From the President

As we are all too well aware a LAMEs job is absolutely critical to the safe running of aircraft and the protection of passengers, but it’s still not widely recognised in the greater community. At 3am when you’re under an engine on the tarmac in either freezing or boiling temperatures, changing a fuel valve or knee deep in wiring diagrams – the passengers for the day ahead are still tucked up in bed, with no thought of all the work that’s gone into making their aircraft safe.

Recognising, valuing and promoting the worth of LAMEs is an important part of ALAEA’s work and it’s a task we can all play a role in.

A team of ALAEA members who travelled to Las Vegas last month to compete in the 3rd Annual AMT maintenance skills competition did their bit to promote the important skills of LAMEs.

TEAM ALAEA was the first non-US team to compete in the event, which tests practical and theoretical knowledge on subjects such as damaged flight controls cable identification, turbine engine troubleshooting and avionic troubleshooting.

While our team didn’t register among the prizewinners at the end, they competed strongly and showed the professionalism of Australian LAMEs on an international stage. Here is an excerpt from a letter sent by Ken MacTiernan, Director of AMT Society and MSC Chairman:

“First and foremost I must say THANK YOU! I have to say that I was simply amazed to learn that the members of the ALAEA team have never worked together and that they actually met for the first time when they all landed in LAX … they all behaved like a well-organized, skilled team of AMEs. There was no mistaking the pride and ability of the Australian AMEs! Their goal was to ‘fly the colors’ and they did that extremely well … none are more skilled than Australian AMEs.”

Ken honours our team with his words of praise and I personally thank him on their behalf. This was our first time at the event and I commend all the participants on their professionalism and effort. Now that we’ve tested the water we look forward to competing annually in this competition that recognises our profession.

See the video of the event:

I’ve just returned from Dubai, where I attended a very informative IFA Forum covering Fatigue in Maintenance, Continuing Airworthiness, safety management systems and a very interesting tour of the new state of the art Emirates engineering facility. I will be writing a report about the trip and will share more about my experiences in the next edition of e-Torque. It was good to hear of the many Australian LAMEs working in Dubai and the Middle East, who are showcasing the depth of skill and experience of our Australian industry.

Keep safe,
Paul Cousins, President