D.O.M. Blogs

The 2023 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) is just around the corner. It will be taking place October 17-19 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

In my opinion, NBAA-BACE is the second-best opportunity for maintenance managers and aviation maintenance professionals to gain the knowledge necessary for career advancement. (The best conference is NBAA’s Maintenance Conference, which offers three days of maintenance- and management-focused sessions!)

It still seems to be a job-seekers market out there. There are more open aircraft maintenance jobs out there than people to fill them. This includes leadership/supervisory positions.

If you are in a director of maintenance or other leadership position, how you resign can affect your team as well as your future job opportunities. After all, aviation is a small world — you never want to burn a bridge!

I found a good article by David Burkus that discusses seven steps for how to resign from a leadership position. They basically are:

After 119 years of aircraft technology advancements, we are still seeing technology developments. Like the Wright Brothers in the years leading to first flight in 1903, companies investing in the future of aviation do so with great risk at the chance of either rewards or failure.

When I stumbled across a post on Root Inc. (www.rootinc.com) titled, "Leadership Lessons From the Flea Circus," I was intrigued and wanted to learn more.

I have been to many flea markets. I know for a fact that you don't buy fleas at a flea market.

But I never knew about the history of flea circuses. What constituted a flea circus? What was the difference between a regular circus and a flea circus?

Stress is one of the Dirty Dozen human factors. D.O.M. contributing writer Gordon Dupont discussed stress in one of his articles for us. You can learn about stress and how it affects us by reading Dupont’s article here: https://www.system-safety.com/articles/DOM/21%20Stress.pdf.

Stress is a normal part of life. As Dupont says in his article, “…the only time we have no stress is when we are dead…”

Another AMT Day has come and gone. On May 24th of last week (AMT Day), we shared the following note from Ken MacTiernan, chairman of AMTA:

Greetings everyone,

The D.O.M. team is in San Antonio for the NBAA Maintenance Conference (NBAA MC). If you are at the show, stop by booth 421 and say hi.

I always enjoy the NBAA MC. It's great catching up with all the maintenance managers I've met over the years and meeting new maintenance management professionals as well. The sessions are always educational — you never know what you will learn.

Effective communication is important in the workplace. It is especially important for those who have moved from being a mechanic to a supervisor or DOM. 

I wanted to share some tips on better communication in this blog. I started by searching for “effective communication tips” on Google. One of the top results of the search was an article “Effective Communication: 6 Ways to Improve Communication Skills” on MasterClass.com.

Our upcoming April issue of D.O.M. magazine features an article by John Pawlicki that discusses airships and blimps and how they may play a bigger role in transportation in the near future.

Reading John’s article reminded me of my visit to the Zeppelin museum 15 years ago when I was attending AERO Friedrichshafen. I enjoy visiting aviation museums. The Zeppelin museum stands out as one of my favorites.