Warbird A&P Scholarship Program and A&P Bootcamp
The Mission
Warbird owners and operators know that we're slowly losing the corps of mechanics, repair shops and restoration facilities that we've enjoyed in the past decades. NATA Is committed to stemming this decline and launched its Boot Camp program to encourage, help train, and invite the next generation of mechanics into the Warbird community.
We are now in Version 2.0 of the Program. NATA Director David Kahley updated the program in 2022 with the generous financial support of numerous NATA members and advice from knowledgeable maintenance advisors.
Your Rising Star
If your maintenance facility has a rising star you feel would be good candidates for our Boot Camp, please send his or her information to
scholarship@flynata.org. All nominees holding current A&P certificates and working in aviation maintenance will be considered for this scholarship award.
Up Next
The next NATA T-6 Maintenance Boot Camp is tentatively scheduled to be held at the Commemorative Air Force headquarters in Dallas, Texas in the Fall of 2024 and Paul Redlich will again be the instructor.
Boot Camp Stories
In October 2022 “T-6 Fixer” Paul Redlich joined the Program as the NATA T-6 Maintenance Boot Camp Instructor. The Boot Camp was hosted by Horizon Aviation Flight School in Rhode Island, owned and run by NATA member and T-6 owners Zeke Valtz and Vicky Kuo who generously donated their school facilities and organized all the meals and accommodations. There were 15 students in attendance learning T-6 maintenance daily with Paul’s encyclopedic knowledge and 3 T-6’s available for seeing all the systems and differences between models. Subjects covered were an introduction to the T-6, Engine, Engine Systems, Engine Accessories, Engine AD’s, Propellor, Airframe Systems, Airframe AD’s, Airframe Maintenance, Troubleshooting, Servicing and Inspection, Airframe Special tools, and Engine Maintenance, Troubleshooting, Servicing and Inspection, all with Q&A and quizzes.
The October 2023 T-6 Maintenance Boot Camp was held at the facilities of AirCorps Aviation in Bemidji, Minnesota. Paul Redlich was the instructor and there were 12 students and 2 T-6’s in attendance. General Manager Eric Hokuf gave a tour of the AirCorps restoration facilities and also gave the Boot Camp attendees the gift of an Aircorps Library annual membership. Meals and accommodation organization was accomplished by Aircorps Library Manager Ester Aube, who also gave an informative talk about the library and the availability of important maintenance and restoration documents. Paul put the students through the weeklong Boot Camp learning experience -so much learning happened with questions asked and answered, many quizzes, and a lot of note taking.
Support the Program
To help A&P's interested in maintaining warbirds, we announced our Warbird A&P Scholarship program in 2018. In 2018 and again in 2019 we ran week-long “Boot Camps” which provided overall training covering warbird airframes and components, radial engines, required maintenance and inspections, required tools, component vendors, and a variety of topics related to the care and feeding of our warbirds. The Gordon Kibby Scholarship fund made this possible through a generous donation from the estate of NATA Member Gordon Kibby.
When you renew your NATA Membership there is an option available on the online form to donate specifically to this very important program - recruiting, developing, and encouraging our next generations of Warbird maintainers.
Please consider our Warbird A&P Scholarship in your annual giving plan. Your contribution is tax deductible, and you may send a check or visit the Donations page to contribute online.
Donate Now!
Renowned Boot Camp instructor Paul Redlich describes the nuances of the Bosch and Bendix magnetos for the Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp engine, during the A&P Boot Camp held in October 2023 at the AirCorps Aviation repair facility in Bemidji Minnesota.
