District 751 Members Win Skills Competition

The AMT team: from left, Boeing manager Ron Vanhoy; Machinists Andrew Ortbahn, Jon Renaud, Samuel Nelson, Philip Haldeman and Barry Pelton; manager Sean Rosenlieb and event director Tom Hendershot.

A team of District 751 Machinists who work at the Boeing Co. won top honors in its category at the Aircraft Maintenance Professionals (AMT) Society’s annual maintenance skills competition. In addition, two individual Machinists recorded the best times in their individual events at the contest for aircraft maintenance technicians.

The five-member group — Sam Nelson, Andrew Ortbahn, Barry Pelton, Jon Renaud and team captain Phil Haldeman – successfully completed 16 different events that tested licensed airplane maintenance technicians in categories ranging from avionics and electrical repairs to engine servicing to composites repair.

Individually, Renaud had the best time of all competitors in trouble-shooting and repairing an external power receptacle, while Pelton had the best time in an event devised by the Boeing team itself – testing an electrical panel to find the badly bonded connections built into it.

The Boeing team finished first among in the category for employees of aircraft manufacturers and maintenance, repair and overhaul companies. In all, 27 teams from three different countries competed in this year’s contest, which was held in Las Vegas, NV.

All five were peer-selected from the licensed AMTs on Boeing’s flight lines last summer, and they met on their own time for a couple hours each week to practice in the months leading up to the event.

“We’re very proud of our members on the AMT skills team,” said District 751 President Tom Wroblewski. “I often talk about the high skill level of our Machinists Union members and when I do, these expert mechanics are exactly the kind of workers I’m talking about. Boeing is lucky to have them as employees, and we’re proud to be their fellow Machinists.”

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