On May 24, the birthday of Charles E. Taylor, the Wright Brothers first mechanic who sometimes is referred to as the “Father of Aircraft Maintenance,” we will once again celebrate Aircraft Maintenance Technician or AMT Day. Do you remember why you decided to choose aviation as a career? Were you influenced by certain people as you were growing up? Did you hang around at your local airport...

  According to the most recent tally, the number of names in the government’s primary classified counter-terrorism data base has increased 62% in the past 5 years, from 540,000 to 875,000.  That would be the "Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment" (TIDE) master database used by other agencies to create sub-catalogs of possible terrorists, including the infamous "no-fly" list. My...

A co-worker recently discovered an article (Molloy Associates, 1988) written about her brother-in-law on his Commitment to Excellence for outstanding contributions to the Commercial Finance and Leasing Industry. He commented that his commitment to excellence goes back to his origins. His father, a former Southwestern Bell telephone lineman, provided the necessary focus by teaching his son that...

Last week, a group of wheelchair attendants employed by PrimeFlight Aviation Services, asked the Occupational Health & Safety Administration to inspect working conditions at Philadelphia International Airport. The complaints, filed with OSHA’s Philadelphia regional office, allege violations of the federal Air Carrier Access Act and ask the Transportation Department to impose fines and order US...

True or False: You don’t have to charge at night. False: Most GSE chargers are “opportunity” chargers. This means that it’s safe to charge a battery for short periods of time, when there’s an opportunity. By plugging in periodically during the day, the state of charge of the battery remains relatively high and reduces or eliminates the need to get the battery to 100 percent at...

Of course the facts are not all in and the accident investigation will take many months, but as a long-time accident investigator the video certainly hints of an aircraft stall that could have been caused by a sudden shift in the cargo load. In this case, we know from media reports that the cargo included heavy vehicles that  would make a shift in load particularly significant. A stall at...

I don’t want to write this blog, but must.  I goofed badly on my last Ground Clutter column in Airport Business magazine. Toward the end of the column I mentioned a situation in Glynn County, Georgia. That’s not the problem.  The problem is that I thought—and wrote—that the activity took place at McKinnon Airport on St. Simons Island. Sadly, that was all wrong. The activity discussed...

An airport director recently shared an amusing story. He said the airport’s social media policy worked so well that when they received a Tweet about a lack of toilet paper in one of their restrooms, they were able to remedy the problem in less than 60 seconds. While his story put a smile on my face, the situation he describes might have been no laughing matter if this Tweet had gone viral...

Who   can’t relate to the Nike tagline, Just Do It?, Apple’s Think Different or McDonald’s, I’m Loving It? These iconic brands developed taglines that are memorable and influential. In the advertising community, taglines appear to be slightly controversial today. Some people say they are on their way to obsolescence. Others opine that a great tagline used appropriately is the...

You know, many times things are so obvious you can’t see the trees for the forest. Well, just the other day I caught a glimpse of Senator Jim Inhofe’s, (R-OK) proposed legislation for a Pilot’s Bill of Rights. OK, I said to myself, that’s a good idea and from what I read in the bill, I am for it. But, and you know what’s coming next, I have not heard or seen anything that relates to a...

Communication skills are often evaluated in companies and employees are often rated according to their personal skills. But what about companies? Lack of communication is at the top of the list of the twelve most common maintenance-related causes of errors, known as the Dirty Dozen, here are a few things to consider: Do you share business goals with your team members? Do you share...