page 45 - American Bonanza Society

www.bonanza.org
ABS/ASF held its first of three
Maintenance Academies in 2013 at
the Beechcraft Heritage Museum
March 8-10 in Tullahoma, Tennessee.
Nineteen A&Ps from around the
country participated. Bob Ripley, Chief
Instructor and ABS Technical Advisor,
and Curtis Boulware, ABS Technical
Advisor, taught the weekend event.
Students learned about maintaining
our aircraft through classroom lectures
and discussions, as well as handson
learning with an A36 Bonanza
provided by the museum.
We know the need is great, as a
common inquiry to ABS addresses this
very issue: “It’s so hard to find good
mechanics to work on my plane… can
you recommend anyone in my region
of the country?”
This addresses one of ABS’s biggest
goals – to educate mechanics and
preserve our aging aircraft. Our fleet
ABS Operations By J. Whitney Hickman
ABS Holds Maintenance Academy
at Beech Heritage Museum
is getting older by the day and we have
many planes in the registry over 50 or
even 60 years old. Because Beechcraft
is making a very small number of new
planes a year it’s imperative that we
take great care in the maintenance and
handling of the ones in operation.
Another major objective is to find
mechanics who work on Beechcraft