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 The aviation-maintenance-technology facility at Winchester Municipal Airport was close to accommodating its first students, but a discrepancy in the application process led to it not meeting Federal Aviation Administration power-plant-program requirements, resulting in another delay.

  Jimmy Wright, president of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology-Shelbyville which is managing the program, said on Jan. 16 that he and FAA officials were reviewing details just before Christmas, and it was discovered that the power-plant program was lacking in equipment necessary to meet FAA requirements for an approved aviation-maintenance-technology school.

Wright said that the discovery caused the initial application to become null and void, and TCAT must repeat the process. He added that garnering final approval could take about a year with the school opening in January 2026.

The most recent turn of events means that the initial schedule for the project has been set back by two total years.

 Plans were initially made to have the vocational program accommodate its first students in January 2024, pending FAA approval.

However, with two instructors passing away and the third one retiring, the facility’s expected opening was delayed until this month — a year later than the initial target date.

Head instructor Scott Scarborough died on Dec. 7, 2023, and adjunct instructor Jon Foote passed away on June 27, 2024. The program’s third teacher, adjunct instructor Bruce Hatch, also recently retired.

Wright had said on July 3, 2024, that despite the staffing losses, TCAT had hired an airframe and power-plant mechanic to head the program and was hiring two certified pilots — one with experience flying for Federal Express and the other with a military background — to handle the teaching duties.

Foote had said the entire process to start teaching classes hinged on FAA approval. He added that aviation programs have extremely high standards because of the safety and redundancy requirements to keep aircraft in the air.

Foote had said the facility’s equipment has to adhere to those strict standards, and if a hurdle were to surface, the FAA would delay approval. He added that the COVID-19 pandemic had thrown supply schedules off-base, making it difficult to stick to the opening schedule.

When Scarborough had passed away, the facility’s opening was delayed until the fall 2024 trimester.

Wright had said that it would take about two trimesters to have all the documents and FAA approval in place to begin accommodating aviation-maintenance-technology students in the fall.

However, he had said that with Scarborough’s absence, some of the paperwork forwarded to the FAA would have to be redrafted to reflect the operational changes without him, and Foote’s passing further delayed opening the facility to students until January 2025.

“It’s devastating for a community like ours to lose two valuable employees,” Wright had said, adding that Scarborough and Foote were integral to the TCAT aviation-maintenance program.

He added that they would be sorely missed.

Wright said that to meet the power-plant-program requirements, the school must secure aircraft engines for students to work on and to learn from. He added that the school is in contact with FedEx Corp. in hopes of getting the air-delivery giant to donate a jet engine, and he said that equipping the power-plant program to meet FAA requirements is expected to cost about $2 million.

Wright said that TCAT is in discussions with the Tennessee Board of Regents about possible financial options to raise money to fund the program.

“We’ve got to get this up and running,” he said. “We’ve got students who have been waiting, and we’ve got to do something about it.”

 Laura Monks, former president of TCAT-Shelbyville and Wright’s predecessor, had said it’s the first time in a decade that TCAT has added such a beneficial new technological program to its curriculum.

She had said TCAT campuses in Memphis, Nashville and Morristown offer avionics-maintenance-technology courses, but there was nothing offered for potential students in Southern Middle Tennessee.

Monks had said the program being offered in Winchester will fill a void and better serve aviation industries in a corridor that expands from Huntsville to the Arnold Engineering Development Complex and to Oak Ridge.

She added that aviation industries are being developed in the immediate surrounding area, creating job opportunities for students who will graduate from the program.

“It’s great to be able to offer something that will greatly benefit students in the area,” Monks had said, adding that, at present, any Franklin Country residents interested in careers in aviation technology have to make the trek to Nashville to study in the field.

Former Winchester Airport Manager Zachary Colescott, who had been involved with the project at the outset, had said local high school students are discovering they don’t have to pursue four-year college degrees to have careers that lead to higher-paying jobs.

He had said the aviation-maintenance-technology program will be a great benefit to the local students who venture into the high-tech field.

Upon completion of the program, students will be eligible to take the FAA Certification Exam to become licensed airframe and power-plant mechanics who diagnose, adjust, repair and overhaul aircraft engines and assemblies, such as hydraulic and pneumatic systems.

The educational field includes helicopter- and aircraft-engine specialists.

Through the program, students will be trained to inspect, repair, service and overhaul airframes and power plants in large and small aircraft.

The aviation-maintenance facility includes a 22,000-square-foot main building at Winchester Municipal Airport, plus a 1,400-square-foot addition to the hanger section to be used as storage space.

A second building to accommodate the power-plant section is in the planning stages.

The project is an extension of Franklin County’s Tennessee College of Applied Technology, located on Dinah Shore Boulevard in Winchester. It is being funded by a $2 million Tennessee Economic and Community Development grant.