Blog Archives
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ARSA 2013 Annual Repair Symposium
By Ronald Donner - Thursday March 28, 2013Sarah MacLeod welcomed everyone on Thursday, March 21 st in her usual spirited style. Ms. MacLeod as most of you know is executive director and a founder of the Aeronautical Repair Station Association. Throughout the day ARSA staff, industry representatives, and regulators provided updates to the membership regarding recent ARSA activities on the legislative and regulatory fronts, rulemaking updates, along with perspectives from EASA and CASA representatives. John Hickey, Deputy Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety with the FAA, addressed the ARSA membership making several interesting comments worth repeating. Mr. Hickey shared, “We are in some very difficult times” and went on to describe how sequestration will recast... -
Branding Airports with Taglines
By Agnes Huff - Wednesday March 27, 2013
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 single most effective way to clearly and concisely communicate a brand’s message or even revive a tired, worn-out brand. A tagline is a differentiating, short and succinct message that is optimally less than 7 words and can be used in conjunction with the logo to communicate one strong and powerful brand message. To be most effective, it has to... -
Being a Good Customer
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday March 27, 2013What does it take to be a good customer? Take a moment now to think about your best customers and write down some words or phrases that describe them. Here is a common list people come up with in this exercise: They communicate their expectations very clearly When things change, they tell us—they give us a heads up whenever possible Honest, polite Friendly Patient They do not make assumptions Interestingly enough, all of these qualities are the same ones that describe good customer service delivery. While good customer service delivery is a product of many factors, it is reasonable to suggest that customers who exhibit the qualities above will likely receive excellent service in return. Such customers realize... -
You Can't Make This Stuff Up
By Art Kosatka - Wednesday March 27, 2013I promised myself I would not join the fray on sequestration or the prohibited items list, but I can’t help myself when such stories take a left turn on the off-ramp to Strangeville. Let’s begin with a pop quiz: With sequestration causing huge budget cuts in every office of every Federal agency; FAA closing ATC towers, cutting essential air service to small markets, furloughing government employees one day per week - 20% of their income, and cancelling all White House tours to save the Secret Service a few bucks in overtime pay, what would you say is TSA’s latest contribution to cutting costs during the economic crisis? Good guess!! A $50 million one-year contract to buy TSA screeners new uniforms, announced 2 days before the... -
Just Where Was The First Boarding Bridge Installed?
By Steve Smith - Tuesday March 26, 2013
We heard from Joe Fuqua of Delta Air Lines and who also sits on our Editorial Advisory Board about last month’s cover story on “The History Of Ground Support Equipment.” Joe filled us in more on who was behind creating the first boarding bridge, and points to a different airport than the two - San Francisco and LaGuardia - which are typically credited for the first such installations in 1959. Until we hear otherwise, we think we can at least all agree on the year since Joe sent us a scanned-in copy of the October 1959 issue of Airlift published by American Aviation Publishing. On page 47, in an article headlined, “2 a.m. Brainstorm: Delta’s Jetway,” one Glenn Hughie writes about how Delta developed the original... -
Battery Myth No. 3
By Todd Allen - Monday March 25, 2013
TRUE OR FALSE: Electric vehicles just transfer emissions from the vehicle to the power plant generating the electricity used to recharge the batteries. FALSE: While there's some truth to this trade-off, electric GSE represents a really good trade! Electric vehicles still have a carbon footprint, meaning that carbon dioxide is produced in the total operation of the vehicle. It takes a lot of electricity to recharge batteries, and most of that electricity is generated by a power plant burning fossil fuels. Using the U.S. average, approximately 10,000 pounds of carbon dioxide is generated every year to operate a single bag tractor. That sounds like a lot, and it is. But a comparable diesel tractor generates approximately 75,000... -
A Dangerous Reminder For GSE Operators Everywhere
By John Goglia - Monday March 25, 2013
Reading about the driverless van incident at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport reminds me of how much we can learn from each other’s mistakes and, hopefully, keep from making them ourselves. According to Canadian news reports, the incident involved an unattended van that was left running and in gear. That driverless van started rolling and managed to roll across an active runway just as an Air Canada flight was landing. Much of the news focused on why the Air Canada flight didn’t abort its landing after allegedly being ordered to do so more than once by air traffic controllers. But for ramp operators, the more important question is, of course, why was that van left running in gear without a driver? Normal precautions would... -
BizJets are Business Tools
By Ralph Hood - Wednesday March 20, 2013T his administration seems determined that bizjets are a mere convenience. How in the world they can believe this and still operate Air Force One is beyond me. The truth is that bizjets enable businesses to do things they can’t get done any other way. For example, a bizjet can make it possible for the top boss to spend a day at work in his/her Atlanta office, speak that night at the company sales meeting at Hilton Head, then return to Atlanta for a good night’s sleep. Try that on the airlines. (I saw this myself. Also—for not a dime more—the big boss took his wife along to greet the sales people at the meeting.) Business aircraft are business tools just as surely as are bulldozers, concrete mixers and delivery trucks. Would... -
ServiceElements: Customer Service Tip of the Week
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday March 20, 2013
Promoted to Supervisor from the Floor or Frontline – What Do I Do Now? By Christine Hill Management Scenario: Mike has been a maintenance technician at XYZ Aviation for 18 years. He is the most knowledgeable and dependable maintenance professional on his team. Jerry, his supervisor, recently retired after 35 years on the job. Mike was promoted to Maintenance Supervisor because of his experience and commitment to the company. Mike was of course thrilled with the promotion, but he has had some challenges. The guys on the floor are all his buddies, so it has been a tough transition from “buddy” to supervisor. It has also been difficult for Mike because he has never had any formal management training with tips on how to be a... -
Winners One And All
By Steve Smith - Tuesday March 19, 2013
This week’s “cover” story in our GSW e-newsletter recaps our three Ground Support Leaders of the Year we recognized last week at AviationPros LIVE, March 13-14, at the Las Vegas Convention Center. We honored Tronair, Travis Blair and Bill Biermann, as our Product Leader, Team Leader, and Lifetime Achievement winners, respectively. And Ground Support Worldwide readers can also read more about each in cover stories to be published in the next three issues of the magazine beginning with the April edition. But let’s also recognize all the techs who took part in last week’s AMT Society Maintenance Skills Competition. We were able to provide live webcasting of the events throughout the show, plus sponsor Snap-On Industrial also...
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Events
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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
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- 06/04/13 - 06/05/13
- 2013 Small Airports Conference in conjunction with the JumpStart & Air Service Development Program
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Conference/Expo, Atlanta, GA
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- 06/05/13 - 06/06/13
- ITQI: Improving Training Provision Conference
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Conference/Expo, London,
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- 06/10/13 - 06/10/13
- Ultrasonic Testing Level 2 Training Course
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Training, Lewistown, PA
