Consistent, Accurate, and Positive Communication

It’s clear the role of the aircraft maintainer has changed over the past decade or two. What traditionally has been a technical role with the need for technical skills, has rapidly evolved to require much more from your technicians. Whether you operate, or work in, a general aviation FBO, corporate flight department, an airline or commercial MRO, a specialized repair station, or an aircraft manufacturing facility, it doesn’t matter, the industry is requiring everyone to have greater knowledge. This holds true today and certainly will in the future. 

In this issue we take a look at numerous aspects that seem to be shaping the way companies operate and the skills and knowledge that both current and next generation maintainers need in order to be successful.  

The knowledge needed today and tomorrow goes far beyond the great technical skills our industry’s maintainers’ exhibit day in and day out. More and more companies are saying their people are great at the technical aspects but may lack in areas of communications, decision making, and ethical judgment; shall we say the core skills.

Christine Hill from ServiceElements describes how 90 percent of people say the problems they encounter involve people issues. As mentioned in Jay Gregson’s ATEC Insight this month, many graduates from schools and universities lack these particular talents as they enter the workforce. Jay describes the steps taken at his university to establish the Hallmark Character Education Program at Hallmark University.   

I remember opening hard-copy manuals and printing maintenance manual procedures from micro film readers. It doesn’t seem like that many years ago. Today, it’s probably safe to say, most maintenance organizations – large and small – have accepted the use of information technology in their maintenance operations. As Jerry Chandler describes in his article Information Technology: Inspiration and Impediments, not all organizations have experienced the successful implementation of IT into the workplace. IT is here to stay and it will continue to develop rapidly.

Correctly functioning connectivity in the cabins of many aircraft has almost become a go – no go item. In today’s modern aircraft passenger cabins, maintainers, pilots, and flight attendants alike need to have a level of IT knowledge. Jana Rucker explains how SatComm Direct recently launched a new training and certification program by the name of AeroIT to help aviation professionals expand their knowledge of sophisticated airborne communications systems.  

Ron