The article on page 46 of our November issue from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, “All You Need is Love,” is responsible for my current ear worm of the Beatles’ song playing over and over in my head. It also got me thinking about workplace culture. I had never thought about “love” as it relates to the workplace.
You have probably heard of a bell curve. Bell curves are typically used to show normal distribution. For example, intelligence in a given group can be graphed on a chart. Some people are lower than average, the majority are average, and some people are card-holding members of Mensa. The graph would look like a bell.
Did you realize that there is a reverse bell curve when it comes to aircraft maintenance? The left side of the chart would be maintenance errors and the bottom would represent number of years working as a mechanic. This bell curve would look like an upside down bell.
The National Business Aviation Association Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) is just around the corner. From October 22-24, the D.O.M. magazine team will be at NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas along with around 27,000 business aviation professionals from around the world at the sixth largest trade show in the United States.
“If you are looking for perfect safety, you will do well to sit on a fence and watch the birds; but if you really wish to learn, you must mount a machine and become acquainted with its tricks by actual trial.”
– Wilbur Wright, from an address to the Western Society of Engineers in Chicago, 18 September 1901.
I'm writing today's blog from the grounds of Camp Scholler — the EAA Campground adjacent to Whittman Regional Airport. This is the week of EAA AirVenture — when Whittman Regional Airport becomes the busiest airport in the world and hundreds of thousands of aviation enthusiasts make their annual pilgrimage to Oshkosh, WI.
The D.O.M. magazine team is in Fort Worth, TX for the NBAA Maintenance Conference this week. Today was the first day of the conference, and I had the opportunity to sit in on plenty of interesting sessions and talk to a lot of our readers at our booth.
I was pleasantly surprised when Dr. Tony Kern took the time to stop by our booth to say hi. The last time I had seen Dr. Kern was at an NBAA Maintenance conference around eight years ago.
The NBAA Maintenance Conference (NBAA MC) is coming up! Will you be there?
If you are a director of maintenance or maintenance manager, this is the must-attend conference of the year. At the NBAA MC, you can join your peers for three days of high-quality education sessions. This premier event brings together all business aircraft maintenance professionals – from maintenance technicians to directors of maintenance – for critical learning and best practices making this the best place to expand your network and grow professionally.
It was with sadness that I learned of the passing of Skip Koss last week. If you ever had the opportunity to meet Skip, you know that he forgot more about aircraft batteries than the rest of us could ever hope to learn. Skip worked for Concorde Batteries until his retirement in 2017. He was a walking encyclopedia when it came to batteries. I can't begin to imagine how many fellow A&Ps and pilots he had helped over the years.
Yesterday, the FAA joined other countries in grounding the Boeing 737 MAX.
I was contacted yesterday morning by a news radio show that wanted me to discuss the 737 MAX situation on-air. I declined, telling the them, "I appreciate you reaching out to me, but I don’t feel it is appropriate to discuss the 737 MAX or the crashes without knowing what the causes were. I wouldn’t feel comfortable speculating on the matter, especially since I am not intimately familiar with the 737 or 737 MAX."
I'd like to pose the following question: What's in a title? I don't mean the title of an article or book. I'm talking about job titles.
My brother-in-law is a vice president for a large financial institution. How many departments does he oversee? NONE! He has been with the company for so long and has reached a certain level of pay that he was given the title of vice president. He is hard-working and deserves his pay and title. But the title could be deceiving to someone on the outside.
As the House and Senate try to negotiate a compromise spending bill. Will they come up with a solution that works? Who knows? It seems many of our legislators are using tactics that will derail any possible chance of a successful outcome.
D.O.M. magazine contributor J.D. McHenry has written on the subject of successful negotiations. Here are five common mistakes that can plague a negotiation:
1. Don’t enter into a negotiation with unreasonably high demands and hoping for a fast compromise.
The National Business Aviation Association Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) is just around the corner. From October 16-18, the D.O.M. magazine team will be at NBAA-BACE in Orlando, FL along with around 27,000 business aviation professionals from around the world at the sixth largest trade show in the United States.
West Star Aviation had an open house at its Perryville, MO facility on September 19. Bob Graf and I were in attendance. The last time I was in that facility was in early 2013 when I interviewed Sabreliners' Tracy Ogle for the cover of our March issue. Not that the facility was bad then, but West Star has done a great job giving the place a face lift! It is good to see that it already has customers coming in for work.
In our upcoming October issue, Dr. Shari Frisinger discusses distractions, demands and difficult people. When it comes to distractions, Frisinger touches on "multitasking." She says, "Mentally shifting gears scatters your mind. You want to believe you can juggle your priorities; however, you know deep inside that multitasking is a myth. Giving in to demands splinters your energies, your focus, and your train of thought."
I coudn't agree more with her!
D.O.M. magazine is the premier magazine for aviation maintenance management professionals. Its management-focused editorial provides information maintenance managers need and want including business best practices, professional development, regulatory, quality management, legal issues and more. The digital version of D.O.M. magazine is available for free on all devices (iOS, Android, and Amazon Kindle).
Joe Escobar (jescobar@dommagazine.com)
Editorial Director
920-747-0195
Greg Napert (gnapert@dommagazine.com)
Publisher, Sales & Marketing
608-436-3376
Bob Graf (bgraf@dommagazine.com)
Director of Business, Sales & Marketing
608-774-4901