Blog Archives
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Happy Birthday!
- Thursday May 18, 2006OK, I will begin today's blog by saying it is my birthday. And let's just say it is a milestone one. My co-workers were gracious enough to decorate my office with black balloons, R.I.P. signs, and an inflatable cane that reads "Tease me about my age and I'll hit you with my cane." They have had quite a bit of fun at my expense, and I appreciate their thoughtful birthday wishes. But all of the hullabaloo of today pales in comparison to the significance of next Wednesday. You see, it is then that we celebrate AMT Day on the birthday of Charles Taylor. So, what will you be doing to celebrate? Will your company be doing anything special? We are aware of a few events going on. Frontier Airlines will be having an AMT Day event complete with... -
You Know the Industry is Hurting When…
- Tuesday May 16, 2006One could look at it as a damage control move. In a public statement released on May 12, an aviation business said that its unionized employees were on strike effective at 12 noon. The company said that it had been negotiating with the union with "a goal of reaching a consensual agreement on the terms of their collective bargaining agreement." The company said that earlier in the week it and the union had completed a tentative agreement that contained merit salary increases, delayed health care cost increases, and improved several other areas of the contract. The union members rejected that TA and the strike ensued. In the press release, the company said, "Management believes that the TA sufficiently balances the economic realities of the... -
TSA Could Learn From Pete Correll
- Monday May 15, 2006Businesses are told in a blue zillion ways that they should—must—protect workers from injury on the job. (When I worked in the FBO side of the industry, they gave us an OSHA manual that was thicker than a teenaged boy’s collection of Playboy magazines. Nowhere in that book could we find the word airplane or aircraft!)One of the problems in occupational safety is the learning curve for a new operation. It turns out the guvmint is no better at that than business, and TSA has proved it. The following quote is taken from FederalTimes.com: "In its first two years of existence, TSA was deluged with workers’ comp claims, mostly from airport baggage screeners who hurt themselves lifting heavy bags onto X-ray machines... -
Lessons Learned - 'United 93'
- Thursday May 11, 2006It's about a war and a system challenge The nation, it seems, is split: those who remember 9/11 and the reasons we are in a war on terrorists; and, those want to forget it ever happened, recall our troops, and put our collective head back into the sand – which, of course, is what led to 9/11 in the first place. The first message from viewing the movie "United 93" is that everyone who remembers why we're fighting should take everyone who doesn't to see this film. "United 93" brings home that fateful day. It's a wakeup call for those who have gone to sleep on the dangers we face today, and on the perspective that the terrorists bring to the battle. Our determination must match and exceed theirs. Much of the movie focuses on the... -
Final Exams are Over!
- Tuesday May 9, 2006Well it's over! I just completed my first online college course at Eastern New Mexico University Roswell (ENMUR). Time sure has flown by! It seems like just yesterday that I was signing up for the course. Now, I have my first online college credit hours under my belt. About ENMUR We have written about ENMUR in the past. FAA columnist Bill O’ Brien discussed how the University's online degree program works in his article College Degrees: What's available and affordable for mechanics. Basically, the university awards A&P mechanics 72 college credits toward an 84-credit associate's degree in applied science degree in aviation maintenance technology. So to earn the degree, you need only to complete four, three-credit-hour courses... -
The Times They Are A-Changin
- Monday May 8, 2006As Bob Dylan wrote in 1964, the times they are a-changin', especially in aviation. I can't remember when there has been a more exciting time to be alive and watching our industry. True, the future is a great unknown, and some of the possibilities are, as my mother might have said, plumb scary. But you gotta admit it is nothing if not exciting.  Some of the big-money folks are determined to build and sell a corporate SST. The amount of the investment is downright frightening. It will be years before such a machine actually flies, assuming they get the sonic boom thing solved, but by golly three different groups are working on it, last I heard, and I, for one, can't wait to see the end result. The Very Light Jet (VLJ) thing is fast... -
More from AAAE in San Diego ...
- Thursday May 4, 2006FAA Administrator Marion Blakey says the ultimate goal is a "robust AIP (Airport Improvement Program);" the proposed cuts to AIP for FY07 are themselves robust. Talking to airports here at the annual meeting of the American Association of Airport Executives, Blakey says the cuts don't reflect the importance the Administration places on the program, nor the necessary funding levels. Which of course leads to FAA's current call for a new way to fund the system - a plan which has been formulated but not yet publicized. Blakey says she expects it to be in the near future; observers say we might not find out the details until after November's elections. Blakey says that despite proposed Administration cuts, the agency should be able to "support... -
The Coca Cola Mistake -- Not Listening to its Customers
- Monday May 1, 2006On the trip back from last week's MRO show in Phoenix, I was watching The History Channel on Frontier Airlines' in-flight programming. The show was talking about the history of Coca Cola and Pepsi. It talked about how both companies evolved and grew. Part of the feature included a discussion of Coke's decision to change its recipe in the late '80s. It seems that Coke was worried about Pepsi's growing market share and decided to change its recipe to more closely match Pepsi's. As we now know, that was a big mistake. The backlash was intense. Coke ended up changing its recipe back and once again offered "Classic Coke." It appears that Coke was more obsessed with what Pepsi was doing than with what its customers wanted. If it would have taken... -
Oil & The Free Market
- Monday May 1, 2006"Hark! Hark! The dogs do bark, The beggars are coming to town." That was the beginning of a Mother Goose rhyme during 16th century England. Methinks it applies today. Then, the English homeless were begging for food. Today, the beggars want the guvmint to "do something" about the price of gasoline. They say that the free market "isn't working" in the case of oil and fuel. Hogwash! The free market is working perfectly! The price of oil is basically a matter of supply and demand. When demand goes up and/or supply goes down, prices rise. That tends to cut down on consumption (demand) which tends to lower price. That's the free market and it is working perfectly. The problem is, we the people aren't happy with the resulting price right now... -
A Nice-Guy Legend is Gone
- Monday April 24, 2006"Damn. Just damn." That was one of many heartfelt and appropriate comments posted on AVSIG, world's oldest aviation online forum, after legendary pilot Scott Crossfield died in an airplane accident last week. This blog will not join the many who try to figure out exactly what happened in the accident, nor will we list the many aviation deeds and exploits that created the Crossfield legend. Others will report on those areas expertly and in detail. We will comment on the fact that Scott Crossfield was one more nice man. This was a true top gun, ace of the base aviation hero who was approachable and, well, just an all around nice guy. Before I get into this, let me state up front that Crossfield would not have remembered ever meeting me...
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