AIR TRAINING COMES TO A.V. : COLLEGE CENTER PREPS WORKERS FOR AEROSPACE INDUSTRY.Byline: Jim Skeen Do you mean:
When he was a vice president of Avtel, a Mojave aircraft maintenance and modification company, Gordon Fast was having trouble finding qualified employees to hire. Now, as the new director of Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley College's Aerospace Training Center, it's Fast's job to help provide qualified workers for companies like Avtel to hire. ``I'd really like to make this a mecca for training in the aerospace industry,'' Fast said. Fast, who assumed his new post July 12, brings 34 years of aviation experience - both military and commercial - to the center. A Riverside native, Fast joined the Navy in 1965 after graduating from Stanford University Stanford University, at Stanford, Calif.; coeducational; chartered 1885, opened 1891 as Leland Stanford Junior Univ. (still the legal name). The original campus was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. David Starr Jordan was its first president. , spending 10 years as an active-duty naval officer NAVAL OFFICER. The name of an officer of the United States, whose duties are prescribed by various acts of congress. 2. Naval officers are appointed for the term of four years, but are removable from office at pleasure. Act of May 15, 1820, Sec. 1, 3 Story, L. , and an additional 12 as a reservist re·serv·ist n. A member of a military reserve. reservist Noun a member of a nation's military reserve Noun 1. , flying F-4 Phantoms and F-14 Tomcats The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, variable geometry wing aircraft. The F-14 was the United States Navy's primary maritime air superiority fighter, fleet defense interceptor and tactical reconnaissance platform from 1974 to 2006. . After leaving the Navy, Fast went to work for Tracor Flight Systems Inc., first in Orange County and then later in Mojave. Since 1986, with the exception of a brief stint for a company in Florida, Fast has worked in Mojave, including working with Aerotest and finally Avtel. While working at Avtel, Fast started talks with the college about the possibility of setting up training programs. It was through that contact he discovered the director's post for the center was open. ``It seemed like it was a challenge,'' Fast said. ``It deals with a problem I have been working on for years.'' The Aerospace Training Center is the result of a partnership of Antelope Valley College Antelope Valley College is a comprehensive community college located in Lancaster, California, USA. It is operated by the Antelope Valley Community College District, with a primary service area of 1,945 square miles covering portions of Los Angeles and Kern counties. and the Antelope Valley Aerospace Alliance, which includes Lockheed Martin For the former company, see . Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is a leading multinational aerospace manufacturer and advanced technology company formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. , Boeing, Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is an aerospace and defense conglomerate that is the result of the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company is the third largest defense contractor for the U.S. and Marconi Flight Systems. The goal of the center is to provide skills to help the unemployed get jobs and also to allow those already employed by aerospace companies to upgrade their skills so they can stay employed. The center was set up to help address one of the aerospace industry's biggest problems: replacing the talent that left the industry in the 1990s as a result of defense cutbacks. ``It's like there's a missing generation,'' Fast said. ``The people who have the skills have left the industry. They have started businesses, or they have gone into computers or other industries.'' The training center started operations last fall, holding classes in Palmdale at the fitness center of Boeing's Site 9, the plant where the B-1B bombers were built. The training center had to move, however, when Boeing decided to put Site 9 up for sale. The center now operates out of portable buildings installed at the southwest end of the college campus. One of Fast's goals is to find a better home, one with hangar space, for the center. He hopes the college might be able to work out an arrangement with whichever company acquires Site 9 to allow the center to use hangar space there. ``I want hangar space, enough to bring in an old 727 or 737,'' Fast said. ``Then I can start training people with equipment similar to what they will actually be working on in the real world.'' For now, the center's courses include blueprint blueprint, white-on-blue photographic print, commonly of a working drawing used during building or manufacturing. The plan is first drawn to scale on a special paper or tracing cloth through which light can penetrate. reading, basic computer skills, and instruction in soldering soldering Process that uses metal alloys with low melting points to join metallic surfaces without melting them. Tin-lead solders, once widely used in the electrical and plumbing industries, are now replaced by lead-free alloys. electronic components. More immediate plans for the center call for adding a course in basic aerospace structures, focusing on sheet metal work. Fast would like to see the center offer courses dealing with business issues, such as the various quality assurance processes companies have to go through, and courses in leadership and supervisory skills. ``We want a well-rounded individual who has the technical skills and who knows how he fits in the system,'' Fast said. CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO Gordon Fast, new director of the Aerospace Training Center at Antelope Valley College, will train students for aerospace jobs. Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News |
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