HAI/JEN BOYER
curricula. Te grant also supports SUU’s work on behalf of URPP to offer college-credit courses in helicopter flight and maintenance in 18 Utah high schools, with the hopes of sparking interest in aviation careers. Today, the SUU AMT program is supported by four
maintenance instructors, supplemented by two flight school instructors who also have A&P licenses. Department leaders had hoped the student population of the program would be 125 by now, but COVID and resulting housing shortages have kept that number to 70. Britt hopes to see enrollment increase by 40 to 50 students a semester in coming years until the program is fully enrolled at 250 students.
Making a Difference Interviews with some SUU AMT students illustrate how the new program is preparing them for aviation careers.
Hands-On Learning Students in SUU’s
AMT program receive instruction in modern repair techniques, including carbon- fiber repairs.
Josh Snyder enrolled in SUU’s fixed-wing flight-training program in 2019 after graduating from the Academy of Aviation at Rancho High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. To help cover his costs, he landed a hydropress operator job at Metalcraft Technologies, just down the street from campus. A few months into flight training, Snyder decided to move
his studies to the new SUU AMT program. He joined the program in January 2020 and hasn’t looked back. “I love working on cars and my truck, doing things with
my hands, and this program has been amazing,” Snyder says. “I love it, especially how hands-on it is. I talk with my friends in other A&P programs, and they’re spending far more time in lectures and supervised studying while we’re spending time in the lab, actually touching things and working with our hands. It’s also really helped me out with my job at Metalcraft, especially the precision measuring equipment, bend angles, bend radius, things like that.” Snyder’s managers have noticed his commitment and are
closely watching his progress toward his A&P certificate. He is being considered for an entry-level A&P position at SyberJet Aircraft, which, like Metalcraft Technologies, is a subsidiary of MSC Aerospace and has an operation in Cedar City.
Learning Marketable Skills
After five years serving in the US Marines as a powerplant mechanic, Joe Campanile used his veteran’s benefits to enroll in SUU’s helicopter flight-training program in 2018. As he completed the program and received his rotorcraft com- mercial, instrument, flight instructor, and instrument instructor ratings, SUU’s AMT program was launching. Campanile was one of the first students to enroll. “I want to work in an area where I can use
both my pilot and mechanic skills,” he explains. “I really want a routine schedule, and main- tenance is more scheduled. Having both skills, I’ll be more marketable for something stable and predictable like helicopter EMS [emer- gency medical services], which allows me to be in one place and have a family.” Having been in the program from the
beginning, Campanile experienced the department’s growing pains, which were exacerbated by the pandemic. “Te flight program had been around a long time, so it was very structured,” he says. “Going from that to a new program starting out, we just had to be a little more patient.” He adds that he’s enjoyed the small class size that allows him to work closely with instructors and classmates.
Supportive Environment
Bridget Wolf has found the SUU AMT pro- gram to be exactly what she needed. She graduated from high school in 2019 and initially enrolled in the flight-training program to be an airplane pilot. A few hours of flight
32 ROTOR DECEMBER 2021
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76
