“We’re really pleased with the continued growth of the Maintenance Skills Competition (MSC),” Ken MacTiernan, MSC committee chairman and an AMT Society director, told AIN. This year’s competition is again being held in conjunction with the Aviation Industry Expo (March 16 to 18) at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The competition gives teams of licensed AMTs, AMEs and students enrolled in FAA-, EASA-, CASA- or equivalently authorized schools, as well as personnel of any country’s armed forces involved in aircraft maintenance, the opportunity to test their combined abilities against those of their peers. For the first time the competition has gone international with a team coming from Beijing, China representing Lode, a company that manufactures wiring harnesses. The 25 teams that have signed up this year are divided into five different categories and compete against peer organizations. The categories include airline, general aviation, schools, military and MRO. All teams participate in the same events, including a written knowledge exam; safety wiring; flight control rigging; advanced composite materials repair; rigid line, turbine engine, electrical, avionics and hydraulic troubleshooting; and regulatory and maintenance technical publication research. According to MacTiernan, each event is made possible by a sponsor, such as the electrical troubleshooting by Duncan Aviation, avionics troubleshooting by CAE and flight control rigging by Continental Airlines.