Aims advances toward launch of aircraft maintenance program
Aims Community College announced this week it reached two major milestones for its new Aircraft Maintenance Technician (AMT) program ahead of the program’s launch in January.
The school received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification as an official Part 147 aviation maintenance school, and it established a new hiring pathway agreement with Frontier Airlines, which includes a $25,000 signing bonus for eligible graduates, according to a news release.
The school is developing a new, nearly 60,000-square-foot Aircraft Maintenance Training Center at the Northern Colorado Regional Airport in Loveland.
“These two signings, with the FAA and with Frontier, are transformational for our program,” said Michael Sasso, chief of aircraft maintenance at Aims, said in the release. “FAA certification formally recognizes us as a Part 147 school and the Frontier partnership gives students a direct line into high-demand, high-wage jobs.”
* Longtime Fort Collins resident Sheila M. Young, who earned her pilot’s wings in Loveland and Fort Collins, has authored an illustrated picture book, “I See An Airplane Up In the Sky,” for ages 3 to 103. Loveland, Fort Collins and the Front Range appear on the book’s cover, while KFNL airport and Horsetooth Rock are woven into the book’s colorful illustrations about a girl who dreams of flying and decides she wants to become a pilot of more than just airplanes, according to a news release. The book was written to “sow seeds of aviation aspirations amongst young and old” and “to get more chicks in the sky,” the release said.
* Phill Barklow, president of Experience Senior Living, Berthoud, has elected to the Alzheimer’s Association of Colorado board of directors for a two-year term.
* Daniel Flanscha of Loveland is releasing a series of nine podcasts on the Retirement Style Awareness Tool (RISA). RISA is designed to help retirees understand how they can design a retirement plan, and Flanscha said anyone thinking about retirement could benefit from the podcast series. The first three podcast in this series have been released and are: an introduction to RISA; specific retirement goals; and the value of GAMMA an adviser can provide. Listen on Spotify. longspeakfinancial.com.
* Fort Collins landscape company, Alpine Gardens, recently won a national and Colorado award for a landscape project in Estes Park. It earned gold-level honors from both the National Association of Landscape Professionals Awards of Excellence and the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado ELITE Awards for its work on the immersive mountainside landscape.
* Woodward of Fort Collins won a federal contract award for $500,678 from the Department of Defense Defense Logistics Agency, Columbus, Ohio, for circuit card assembly.
* Airway Therapeutics Inc. of Marietta, Georgia, has been assigned a patent (No. US 12491234 B2, initially filed March 27, 2019) developed by six inventors, including Mark Cornell Manning of Johnstown and Derrick S. Katayama of Timnath, for “Methods and compositions comprising surfactant protein D (SP-D).”
* Covidien LP of Mansfield, Massachusetts, has been assigned a patent (No. US 12491023 B2, initially filed Oct. 2, 2020) developed by Kenneth E. Netzel of Loveland for “Fine dissection end effector assembly.”
* SHIHE Inc. of Loveland has been assigned a patent (No. US 12491406 B1, initially filed June 23, 2025) developed by Bo Zhou, Zhejiang, China, for “Shoulder swing and chest press combination exercise machine.”
* Vectis Automation LLC of Loveland has been assigned four design patents (No. US D1105189 S1, initially filed Aug. 19, 2023; No. US D1105190 S1, initially filed Sept. 8, 2023; No. US D1105192 S1, initially filed April 27, 2024; and No. US D1105193 S1, initially filed April 27, 2024) developed by four inventors: Andrew Akey of Windsor and Joshua Pawley, Douglas Rhoda and Aaron Bailey, all of Fort Collins, for “Collaborative robot welding system.”
* Loveland Boss Babes: 10:30-11:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 5, at Top of the Lake Coffee Co., 815 14th St. SW, Unit B100, Loveland. NOCO Coffee Babes will sip, chat and indulge in all things local. Held the first Monday of each month. Learn more linktree.com/nocobo.
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