. "The tail-mounted antenna installations are extremely labor intensive and that adds a lot to the cost," he said. "Along with that, they have long cable runs that diminish the signal strength or require additional signal amplifiers.

"Besides," he continued, "only a small segment of the business aircraft fleet have tails large enough to mount the antenna. And then there's the added problem of making the tail too high to fit into many hangars."

By mounting its antenna on the top of the fuselage, just ahead of the empennage, the FDS system not only eliminates these problems, but the antenna can be installed in a fraction of the time. "Installation of a competitive system can run up to 600 man hours," explained Dan Furlong, president, The Maintenance Group. "We've designed the Ellipse Direct antenna to be installed in around 100 hours."

Furlong said that the Ellipse Direct comes with a kit that takes all the guesswork and fabrication out of the installation. "The kit has been created so that any shop that is familiar with doing quality sheetmetal work will be able to do it," he said. "It's not a really heavily structural installation, but we will send one of our guys out to offer guidance and make sure the STC is properly complied with."

Furlong said that virtually everything the technician will need is included in the kit and that the designers put a lot of effort into ensuring that the Ellipse Direct antenna would be as easy to maintain as it is to install. "We're maintenance guys first, so ease of maintenance is critical to us," he added. "If there's ever a problem with the antenna, a technician can remove it from the aircraft in 20 minutes. Just undo the bolts and disconnect the coax and 28-volt power cables and you're done."

And because the system's antenna is basically a plug-and-play single component device, maintenance is as simple as opening the case, removing the offending antenna, and replacing it with a new one. "Our goal is to require no specialized maintenance or inspection criteria for the system," Furlong said. "We want it to be just another part of the routine airframe inspection schedule."

Gray said that the company's goal is to have the STC for the Challenger in hand by early October, followed soon after by the STC for the Gulfstream GII through GIVSP in November. Other STCs will be obtained at a rate of about two a month after that. -- By Dale Smith