Welcome to the Central Ohio PAMA Chapter!

Meeting Information            Current News and Information

Celebrate National AMT Day, May 24th!

We pause on Thursday, May 24th to remember Charles E. Taylor, the first Aircraft Mechanic and all the Aviation Maintenance Technicians that keep our industry safe! Visit our Charles Taylor page to learn more about him and this national day of acknowledgement! 

While working in a bicycle shop Charles used the shops lathe, drill press and grinder to build an aluminum block engine which only weighed 180 pounds and produced 12 horse power. Created in only six weeks, this engine became the historic first aeroplane flown by the Wright Brothers in 1903.

Charles died in 1956 at the age of 88, sharing the date with Orville Wright.

Please remember it this way: "The Wright Brothers made the glider but Charles E. Taylor made the glider an Aeroplane." And remember to thank your mechanic... You really do count on them more than you sometimes realize!

Look for the full article by PAMA President, Dale Forton, in the next issue of GA News.

Ohio Aviation Association Featured at May Meeting

Our May meeting was held at Lane Aviation and featured a presentation by Alan Harding about the Ohio Aviation Association. Founded in 1965 as the Ohio Airport Manager's Association, the O.A.A. is a non-profit corporation committed to airport development and safety in Ohio. They support Ohio’s aviation community through education, communication, advocacy and partnerships.

We also had a special guest, Author Richard Barrett who has just published the book Aviation in Columbus. Richard  signed copies copies of his book that were available for purchase at the meeting. Click Here For a sneak peek at the book.

The social gathering started at 5:30 with dinner at 6:00 and Alan's presentation immediately after. We want to thank Alan, who is from Central Ohio and has long been an advocate for our aviation community, for his presentation and the organizations efforts promoting aviation in Ohio.

This was the last meeting before our summer break. Our next event will be the Central Ohio Aviation Golf Outing, September 7th and next regular meeting will be October 9th. We're looking for Sponsors and/or Presenters for our October and November meetings. If you're interested, send us an email to mail@copama.org.

Please check back for the start of registration for COAGO 2012! Hope to see you there!

PAMA Climbs higher after 40 years.

PAMA unveiled their new "40 Years and Climbing" logo which celebrates their 4 decades of representing aviation maintenance technicians. COPAMA joins in the celebration as we complete our first decade of operation this fall. Stay strong, AMTs and keep climbing!

April Meeting featured Tim Sokol - FAASTeam

Our April meeting featured Tim Sokol, our FAASTeam Program Manager, first as the chef of some fine barbequed brisket, baked beans, Cole slaw and potato salad. The dinner was topped of with a special cake to commemorate Cliff Kelling receiving the Charles Taylor Award at last months Symposium.

The evening's events started with the social gathering at 5:30 and dinner around 6:00. Gene Sprang started the meeting after dinner and reviewed the Symposium and upcoming events which include the 70th Anniversary Gathering of the Doolittle Raiders and Alan Harding who will be next months speaker on the Ohio Aviation Association.

Tim started his program by giving Cliff the more than 30 letters of recommendation and a "Blue Ribbon" copy of all this FAA historical records. After Cliff received a round of applause from the meeting attendees, Tim continued with his presentation "Aviation Maintenance - Past, Present and Future". He gave examples of the challenges that technology presents in aviation maintenance from the early experiments of the Wright Brothers to the composite structures and electronic controls of today.

We want to thank Tim for his huge personal contribution to the evenings event, both by his presentation and the food. Those who signed up will receive a certificate good for 1 hour for Wings Program or IA renewal credit. Our prize raffle brought the meeting to a close.

Doolittle Raiders return to Urbana for 70th Anniversary.

The week of April 14th to 20th, the skies over Grimes Field and Wright Field thunderd with the sound of B-25 Mitchell Bombers as they returned to acknowledge the 70th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. Many of the surviving raider crewmembers were there to give testament to all who participated in this first retaliatory strike on Japan during World War II.

This gathering of aircraft started with the aircraft arriving in Urbana, Ohio and transferring to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright Field on Tuesday the 17th. Events were held throughout the week at the Champaign Aviation Museum in Urbana. Please click on the links above to learn more about this bookmark in history.

Maintenance Symposium provides training and awards.

The Ohio Aviation Maintenance Symposium ran from March 14th to 15th at the CSCC Aviation Maintenance Technology Facility at Bolton Field. The two day event featured Vendor booths and presentations good for submission to the FAA for IA renewal. FAA representatives from the Columbus and Cincinnati FSDOs were in attendance to participate in this annual event.

The first day opening featured the presentation of the Charles Taylor Award to Cliff Kelling for his 50 years of service in aviation maintenance as both a technician and educator. Tim Sokol, our FAASTeam program manager started the presentation by sighting several facts about Cliff's career that prompted 30 letters of recommendation received by his office. Tim jokingly told the group they could stop sending letters, his mailbox was overflowing. Only three letters of recommendation are required for consideration of the award.

Tim handed the podium over to Mark Harden of the Columbus FSDO who advised that Cliff's wife Marylyn and son Greg were also in attendance for the award presentation. As part of the award, Marylyn received a pin to acknowledge her support over those 50 years of Cliff's aviation career. Mark then shared highlights of Cliff's life that helped win him the award.

Cliff started at a local machine shop manufacturing parts for several aircraft produced by North American Aviation. He then worked at Lane Aviation as a mechanic, then shop foreman and helped prepare the "Spirit of Columbus" Cessna 180 aircraft that set so many records for Geraldine "Jerri" Mock. I asked Cliff for his memoirs of his participation in her flights and he responded with Background Information on the "Spirit of Columbus" and a Photo of 38 Charlie, which you may view by clicking on the link. You'll note that after years of being an educator, Cliff's reply is both entertaining and educational.

Winter quarter of 1976, Cliff joined the Aviation Maintenance Technology staff of Columbus Technical Institute, now known as Columbus State Community College. I was lucky to be one of the first classes of students he taught at C.T.I. and that was the quarter my transcript has for course 2513 - P/P TH & MNT-JET, our first interaction as instructor/student. While there, he helped train an estimated 1620 students, tested over 300 students as a DME and earned a BS and MA in Education from The Ohio State University. He finished his career at NetJets Inc. and now lives in retirement at his home in Hebron, Ohio.

During the afternoon session, members of the FAA presented the Award of Excellence "Gold Award" to Columbus State as part of the AMT Awards Program. (Above Lt) On the podium to present and accept the award were Dick Bickerstaff, CSCC Chairman of Construction Science & Engineering Technologies, Valerie Palazzolo, Manager, Great Lakes Region FAASTeam, Tim Sokol, Program Manager, FAASTeam Manager and Mary Vaughn, CSCC Assistant Dean, Career & Technical Programs. (Above Rt)Valerie and Jeff Gruber of CSCC AMT with FAA Gold Award.

The second day of the Symposium included the presentation by Gene Sprang of a $900.00 check from the COPAMA Scholarship Fund to Dwight Jarboe of MMS Aviation. The check will pay for testing fees of two apprentices finishing the MMS program to become A&P technicians. They are Paul Gettle, who has a background in automotive engineering and worked at Teledyne Continental Motors for 6.5 years, much of that time as a Senior Quality Engineer.

Also graduating is Mark Beckwith from England who comes to MMS Aviation through a partnership MMS has with Mission Aviation Fellowship – United Kingdom (MAF-UK). Mark has been a Design Engineer and worked for British Aerospace, Boeing, and Agusta-Westland. We're happy we could help them as they test for certification and enter careers in Missionary Aviation Maintenance. Please see our January meeting information below for more about MMS Aviation.

Finally, we want to thank all who dropped by the COPAMA booth and participated in the daily raffles, either by providing prizes or buying tickets for the fundraiser! Thanks also to our members that manned our booth and Dale Forton and Tammy Van Prooyen at the PAMA Booth next door.

Please check back as more information is received for posting. Other photos are available to view at the Photo Gallery page!

COPAMA takes part in 2012 District Science Day

District Science Day, Saturday March 17th featured warm spring-like weather as we arrived Columbus State's main campus. This years judges included Gene Sprang, Earl Redmond and Lowell Dowler to review the aviation related projects of the hundreds of student projects there for the district competition.

The three projects chosen for the COPAMA Sponsored Award are....

The Effect of the Design of the Airfoil on the Lift Produced.
Gregory Vojacek
Saint Paul ES
8th Grade

The Effect of Winglets on Gliders
Alex Gray and Jack Carlin
Immaculate Conception ES
7th Grade

Model Rocket Fin Shapes
Edwin Glaubitz
John Sells MS
7th Grade

We want to thank all the students we interviewed for competing in this year's District Science Day and encourage them to continue their interest in science and aviation. Click Here for more information about the event.

Professional Pilots Association donates $1000.00 gift.

PPA President Tom Lusch presents check to COPAMA President Gene Sprang

At the Professional Pilots Association March Meeting, President Tom Lusch presented a check for $1000.00 to Gene Sprang as a donation to the COPAMA Scholarship Fund. This marks a continuation of support by PPA to the scholarship fund by both monetary donations and co-hosting and attendance of the Central Ohio Aviation Golf Outing and Holiday Dinner.

Gene extended the thanks of all of us at COPAMA and the Scholarship Fund recipients to Tom and all of our friends at PPA for this generous contribution.

February Topic was "Next Gen" by Ed Bannen of Honeywell

Our last meeting was held February 14th and featured a discussion of "Next Gen" airspace and equipment by our good friend and supporter, Ed Bannen of Honeywell. He highlighted the hardware changes that will be required for communication between ground controllers and other aircraft. He also brought up that with the number of aircraft that need to be modified and the FAA just finalizing the equipment requirements, the 2020 deadline may slip to a later date for full implementation. Ed's discussion was well worth the risk to those who attended this meeting, held on Valentines Day.

The meeting included a presentation of a FAASTeam Award to Rich Cadys by Tim Sokol, our FAASTeam director. We want to congratulate Rich on receiving the award and look forward to having Tim back to give our April presentation "Aviation Maintenance - Past, Present and Future".

April will be our next regular meeting with the Maintenance Symposium being our March event. We'll send out notices when we get closer to that meeting. Please RSVP to the email notice you receive or send a note to mail@copama.org with the number that will be attending. This helps up assure there will be food enough for all at dinner.

Rick Ochs of Spirit Avionics chosen for Two Awards.

In and email earlier this month from their Airmail Maintenance forum, the NBAA Maintenance Committee announced their selection of Rick Ochs to received the GA Regional Avionics Technician or the Year Award.

On Friday, February 10th, Rick was notified that he has also been selected as the FAA Avionics Technician of the Year. The award includes round trip airfare, four nights in a hotel and a rental car for Oshkosh along with a bunch of prizes donated by the industry. He will be presented the award by the FAA Administrator at the Theater in the Woods during AirVenture on Wednesday night.

We want to congratulate Rick on quite an achievement of receiving both of these award and all the national recognition!

Paul Ryan to receive A.E.A. Lifetime Achievement Award.

Paul Ryan, long time Avionics Entrepreneur and creator of the Ryan Stormscope, has been selected by the Aircraft Electronics Association to receive its "Lifetime Achievement Award" at their 55th Annual International Convention and Trade Show, April 4th.

The Stormscope was one of the first instruments that could be put in small aircraft for lightning detection and the heavy precipitation associated by water columns in the core of a thunderstorm. We want to congratulate Paul on being chosen for the award and thank him for his contributions to aviation safety.

January meeting topic: Missionary Maintenance Services.

The January meeting was held at Lane Aviation and marked our first meeting of the new year. Gene Sprang started the meeting with a review of last month's Holiday Dinner. He then listed our current calendar of upcoming events which included the Ohio Aviation Maintenance Symposium in March.

Next on the agenda was the presentation of testing scholarships to this years recipients chosen from applications received in December. Pictured above are the Testing Award recipients in attendance at the meeting. They are left to right front row: Naamon Person, Brian Kunkle and John Spring. Back row: Shelia Walters, Jim Tipton, Bud D'Amato, Jed Rempel, Preston Cook and Nathan Damaske. We wish them well during testing and entering careers in the aviation industry.

The meeting then featured a presentation by Dwight Jarboe about Missionary Maintenance Services doing business as MMS Aviation at Coshocton Richard Downing Airport (I40) here in Ohio. Their mission to the world and the Lord above is to provide a facility to inspect, repair, overhaul and transform aircraft for missionary service while at the same time training maintenance technicians to maintain and sometimes fly those same aircraft in missionary support around the world.

Missionary aircraft provide transportation of critical supplies, medical patients and other resources to third world countries and underdeveloped areas where roads and ground transportation may be minimal or non-existent. Dwight explained that a 90 minute plane ride might equate to up to 12 hours of transportation across the ground. Hospitals may provide treatment and surgery to patients and safely fly them back home where a ride in a ground vehicle over rough terrain may cause the reopening of incisions.

The staff and students of MMS Aviation are supported by donations from churches and individuals and self-initiated fund raising. These funds provide living accommodations, a means of transportation and tools while they learn by on-the-job experience which is documented to allow them to take the A&P tests necessary for certification under CFR 65.77.

Labor is provided free to mission organizations for the inspections, repairs and modifications of their aircraft that come from around the world. Some are shipped in to MMS in containers where they are restored to near new conditions to return to perform their mission support.

We thanked Dwight for his discussion about MMS Aviation and Gene presented him a $500.00 donation to use in support of their facility and purpose in aviation training. Please visit the MMS website to learn more about their organization by clicking on the link above. You may also visit these links to the MMS Blog and their MMS Channel on YouTube. Please note that a Google user name and password are necessary to visit them on YouTube.

Update: On February 6th, the COPAMA Board voted to provide $900.00 from the Scholarship Fund for testing scholarships for two MMS Aviation apprentices who will complete their program this year. This will pay for computer testing fees since the students receive their oral and practical exams from MMS for free. We're happy that we could help them and wish them well as they pursue their careers in missionary aviation maintenance!

PAMA holds 2012 National Aviation Maintenance Symposium

The 2012 National Symposium was held at the Eastern Michigan University Student Center, Ypsilanti, Michigan on January 19th and 20th. It ran in conjunction  with the 12th Annual Great Lakes Aviation Conference.

Information for Exhibitors, Sponsors and Attendees may be found by clicking on this link.

Holiday Dinner held on Tuesday, December 6th.

The evening was filled with friends, food, fun and prizes at this year's Central Ohio Aviation Holiday Dinner at Villa Milano Restaurant on Schrock Road. The report on the event is now available. Photos have also been posted at the COPAMA Facebook page and while you're there, why not become a member and receive updates on COPAMA events and information!

We want to thank all our Speakers, Sponsors and attendees for helping make the 2011 dinner so enjoyable. Proceeds to the Sam Dodge Memorial Fund was $592.00 and the total 50/50 Raffle collection of $340.00 went to the Lima Company Memorial thanks to Jay Randall of Constant Aviation. Jay donated his winning ticket proceeds back to the Memorial.

Click Here to link to the event page and learn more about the evening's presentation, sponsors and find other information about this annual event co-hosted with the Professional Pilots Association. We hope everyone who attended had a great time!

View last years COPAMA events

Please click on the link above to see what was on the COPAMA calendar for 2011.

Our Monthly Meetings

• Monthly Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of the following months.
      January, February, April, May, October and November.
      Pre-meeting gathering at 5:30, Dinner at 6:00, Presentation after dinner.  
• The Ohio Aviation Maintenance Symposium is our March meeting.
• The Central Ohio Aviation Golf Outing (COAGO) is our September meeting.
• The Holiday Dinner is our December meeting.

Regular Meetings held in Lane Aviation's Media Room.

Lane Aviation's Port Columbus facility at 4387 International Gateway, Columbus, Ohio 43219 is the location of our 6 monthly meetings. We meet in their Media Room on the second floor.

Thank you Lane Aviation and Staff!

We wish to thank Lane Aviation and their staff for the use of their facility and their continued support.

Features of the COPAMA website!!!

This site was generated from a latest generation template providing compatibility with the main web browsers of today and mobile devices. It features "Flash" type animation and the ability to detect those devices that cannot render "Flash" and provide an alternate means to display those same graphics.

Menus help you navigate through the site and the left border of the page provides a direct link to our Next Event, Current News and Last Event information. Back ground music is available with the new site and features 12 different tunes that loop. If you don't care to listen, just mute your sound system for an easy solution. Give us some feedback and let us know what you like or dislike! Page width and font size are controllable by you regardless of which browser or mobile device you use.

If you're a fan of Facebook or Twitter, we've set up groups on both social networks. We're hoping it will provide a local forum for members and give us another tool to communicate with the group. The links to both are at the top right of this page. Jeff Gruber has volunteered to be our first administrator of the two forums and if they become popular, we may need the help of our younger members to help monitor them for us.

Let us know what features you like and if you have any problems viewing the site. Welcome to the new COPAMA Website!

COPAMA's Mission:

COPAMA, is a Non-profit Membership Organization designed to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, concepts and techniques through communication, education, representation and support related to the Aviation industry.

News and Information

Ohio Aviation Maintenance Symposium, March 14 & 15 at CSCC AMT Facility.

The Aviation Maintenance Technology facility of Columbus State Community College will again be the site for this year's Ohio Aviation Maintenance Symposium. Vendors and attendees may find sign up forms and information about the CSCC facility by clicking on the link or logo above.

The Symposium features Vendor display booths and FAA Approved presentations that qualified for renewal of Inspection Authorization certificates. The Columbus and Cincinnati Flight Standards District Offices have staff on site to provide renewal information and presentations throughout the two days of the symposium.

We at COPAMA were happy to co-host the event with CSCC and hope you'll drop by our booth while attending the event. The symposium website also has photos to view from previous year's events and review lasts years results.

Ohio Aviation Association announces 2012 Ohio Airports Conference and Annual Meeting

O.A.A will hold this years Conference and Annual Meeting April 17 & 18 at the Crown Plaza Hotel in North Columbus. Click Here to view the Conference Agenda.

This will be the only airports conference held in Ohio this year and they have extended the conference to two days so they can cover as much as possible. As usual, the conference will provide an excellent opportunity to network with aviation and airport counterparts from around the Great State of Ohio. Representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration and ODOT Office of Aviation will also be present.

Please click on the links above to learn more about O.A.A. and the Conference.

Doolittle Raiders Return to Urbana - Grimes Field April 14 - 21, 2012

This April will mark the Doolittle Raider's 70th Reunion at Grimes Field in Urbana, Ohio. The Champaign Aviation Museum has announced a preliminary schedule of the week's events that runs from April 14-21.

B-25 aircraft from around the world will be a part of this reunion event. Mark your calendars and bring your cameras to photograph you own collection of these disappearing War Birds!

Local A&P sets up Columbus Model Rocketry School.

Pete Bricker, a local Airframe and Powerplant technician, has changed his hobby of model rocketry into a training opportunity for students in Central Ohio. His classes range from beginner rubber-band launched rockets to large Level 1 and Level 2 Certification.

If you or your child have an interest in Model Rocketry as an individual or group event, check out the schools website by clicking on the link above.

Pete works for one of the regional airlines at Port Columbus and is the husband of Donna Bricker who was a long term board member and past treasurer of COPAMA.

This page was last updated on 05/19/12.