Joe's Blog

Most of us in aviation are aware of FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt’s arrest this past weekend on drunk driving charges. Babbitt has been placed on administrative leave while FAA and DOT officials try to figure out what to do.

I am writing this blog a few days before Thanksgiving. As I sit here sipping my coffee and taking a break from what has been a hectic week, I realize that I have a lot to be thankful for.

I got a tweet earlier that said, "Celebrate 100th anniv. of the first flight across the US! Vin Fiz event on Sept. 17 at Boeing theatre." The tweet had a link to the event website: www.vinfizlongbeach.com.

I had known about Charles Taylor's important contribution to the Vin Fiz flight, so I clicked through the links to see what was said about him.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised by what I found. Nothing. Not a single mention.

I have two small dogs. One of my least favorite things to do in the winter time (which seems to last seven months here in Wisconsin) is take them for their multiple daily walks. But this time of year gives me the opportunity to take long walks with them, providing some much needed exercise for both the dogs and me. I tend to listen to the radio on my smart phone as I go on these walks. Today, I happened to tune in to an interview on Wisconsin Public Radio with Eric Felton, New York Times columnist and author of “Loyalty: The Vexing Virtue.” Felton was discussing the topic of loyalty and I felt myself quickly absorbed by the interview. 

In my editorial column in the May/June issue of D.O.M. magazine, I discussed the myth of multitasking. The column was the result of seeing a job posting for a director of maintenance saying that the candidate "must demonstrate the ability to multitask." I went on to discuss how it is impossible to "multitask" because our brains aren't wired that way. Dave Crenshaw, author of the book The Myth of Multitasking: How "Doing it All" Gets Nothing Done, says what we are actually doing when we think we are multitasking is multiswitching - switching between tasks. Those that think they are good multitaskers basically are good multiswitchers; they are able to switch between multiple tasks faster than others.

The D.O.M. magazine staff was in San Diego last week attending NBAA’sMaintenance Management Conference (MMC). The theme of this year’s conference was “Building a Community of Leaders.”

If you weren’t at the conference,you missed some great presentations. One of the talks that I got a lot from was “The Global War on Error” by Dr. Tony Kern. Dr. Kern talked about the need fortrue professionalism in the aviation maintenance industry.