By OLIVIA BERGMEIER
Salina Post
Under the fluorescent lights of Salina Airport Authority Hangar 600, the first nine Aviation Innovation and Maintenance, or AIM Center of Excellence students graduated from their inaugural class.
"Tonight, we're recognizing a new milestone," said Salina Airport Authority Executive Director Tim Rogers. "This achievement will lead them to new accomplishments."
Toward the end of the graduation ceremony, Rogers said he had the idea for a maintenance training program about a year ago. He aimed to create a program that would benefit the local aviation businesses by providing a training course for aviation maintenance.
Through careful planning with the AIM Center Steering Committee, this class is the first of six to graduate for the year.
Rogers, the Kansas Assistant Secretary of Commerce Mike Beene, and Kansas Department of Transportation Director of Aviation Ray Seif handed the certificates to graduates during the ceremony.
According to Rogers, Beene and Seif contributed to the lift-off of the AIM Center in town by assisting the program's creation.
The AIM Steering Committee applied for a grant allowing the first group of students to attend the course for free.
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Through the six-week program, AIM Center instructors taught various aspects of aviation maintenance, such as sheet metal work, painting, compositing various materials, electronics, and avionics.
One student, a Salina resident, Dinah Roth, joined the course because of her interest in aviation. Still, she had yet to decide if she wanted to follow the traditional pilot path or dive into the maintenance side of aviation.
"I was learning that you really become a mechanic and have a pilot license as a hobby, or you become a pilot and do the other as a hobby, so it was really pick one or the other," Roth said.
With the new certificate of course completion, Roth said she plans to begin conversations with local aviation centers like One Vision Aviation and Schilling Aviation Services.
"Five of the guys were in the class [from One Vision Aviation], and they made an excellent impression," Roth said. "If I could go hang out with these guys or work at One Vision that'd be cool with the big hangars, big planes, big jets."
Another AIM Center graduate, Benjamin Swanson, heard about the program while working at One Vision alongside his mother, Michelle Swanson, director of administration and finance for the Salina Airport Authority, encouraging him to try the course.
Swanson has worked as an aviation maintenance technician (AMT) for the past four years. Still, with various written and practical exams on the horizon, the small class provided critical skills for the next advancements.
"The hands-on experience will make it easier for the practical tests that we'll do with the examiner," Swanson said. "it was a small group of people, but the environment was good because there were a lot of guys from One Vision that I already know, so that made it better."
The AIM Center for Excellence will continue classes this spring with one more six-week course beginning on March 25. The summer will have two more classes, and AIM will finish its inaugural year of programs with two courses in the fall.
Rogers said the class size will remain under 25 students to keep the critical hands-on aspect of the course.