Change as Usual

July 1, 2004

May and June have come and gone, so too has a hugely successful week at the AS3/GSE Expo event.

June/July 2004
With record attendance and exhibit space it was great to visit with so many of you.

At the Expo, some themes kept surfacing and have truly come to define our industry, and may continue to in the years to come. Paul MacCready (Aerovironment) spoke about the importance of the environment and applying things we learn from it to aviation, whether it's looking at alternate uses for ordinary, everyday things or alternate fuels and power. Though he's a man perpetually ahead of his time (thinking "out of the box" before that phrase was coined), the industry, in MacCready's estimation has not pushed ahead fast enough.

John Goglia (NTSB) spoke at the opening session, focusing on the shift from what was once "Business as Usual" to what is now more "Change as Usual." We've all changed our business models, we're all doing more with less. Goglia encouraged investing in people and raising the caliber of our staffs by training and assigning accountability.

These messages have echoed in various forms and at various venues this year. All of us are identifying efficiencies and it is paying off. As we head into the second six months of 2004, it will be exciting to see what you, the innovators in the industry, come up with next.

P.S. A very kind thank you to reader Ron Armen of McKinley Air, an FBO in Canton, OH. He happened to be in the neighborhood of Fort Atkinson, WI (no easy task) and stopped in to say hello and let us know he enjoys the magazine. An unexpected but pleasant surprise.