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PAMA/SAE Institute Calls for Subject Matter Experts: Composites, Rotorcraft, Avionics

Everything is looking up in the world of PAMA/SAE Certifications these days. Our first certification, the AMS/AME, has over 125 Honored Colleagues in its ranks and we have been working very hard to establish a significant customer that will tip the scales for a number of organizations evaluating our program. Look for a major announcement within the next month or so. Please visit us online for information on the PAMA/SAE Institute Aviation Maintenance and Production Certification Program.

In the meantime, we have been consumed with filling out our portfolio of certifications in concert with the Professional Certification plan we laid out some two years ago. We have completed the program design for a three-tier Composite/Bonded Structures Technician program in concert with the members of the SAE Commercial Aircraft Composite Repair Committee (CACRC). Sometime this fall we hope to begin formalizing that program with a Job Task Analysis and Test Blueprints. To execute those projects, we need Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to volunteer their time.

If you are interested in participating as a Composites SME, please send your resume to Laura Blanchard, our Certification Coordinator . We'll be distributing more info on this opportunity shortly.

Also, we just announced last Friday the formation of a joint Military/Industry Master Rotorcraft Technician Stakeholders gathering during the last week of October. At this senior stakeholders meeting we will be determing the depth and breadth of the industry's desire for such credentialing - or if it even exists on a broad scale. Our sense is that it does as the Army wants raise the bar for its civil servants and to provide its rotorcraft technicians with transportable credentials when they separate from the service - something most other separating servicemembers have when they enter the civilian workforce. Industry has indicated a passion for growing their rotorcraft technican workforce and we believe our blueprint for a series of increasingly skilled certifications is the ticket to a long term plan. Even though we are not as far along as we are with Composites, we are starting to solicit Rotorcraft SME's also.

If you are interested in participating as a Rotorcraft SME, please send your resume to Laura Blanchard, our Certification Coordinator. We'll also be distributing more info on this opportunity shortly, too.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Kills Six Armed Criminals Near Baghdad

From Aero-News Network
A Hellfire missile fired from a coalition unmanned aerial vehicle killed six heavily armed criminals in northeastern Baghdad Thursday, military officials reported. Officials said coalition forces from Multinational Division Baghdad operating the UAV fired on a large group of criminals with rocket-propelled-grenade launchers and a mortar tube.

In other operations in Iraq (Thursday):

A Multinational Division Baghdad aerial weapons team saw three men at a potential rocket site in northeastern Baghdad. When the men caught site of the team, they fled the scene in a black sedan. But when a UAV showed the criminals returning to the site and confirmed the presence of rockets, the team returned and destroyed three rockets with a Hellfire missile. The criminals fled the scene. The presence of two additional rockets was confirmed at a different site a short time later. The team also destroyed those rockets with a Hellfire missile.

In a separate event, a UAV showed a rocket launch site and positively identified a vehicle used in the earlier attack in northeastern Baghdad. The UAV hit the sedan with a Hellfire missile.
FMI: Ft. Bragg

US grounds 39 military aircraft for repairs

WASHINGTON (AFP) — About a quarter of the US military's P-3 Orion aircraft fleet have been grounded for inspections and repairs after the discovery of a structural fault, the US Marines said on Friday. The move affects 39 out of a fleet of 161 aircraft, spokesman Lieutenant Clay Doss said. The structural problem could cause cracks in the plane's wings, according to the Pentagon.

"The analysis and corrective measures are going to take between 18 and 24 months per aircraft to complete," Doss said. "The intention is to bring them back to the fleet."

Defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin's Orion maritime patrol aircraft first went into service for the US Navy in 1962 and have been modified over the years, with the latest model built in 1990. The land-based, turboprop aircraft is designed for long-range maritime patrols and anti-submarine operations.

USAF Official Says Structural Woes Will Permanently Ground Oldest F-15s

Dozens Of Eagles' Wings To Be Clipped Forever

A possible structural defect in the F-15C Eagle, which led to a November accident -- and, subsequently, the grounding of much of the F-15 fleet -- will likely mean the end of the line for close to 200 of those fighters, anonymous USAF sources told The Los Angeles Times this week.

As ANN reported, the Air Force grounded 452 of its oldest F-15s on November 28, one week after it returned the planes to service following a fleetwide grounding -- including the newest -E model Strike Eagle aircraft -- stemming from the November 2 inflight breakup of a Missouri Air National Guard F-15C.