Blog Archives
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Training Ramp Workers
By John Goglia - Tuesday February 28, 2012
One of my pet peeves when I ran my own FBO was training the ramp guys. There never seemed to be enough time – and the customer never wanted to spend any money – getting the ramp guys trained to the customer's needs. After all, customers usually call the shots on how they want their aircraft loaded and unloaded, fueled, etc. So all the training ended up being OJT – "on the job," for those of you who may be reading me outside the country. OJT probably ends up costing everyone more in the long run. In my experience, unless OJT is formalized it rarely results in the same level of training as a structured course – which does not have to be a very long course to be effective. Sometimes, a day or two of classroom-style training can pay... -
Ramp Markings Can Protect Equipment From Damage
By John Goglia - Tuesday February 7, 2012
As I crisscrossed the country this past week – from Boston’s BOS to New York’s LGA and later that same day from JFK to LAX – I couldn’t help but notice how some airports or airlines do a much better job of marking the ramp area than others. While all the runway and taxiway lines were clear and bright, that was not at all the case with a number of ramp areas I observed on my travels. Even during the daylight hours, some lines were so faded that they probably would have been nearly invisible in any kind of foul weather. That is not a good thing, if we want to protect our GSE and aircraft from ground damage. Clearly delineated and visible markings for equipment positioning can and have reduced ground damage. If that’s not... -
Towing Corporate Aircraft Without Anyone In The Cockpit
By John Goglia - Tuesday January 17, 2012I know a lot of business-aircraft owners don’t want strangers – including maintenance people – on their aircraft, if they don’t have to. This is in part for obvious security reasons, but also because maintenance people may not be as careful with increasingly expensive interiors. An oil stain on a rug or a slight tear in a leather seat can mean very big bucks in repairs for some of the more luxurious corporate interiors. But towing aircraft for long distances – I recently saw one towed at least a quarter of a mile to a remote parking area – with no one in the cockpit to apply brakes if needed presents its own safety concerns. Usually there’s someone walking along next to the towed aircraft with chocks to put in front of the... -
Zero Tolerance For Corrupt Baggage Handlers
By John Goglia - Tuesday January 3, 2012A recent front page article in the New York Times on the "culture of corruption" among certain baggage handlers at JFK and other airports is a stunning indictment of ramp operations. Aside from all the obvious issues with employees stealing or being involved in the drug trade, is the impact on the equipment itself when it's used by people who care more about their illicit gains than the safety of others. One way for GSE operators to immediately improve the care and operation of their equipment is to institute a zero tolerance policy with baggage handlers and tug operators involved directly or indirectly with stealing from passenger luggage or involved with transporting drugs. In my experience, people involved in this type of criminal... -
'What Does It Mean When It’s Raining … Inside the Bus?'
By John Goglia - Tuesday December 13, 2011A long-time friend asked me this question recently. He's no ordinary traveler. He's a very frequent flier and was, until a few years ago, in a high position at a major aviation regulatory agency in the United States. (Yes, that's FAA.) While he knows a lot about aviation, GSE maintenance is not his strong suit. So he turned to me. Seems he was flying through JFK one rainy day last week and had to take a bus on the AOA from one terminal to another. It was raining pretty hard outside, but also inside the bus. Not an occasional drop or even a steady leak in one spot – but water was pooling at the emergency escape hatches in the bus' roof and spewing randomly on the hapless passengers. Not just one escape hatch, but apparently both... -
Human-Powered GSE
By John Goglia - Tuesday November 29, 2011So much talk these days of gasoline-powered vs. electric GSE makes one forget sometimes that so many small airports around the country – and likely around the world – have people-powered ground support equipment. I was reminded of that just this week when I was working at a small, commercial service airport in New England. I was out on the ramp conducting an audit of a Part 135 air carrier. A steady rain was falling and the temperatures had dipped to close to freezing. The lone scheduled carrier at the airport landed and the ticket-agent-baggage-handlers-ramp crew were, in effect, just two people. I saw them leave the terminal where they had just completed check-in for the passengers on the outgoing flight. They got the baggage cart... -
A Ramp’s Eye View From London Heathrow
By John Goglia - Tuesday November 15, 2011I spent a few hours at London's Heathrow Airport last week. I always enjoy seeing how things work on the ramp in other parts of the globe. I was on my way to and from a conference on PMA parts (parts produced by holders of parts manufacturing approval, not the original parts manufacturers). PMA holders are producing more and more parts at substantial reductions over OEM parts. As a result, pressure mounts to demonstrate that PMA parts are just as good as OEM parts. I was invited to speak on the safety implications of replacement parts, regardless of who manufacturers them. While this conference concerned aircraft parts, the same issues apply to equipment replacement parts, where many parts are produced by companies other than the original... -
Lack Of FBO Standards Affects Cost Of GSE Operations
By John Goglia - Wednesday November 2, 2011We've all known for a while that a lack of fixed base operator standards affects operations from FBO to FBO, and can increase the cost of operations for air carriers and FBOs alike. What I was not aware of until recently was that the lack of standards affected insurance costs for FBOs and, therefore, many GSE operations. Sure enough, I was recently speaking with several aviation insurance executives with regard to the International Fixed Base Operators Association (IFBOA), of which – full disclosure – I am president. The subject concerned liability and workers' compensation insurance. IFBOA had arranged for discounted workers' comp insurance for members. After the workers' compensation discussions concluded, the conversation soon... -
Gloom-And-Doom Media Reports From NBAA Exaggerated
By John Goglia - Tuesday October 18, 2011All things considered, my impression from my three days at the National Business Aircraft Association (NBAA) Convention in Las Vegas is that things are going all right for business aviation. That’s not a ringing endorsement of the economic situation for this critical aviation sector, but things could and have been worse. So I like to be grateful for small glimmers of light. We certainly are not anywhere near the prerecession halcyon days of corporate flight departments. But mainstream media reports of doom and gloom are misplaced. Sure there are a lot of unknowns, taxes and user fees on top of the usual concerns about fuel prices and other costs. But overall it seemed business aviation was weathering the storm... -
Hurry Up And Wait (Or Is It The Other Way Around?)
- Tuesday October 4, 2011The last couple of days I've been doing a fair amount of hurrying up and waiting outside a government test facility where a project I'm working on is slowly making its way over all the hurdles necessary to win government approval. And I'm not complaining, not really. Not about the hurdles anyway. But I could do with a little less waiting; especially for appointments that are inexplicably delayed – as those of us who showed up on time sit and wait. Or pace. Nerve-wracking to get this far and not know whether our product will pass or fail. So all this time waiting reminded me of so many days on the ramp. Where we hurried to get everything ready for a flight scheduled to come in … and then waited. For ATC or weather or some other reason...
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