Blog Archives
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Celebrate AMT Day
By Ronald Donner - Thursday May 16, 2013On 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? Perhaps a relative worked in aviation or you attended airshows? For me I always had an interest in airplanes and my father operated a small service station with a one-stall garage. Given my early interest in all things mechanical and in aviation, it seemed only natural I would go to school and obtain my A&P. I always knew I would spend my life... -
The Rising TIDE Floods All Neighborhoods
By Art Kosatka - Wednesday May 15, 2013According 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 first thought upon reading that was: that’s a lot of terrorists in my neighborhood – I should check those facts: http://www.nctc.gov/docs/Tide_Fact_Sheet.pdf . Alas, it’s apparently true; they’re everywhere. That’s 184 new names every da y for five years. The US Census Bureau says there are 3,143 counties in the United States, which... -
Service Story: Profile of Excellence
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday May 15, 2013A 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 "whatever you do, just be the best". From those lessons, whether it was a game of golf, a $5,000 transaction or a $5 million transaction, he approached it with his best effort. People who worked with her brother-in-law over the years saw that more could be accomplished out of what seemed like less by "good old-fashioned hard work". In addition, he... -
The 800-Pound Gorilla In The Room …
By Steve Smith - Tuesday May 14, 2013Last 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 Airways, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines to force PrimeFlight to correct the problems. Specifically, the workers allege that they do not receive training on how to help handicapped passengers, are exposed to blood and other bodily fluids without protection and are forced to use faulty equipment. Furthermore, the complaints contend that the... -
Soft Skills Have Hard Value
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday May 8, 2013Body builders and professional trainers understand the importance of and spend a lot of time building “core strength”. “Core” Training with regard to getting in shape is the balanced development of the deep and superficial muscles that stabilize, align, and move the trunk of the body, especially the abdominals and muscles of the back. It is now common understanding among many of these physical fitness professionals that without core training, optimum development will not be reached. The same is true in training for business and professional development. What has traditionally been referred to as “soft skills” training and includes proficiencies such as communication skills, conflict resolution and negotiation, personal... -
IATA Refines Its Ground Damage Database
By Steve Smith - Tuesday May 7, 2013We're attending this week’s IATA Ground Handling Conference in Vancouver, and ended the first day with a 90-minute workshop on the trade group’s refinements to its Ground Damage Database. “Airlines have collected data on accidents in many different buckets on their own,” said David Anderson, head of operational safety for British Airways and chairman of the GDDB. “It’s not a question of the quantity of the data, but the quality of the data.” The GDDB was originally launched in 2011 to act as a better funnel for the reasons and causes for aircraft damage. IATA spent time that same year to make sure the data was reported consistently so that it could be used to better measure the progress made against what is largely... -
Battery Myth No. 4
By Todd Allen - Tuesday May 7, 2013
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 night. But in opportunity charge mode, the battery’s state of charge doesn’t get above 80 percent. Then two bad things happen: First, the electrolyte begins to “stratify.” The acid sinks to the bottom and the water rises to the top. Second, the battery begins to sulphate. The acid that went into the plates during discharge... -
Chilling Bagram 747 Video Hints At Accident's Cause
By John Goglia - Tuesday May 7, 2013Of 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 such a low altitude on takeoff is almost impossible for any flight crew to recover from. And we saw the tragic consequences with all seven people on board killed. A sudden shift in cargo can mean several things. Either the cargo was improperly loaded, improperly secured, the restraints broke or any combination of the above. As with most jobs in... -
L.I.D. Template for Meetings
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday May 1, 2013Too often, management meetings tilt too far in one area – for example the ‘information dump’. Many meeting audits show senior managers spending up to 80% of meeting time listening to presentations, with little time left for real dialogue and sometimes even less for new learning. A format that could be useful for regular management meetings is LID: L – Learning I – Information D- Dialogue To gain a more balanced agenda for meetings, 1/3 of the meeting should be set aside for each of the above objectives: 1/3 for Learning; 1/3 for information; and 1/3 for dialogue. The discipline of the three equal parts ensures that planning is a broad participatory process, not driven solely by individual agendas. Participatory... -
Mea Culpa!
By Ralph Hood - Wednesday May 1, 2013I 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 took place on Brunswick-Golden Isles Airport on the mainland. Not only that—the major part of the column was about Women in Aviation International, better known as WAI. Somehow that came out as WIA. My head hangs low and I do apologize. Now, on to happier thoughts… One of the things I like most about my job is speaking for aviation...
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Events
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- 05/19/13 - 05/22/13
- 85th Annual AAAE Conference and Exposition 2013
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Conference/Expo, Reno, NV
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- 05/21/13 - 05/23/13
- EBACE2013
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Conference/Expo, Geneva,
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- 05/21/13 - 05/22/13
- FAME in Jet Measurement and EI Aviation Fuels Test Method Conference
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Conference/Expo, Teddington,
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- 06/03/13 - 06/03/13
- Ultrasonic Testing Level 1 Course
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Training, Lewistown, PA
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- 06/03/13 - 06/06/13
- ACI-NA Marketing & Communications and JumpStart & Air Service Development Program
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Conference/Expo, Atlanta, GA
