AMTonline Blogs

Well, I write to you this week from the GA meca of the world. For one week, Oshkosh, WI plays host hundreds of thousands of aviation enthusiasts as the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) puts on its annual AirVenture show.

I have gathered a lot of editorial ideas from the show. But the best part of Oshkosh for me is the people. I always enjoy the opportunity to meet fellow aviation buffs from all over the world as they make their annual pilgramage to Oshkosh. This is my sixth show since joining the magazine and each one is still a learning experience for me. Stay tuned as we share more of the news coming from the show.

In closing this week, I must say that I saw my first whistling gopher at Oshkosh yesterday. I had never seen a whistling gopher before, but I had heard from a reliable source of their existence, especially at Oshkosh. So there I was at the Lycoming tent talking to one of their tech guys when someone walks up and asks, “How much does that engine gopher?” When the guy told him the price, the fellow opened his eyes and whistled. There it was – my first encounter with a whistling gopher.

Thanks for reading!

Joe Escobar

When will it turnaround? I keep on waiting for some positive employment news in the airline sector, but alas I must wait for yet another month. It sounds like a broken record, but once again the news looks bad for airline employees. You see, for the seventeenth month in a row, airline employment is down compared to the previous year. This from a recently released report from the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).

Where are these cuts coming from? Surely this trend has to stop soon, doesn’t it? Passenger levels are up. Airlines are expected to post profits for the quarter. So what gives?

The airlines must be at a critical point where they can’t afford many more employee cuts without sacrificing safety.

Or have they already crossed that threshold?

You can click here if you would like to read the BTS report.

Thanks for reading. If you would like to comment on this topic, we welcome your input. Just use the “Submit a Comment” box at the bottom of the page.

 

Joe Escobar

I am on a road trip this week and am writing this blog from a musty hotel room somewhere south of St. Louis. A couple of days ago, I was visiting with Jim Burress, paint department manager, Landmark Aviation in Springfield, IL. Me and fellow AMT team member Bob Graf walked around with Jim for almost three hours as he showed us the different areas of the facility. Of course his pride and joy was the paint department and the new state-of-the-art paint facility. A self-proclaimed “anal” paint manager, he was involved in all aspects of the design of the paint hangar, and it showed. It was truly designed with all stakeholders in mind. The painters have the tools they have to do their jobs properly; the booths are designed to provide the perfect painting environment, ensuring customers are happy with the end product.

Being a self-proclaimed “anal” aviation buff, he had several interesting methods of management. One of the things that caught my attention was a board that Jim maintains in one of his offices. It is a board that has all of the tasks and skills needed to work in the hangar. Everything is tracked by the supervisor and employee. It lists the strengths (and weaknesses) of each employee. “This employee ranks himself as a 10 out of 100 in regards to training others,” shared Burress. “So I know not to ask him to train a new employee. I go to someone that has the skills to do that and wants to help in this area. That way, I’m not setting anyone up for failure. At the same time, if they rate themselves as a 100 out of 100, I expect them to be knowledgeable in all aspects of that task or subject area.

“Another thing I’m picky about is housekeeping,” says Burress. He said that if employees don’t have the discipline to keep their work area clean and clean up after themselves, they don’t need to be working on multimillion dollar aircraft. He gives them all the tools they need to do their job. He expects them to use them properly and holds them accountable for their actions.

It was one of the most organized facilities I have ever seen. The painted aircraft coming out were truly amazing. I learned a lot from Jim and hope to share more about him and his paint department in the future.

Thanks for reading!

Joe Escobar

First of all, I want to thank all those who responded to last week’s blog The News Still Looks Bad for Maintenance. We had plenty of reader comments that contributed to the discussion on the recent BTS report on airline employment and what it means for airline mechanics.

Sadly, not all the comments were able to be posted. In fact, some of them were so crude and obscene, they would make George Carlin blush. The comments were childish and very un-professional.

I understand the fact that airline mechanics have had it bad the last several years. I have talked to many airline mechanics during my time here at AMT. In fact, I got a chance to talk to quite a few Northwest mechanics in the first days of the strike last year. As could be expected, none of them were happy about the situation. They had nothing good to say about Northwest management outsourcing their jobs and busting the union. But guess what? They communicated their displeasure in a professional way. That doesn’t mean they weren’t emotional about the whole situation. There was evidence of the resentment, anger, and distrust they felt. But they acted as professionals.

It is a shame that there are some out there that act childish with vulgarity and personal threats. This type of behavior does nothing to help our cause to be treated as professionals. If anything, the behavior adds to management’s list of reasons for not treating us as professionals. And airline managers have plenty of excuses for the job cuts and concessions we have been seeing. We don’t need to give them any more by un-professional behavior.

If we want to be treated as professionals, we must act as professionals.

Thanks for reading.

Joe Escobar