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2010 NATIONAL AVIONICS TECHNICIAN OF THE
YEAR
Kirk H Peterson
has been selected by the General Aviation Awards program as the 2010 National Avionics Technician of the Year. He currently holds a Federal Communications Commission license with Radar endorsement, an Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) Technician Certificate with inspection authorization (IA), a Repairman Certificate, and has over 25 years of avionics maintenance and repair experience.
For the past 20 years, Kirk has been employed by the University of North Dakota's John D Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences ( http://www.Aero.UND.edu/). He is the avionics manager of an FAA Part 145 repair station that maintains over 100 aircraft ranging from Supercubs to turbine helicopters and turbine aircraft that are used by UND's flight training department. Kirk is responsible for maintaining UND's state-of-the-art avionics lab. The avionics shop has grown from one person in 1990 to its current staff of three full-time avionics technicians and three part-time repairmen.
As a United States Marine in the early 1980s, Kirk began his career as an avionics technician working on A-4 Skyhawks and McDonnell Douglas attack aircraft. He received training in basic electricity, electronics, aviation electrician course, and instruments. After an honorable discharge, he attended Alexandria Technical College in Minnesota where he received his FCC license. Subsequently, he worked for Republic Airlines and Avionics Incorporated. While working full-time, he attended evening classes at the Minneapolis Technical Institute to where he received training in airframe and powerplant technology. In 1992, Kirk obtained his A&P certification.
Each semester, students flock to the avionics lab with hundreds of operational and technical questions. While Kirk is always busy, he is never too busy to take the time to explain operational procedures or equipment operation to students and instructors.
During the past several years, Kirk and his staff have installed over 100 automatic dependent surveillance (ADS-B) systems into UND's fleet of fixed wing and rotorcraft aircraft, giving UND one of the largest ADS-B equipped fleets in the world. Most recently, Kirk has spent the better part of 8 months performing 37 major structural and electrical modifications to a Cessna Citation II that will be used for weather research and special mission operations by UND's Atmospheric Sciences Department.
Kirk mentors UND student interns each semester and assists academic professors with demonstrations of and training in avionics systems. He works closely with the FAA at the Fargo FSDO and the FAA Aircraft Certification Office in Chicago to gain approval and documentation of installations and modifications to the UND aircraft.
He is a member of the Professional Aviation Maintenance Association (PAMA) and the Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA). He remains committed to ongoing continual professional training to remain at the top of his field by taking courses from the FAA, his professional organizations and the aviation industry.
Peterson (Peterson@Aero.UND.edu ) represented the Fargo FSDO area and the FAA's Great Lakes Region. This year's other regional avionics technician winners were Clayton Thomas CAESSENS of Pensacola, FL (Southern Region) and Patrick Donald WARE of Apple Valley, CA (Western Pacific Region). (Attached photo: 2010 Nat'l Avionics Technician of the Year Kirk Peterson of Larimore, ND)
Kirk H Peterson
has been selected by the General Aviation Awards program as the 2010 National Avionics Technician of the Year. He currently holds a Federal Communications Commission license with Radar endorsement, an Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) Technician Certificate with inspection authorization (IA), a Repairman Certificate, and has over 25 years of avionics maintenance and repair experience.
For the past 20 years, Kirk has been employed by the University of North Dakota's John D Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences ( http://www.Aero.UND.edu/). He is the avionics manager of an FAA Part 145 repair station that maintains over 100 aircraft ranging from Supercubs to turbine helicopters and turbine aircraft that are used by UND's flight training department. Kirk is responsible for maintaining UND's state-of-the-art avionics lab. The avionics shop has grown from one person in 1990 to its current staff of three full-time avionics technicians and three part-time repairmen.
As a United States Marine in the early 1980s, Kirk began his career as an avionics technician working on A-4 Skyhawks and McDonnell Douglas attack aircraft. He received training in basic electricity, electronics, aviation electrician course, and instruments. After an honorable discharge, he attended Alexandria Technical College in Minnesota where he received his FCC license. Subsequently, he worked for Republic Airlines and Avionics Incorporated. While working full-time, he attended evening classes at the Minneapolis Technical Institute to where he received training in airframe and powerplant technology. In 1992, Kirk obtained his A&P certification.
Each semester, students flock to the avionics lab with hundreds of operational and technical questions. While Kirk is always busy, he is never too busy to take the time to explain operational procedures or equipment operation to students and instructors.
During the past several years, Kirk and his staff have installed over 100 automatic dependent surveillance (ADS-B) systems into UND's fleet of fixed wing and rotorcraft aircraft, giving UND one of the largest ADS-B equipped fleets in the world. Most recently, Kirk has spent the better part of 8 months performing 37 major structural and electrical modifications to a Cessna Citation II that will be used for weather research and special mission operations by UND's Atmospheric Sciences Department.
Kirk mentors UND student interns each semester and assists academic professors with demonstrations of and training in avionics systems. He works closely with the FAA at the Fargo FSDO and the FAA Aircraft Certification Office in Chicago to gain approval and documentation of installations and modifications to the UND aircraft.
He is a member of the Professional Aviation Maintenance Association (PAMA) and the Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA). He remains committed to ongoing continual professional training to remain at the top of his field by taking courses from the FAA, his professional organizations and the aviation industry.
Peterson (Peterson@Aero.UND.edu ) represented the Fargo FSDO area and the FAA's Great Lakes Region. This year's other regional avionics technician winners were Clayton Thomas CAESSENS of Pensacola, FL (Southern Region) and Patrick Donald WARE of Apple Valley, CA (Western Pacific Region). (Attached photo: 2010 Nat'l Avionics Technician of the Year Kirk Peterson of Larimore, ND)