SUU AVIATION PHOTO
Training the Modern Helicopter AMT
WATCH
SUU’s Amanda Crager on
What It’s Like to Be an AMT
SUU provides helicopter focus and updated options for electronics, management skills.
By Jen Boyer S
OUTHERN UTAH UNIVERSITY (SUU) HAD a very real problem. One of the nation’s largest university-based helicopter flight-training programs, the Cedar City, Utah–based school strained to attract and retain qualified airframe and powerplant (A&P) mechanics with helicopter
experience. “We struggled to bring in maintenance personnel because of our
rural location,” says Jared Britt, SUU’s director of global aviation main- tenance training. “Most of the time, we’d hire people with no helicopter experience, and they’d build experience on the job. Ten they would leave us in two years. “We realized we needed to
program. With a deep background in helicopter maintenance and maintenance management, Britt saw the opportunity to do more than create the country’s first university-based helicopter AMT training program. He wanted SUU to prepare graduates to meet both the changing needs of aviation maintenance and the demands of aviation leadership roles. After almost three years of planning, curriculum development,
SUU annually graduates at least 10% of all new rotary-wing pilots in the United States.
control the type of education mechanics get so we could be sure they met our needs from Day 1. Tis meant they would also better meet the needs of the industry,” Britt adds. “We basically developed a helicopter maintenance training pro- gram from our own necessity.” Having seen the university’s investment in flight training pay off—
SUU annually graduates at least 10% of all new rotary-wing pilots in the United States—SUU leadership gave its growing aviation department the green light to add aviation maintenance technician (AMT) training. Te university hired Britt in 2016 to research and develop the
28 ROTOR DECEMBER 2021
hiring, and fundraising—all while creating industry partnerships to effect a change in the regulations governing AMT schools—the SUU AMT Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree program launched in January 2020. Te 63-credit degree program runs for an average of 18 months.
In addition to general education courses, the program includes a core AMT curriculum split into three sections: aviation generals, airframe, and powerplant courses. Unlike many other AMT programs, the SUU degree puts consid-
erable emphasis on rotorcraft maintenance. In addition to classroom work, students receive hands-on training on donated airframes and powerplants of both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. Additionally, one of the six required airframe courses is focused solely on helicopters, to give students an in-depth understanding of rotorcraft theory and aerodynamics, structures, main rotor systems, anti-torque rotor systems,
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