Blog Archives
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‘A Gathering Of The Tribe’
By Steve Smith - Tuesday March 13, 2012
Our headline is how one of our winners of this year’s Ground Support Leaders of the Year awards described the attendees of last week’s Cygnus Aviation Expo. I went up to shake hands with Bill Jacob after he won our Lifetime Achievement Award. “Back in the old days,” Bill told us during our packed Networking Party last Thursday, “the readers of your magazine used to consider this show to be ‘a gathering of the tribe.’ ” Bill no doubt has plenty of memories of getting together with the tribe. Our magazine has only been around for half of Bill’s career at Eastern Airlines and the United Parcel Service. He’s currently vice president of the UPS ground support division and oversees 32,000 pieces of GSE. He added his father... -
Making The Turn With SWA At LAS
By Steve Smith - Tuesday March 6, 2012
The "chili pepper" knows everything. We spent yesterday morning on the ramp outside the C2 gate at McCarran International Airport in the company of Rico Villalobos, ramp supervisor and 20-year veteran of Southwest Airlines ground handling operations. Villalobos, stout as a pushback, explained the printout he handed us that listed the morning's work. Toward the middle of the page was an icon that looked more like a chili pepper than the clipboard it was meant to be. "Everyone also calls it a chili pepper because it's 'hot,' " he explains. "Click on the icon and you can see how much luggage, for example, you can expect. Or, maybe, there's some freight to consider." And while Southwest is not considered to run a hub-and-spoke... -
See You Next Week In Vegas
By Steve Smith - Tuesday February 28, 2012All the “AviationPros” will be heading to Las Vegas next week for the Cygnus Aviation Expo , March 7-9. I’ll be glad to meet everyone I can so stop by our booth No. 408 for a visit. In the meantime, here’s a recap of some events presented for Ground Support Worldwide readers. Green GSE Seminars March 8 in the Exhibit Hall Theater Going Green At US Airways Express 1:30-2:30 p.m. US Airways Express/Piedmont Airlines has used electric GSE at many of its locations for years, in particular at the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport and the Philadelphia International Airport. In fact, electricity powers a major portion of its baggage tractors and belt loaders at these busy airports. The seminar promises to share... -
Everyday Stress And Sprain
By Steve Smith - Tuesday February 21, 2012We recently reported on www.AviationPros.com that a Southwest Airlines ramp worker died when the baggage tractor he was driving hit a passenger shuttle at Dulles International Airport. Then, just a week later, we posted news that a ramp worker at Washington State's Paine Field Airport got trapped under the wheels of a Boeing 787 as it was towed. When we think of ramp accidents, we tend to imagine the worst. However, at the same time we reported these two unfortunate accidents, we were also interviewing D. Bradley Keith, Aircraft Service International Group's director of health, safety, environmental and training, on two safety programs – a corporate program called ZIPP for "Zero Injury Philosophy + Process," as well as one of... -
Ground Support Leaders of the Year
By Steve Smith - Tuesday February 14, 2012We decided not to keep you in suspense this year. Here are our three Ground Support Leaders of the Year, which we will officially bestow at next month's Cygnus Aviation Expo : Lifetime Achievement : William "Bill" Jacob with the United Parcel Service Inc. This award recognizes a person who has demonstrated commitment to the industry through numerous years of dedicated service. Jacob has more than 40 years of GSE experience with Eastern Airlines and UPS. Jacob, Vice President of the UPS Ground Support Division, is directly responsible for almost 32,000 pieces of powered and nonpowered GSE. Team Leader : Gregory McDermott with the United States Coast Guard. This award recognizes an individual who has taken a leadership role with... -
Green GSE, Test Drives And Tire Kickin’ At CAE
By Steve Smith - Tuesday February 7, 2012
The Cygnus Aviation Expo , March 7-9, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, features plenty for all "AviationPros." Ground Support Worldwide , however, has created special events just for our readers. For example, we’ll be presenting three seminars on green GSE. All the seminars take place March 8 in the Exhibit Hall Theater: Going Green At US Airways Express 1:30-2:30 p.m. US Airways Express/Piedmont Airlines has used electric GSE at many of its locations for years, in particular at the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport and the Philadelphia International Airport. In fact, electricity powers a major portion of its baggage tractors and belt loaders at these busy airports. The seminar promises to share cost savings using... -
Where’s The ‘LUV’?
By Steve Smith - Tuesday January 31, 2012Southwest Airlines didn’t show too much LUV to SRQ a couple of weeks back. “LUV” is Southwest’s stock ticker symbol and “SRQ” is the designation for the Sunshine State’s Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. Frederick J. Piccolo, SRQ president, picked up the phone on a Friday morning to hear a midlevel manager from Southwest Airlines telling him that AirTran service would fly away for good this August from his airport. That left a big hole in the airport’s flight plan – AirTran flew about a third of its passengers last year and was its second-largest carrier after seven years of service. By the way, Piccolo’s no slouch in charge of some “small” airport. He’s currently the vice chairman of the Airport... -
London Calling
By Steve Smith - Tuesday January 24, 2012The 2012 Summer Olympic Games come to London this July and August. Over the weekend, I read a British newspaper account of the Olympian challenge ahead for the baggage handlers at London Heathrow Airport. “Baggage Chaos” was just one part of the headline. Even with a special temporary Olympic Terminal, ground crews will have to contend with approximately 80,000 Olympic athletes, plus more than 59,000 members of the “Games family” and another 21,000 attending the Paralympic Games. Airport officials have already stated there is “insufficient capacity” to handle the work and passengers face long delays to retrieve their bags, if planned mitigation measures fail to work. The extra work begins on July 26, the day before the games... -
You're Still Getting Very Sleepy
By Steve Smith - Tuesday January 17, 2012In my Jan. 3 blog, I repeated a point my AMT colleague Ronald Donner stated in one of his blogs on FAA's new regulations designed to reduce pilot fatigue. Taking into account recent scientific research, FAA announced the new rules last Dec. 21. Airlines must now consider several factors when scheduling, including pilots’ duty periods, the number of time zones crossed and the time at which pilots start their first flights. Pilots must now have a 10-hour rest period before reporting for duty, a two-hour increase over previous regulations. FAA also increased the number of consecutive free hours pilots must have per week to 30 hours. And, added acting FAA administrator Michael Huerta: “If a pilot reports that he or she is fatigued, then... -
Ramp Rat, D.D.S.
By Steve Smith - Tuesday January 10, 2012With gas way past three dollars a gallon, my long-time Chicago dentist just didn't seem worth the 180-mile trip to my hometown to get my teeth scraped and polished every six months. So last month, I walked into the nearby office of Brian A. Hamann, D.D.S., to make an appointment. He asked me what I did for a living and when he found out he proudly identified himself as a former "ramp rat" for United Airlines. Last Friday, armed with a tape recorder, I interviewed him from the chair. Considering my state, I couldn't ask him too many questions, but I did manage to mumble and spit out a few. In his own words, here's how he related his experience at ORD: "This was in the late-1980s until the early-1990s. I worked out on the ramp for...
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