WATTS ANTENNA COMPANY
	...the tough site solution

Twenty-Five Students Complete Advanced Factory Training for
End-fire Glide Slope Antenna Systems During 2004

Herndon, VA: 30 October 2004: With the completion of its second one-week advanced factory training class of the year in early October, Watts is pleased to report that twenty-five students have attended the two session during 2004.  Students represented the FAA and its support contractors (administrative, system requirements, engineering, and flight inspection and training academy personnel from Washington headquarters, Oklahoma City, and the Southern region), Aviation Systems Maintenance, Inc. (ASMI – Overland Park, Kansas), the U.S. Navy (Cherry Point, North Carolina), Avinor-Norway, Skyguide - Swiss Air Navigation Services, Ltd., and Titan Corporation (Washington, DC).  Watts initiated its formal factory certification training program in January 2002 with its first class for personnel from THALES ATM, Inc. 

President, John H. Johnson, Sr., who led the comprehensive 5-day courses, commented on meeting both the company’s and the students’ objectives.  “Our main purpose with this program is to assure that those individuals involved with installing, maintaining, and supporting the end-fire glide slope systems gain a high level of proficiency and comfort with the antenna.  Their increased competence allows them to save time and money at the time of installation, flight inspection, and in ongoing operations, and, therefore, benefits Watts Antenna by the enhanced support the product receives in the field.”

 The comprehensive training curriculum provides hands-on experience using the facilities and equipment in the factory, covering engineering-level system familiarization; requirements and specifications; theory of operation; standards and tolerances; periodic/corrective maintenance procedures; special configurations to accommodate complex installation constraints and site issues; site evaluations – modeling and temporary installations; permanent installation, integration and checkout; troubleshooting; system optimization; antenna optimization; and flight inspection.

 Each of the 31 students from these three sessions took a rigorous written examination to reflect their depth of understanding from the training.  Based upon the test results, 12 individuals achieved the highest factory certification as both an “End-fire Trainer” and “For Installation and Optimization and an additional 11 individuals earned the certification for installation and optimization. 

According to Mr. Johnson, “We are very pleased with these training sessions.   Several attendees have already been involved with end-fire installations after completing their training and have indicated how beneficial their training experience was.”

John Johnson instructs students in Advanced End-fire Factory Training Class.

Training Class members perform production test and tune-up of

 End-fire Interface Unit during Advanced Factory Training Program