Corporate Aviation

Corporate aviation, also known as business aviation is the use of any “general aviation” aircraft for business purpose. So what does this mean for us as pilots? It notes a major difference from air carriers like the airlines and non-business general aviation. Career paths in business aviation are orientated with the goals and needs of a specific smaller company and not focused on the general public needs.

Working in corporate aviation provides opportunities to become “on call” pilots, only flying when needed. It also means flying to nontraditional locations normally not serviced by the airline. The easiest way to think of what career options are available is to think of what the company business focus is. Survey flights, medical transport, disaster relief are some of the aspects of corporate aviation all not available to the airlines.

With all these specialties, the question has been asked; does corporate aviation actually save money? Is it worth the time? This question has been around as long as corporate aviation and unfortunately, it has some merit to it. People tend to think of corporate aviation as business men in suits and ties, flying to meetings to sign paperwork or taking the company jet down to Hawaii instead of using traditional air carriers. One of the largest culprits of this was the Big Three CEO’s all flying to Washington in separate luxury jets to ask for bail out money from congress back in 2008. It was estimated that each flight cost around 20,000 dollars and enraged the public.

So why does corporate aviation still exist if all it does is burn up money?  The truth is; corporate aviation does save company time and money. First, let’s take the aforementioned example of the Big Three and learn from their mistakes.  CEO from Company A needs to meet and finalize a deal with Company B. Company B is located in Nowhereville Texas, the closest major airport is over 100 miles away. Using the airlines, he books round trip tickets for himself and staff ($2500), rents two cars for him and his staff ($500) and has to spend 2 nights in a hotel with gas and food ($1000). This trip cost the company $3000 and took three days to finalize. Now let’s look at Corporate aviation. The CEO and his staff fly the company plane down to the local airstrip, 5 mins away from Company B and fly back the same day, cost of the trip, $500 in fuel for the plane and 1 day. Corporate aviation is a business tool and must be used properly.

The ability to put people or things where you need them quickly has been the driving force behind corporate aviation. Doctors can’t put a heart transplant on a airliner (Have you seen what baggage handlers do?), miles and miles of pipeline make it impossible to do a driving survey while potential leaks spill out into the environment, and emergency repair crews and technicians can keep any airplane running and on time if they can be flown to the plane instead of having it be trucked back to a repair facility. In the business world, time is money.

I looked at Pentastar Aviation, to see what their business model and practices looked like. Since they cater to part 91 and part 135, I looked into their medical transport division. The Survival flight division is based at the Livingston County Public Safety Complex. The 77,000 square foot facility houses the Survival flight crews and their aircraft. Pentastar partners with the University of Michigan Health Systems, Michigan Hospitals of Trintiy Health, and Sparrow Health System for all their medical transport needs. They utilize three EuroCopter 155’s  and a Cessna Citation Encore, all specially fitted and medical transport vehicles. After talking with some of the pilots and flight nurses, I found that that Pentastar give preference to military aviators especially those with combat missions. The high stress of being a survival flight pilot requires a lot of experience. All the flight crews have to be certified nurses or specialists in a medical field. While the exact hiring policies were not discussed, pilot turnover rate was considered high and rotary wing experience is highly sought after.

Corporate aviation is all about finding the right tool for the job. If it is abused, it costs you money and makes the overall aspect look unnecessary. If it is utilized correctly, business aviation can only be seen as “the unfair advantage” -Forbes

References:

Business Aviation

http://www.forbes.com/sites/businessaviation/2012/08/06/business-aviation-the-unfair-advantage/

Big Three Auto CEO’s

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/19/autos.ceo.jets/

Next Generation

            NextGen… just what exactly does this mean? I know it’s a great series of Star Trek but what does it mean for the aviation community? After much research and asking around I couldn’t get a clear definition from anyone. What I did get was a general understanding that the term NextGen is dynamic. It is more of a concept, in which the aviation industry gets a major overhaul in both technology and resources, especially with the air traffic control systems and polices.

            What most could agree on was that the center of the emerging technology was the ADS-B System or Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast System. This system communicates with other ADS-B equipped aircraft and ATC giving near real time information for decision making. This system also includes weather and storm data. Implementation of this system alone would increase overall situational awareness and be a major leap forward in the NextGen process. However, all this would be expected no earlier than 2020.

            So just what does this system mean for us pilots, in the private, commercial and corporate? There would of course be positives and negatives from implementing a system like this but let’s take a look at just a few.

Positive: Increased situational awareness lowers the chance of accidents like runway incursions, midflight collisions, and gives the pilot readily accessible weather data for their decision making process.

Negative: Pilots may become overwhelmed by all this new information. Older aircraft that have not been updated or consciously not updated would still pose the same level of risk if not more now that current pilots are expecting all aircraft to be upgraded with the NextGen systems.

Positive: ATC will have greater control over all aircraft. This increases profit, not only by increasing flight operations but more efficient operations overall. Increased tracking/controlling allows for lower minimums and increased traffic flow. The technology could eventually be adapted to make the pilot’s job merely supervisory. (That is purely speculation on my part, but I honestly could see it happening. Whether it is boat, train or automobile, adding GPS has eventually lead to a version that can guide itself.)

Negative: This system would require vast sums of many and resources to implement. New planes and facilities could be built with the NextGen systems already installed but what of the older aircraft and facilities? It is speculated that privatization may be needed in order to update these older systems by the 2020 timeline. Even then, some may not be upgradable (Light sport aircraft, warbirds, ultralights, jet packs…etc)

Overall, the whole system will probably be funded by taxes and fees, but who should pay these fees and when? Since the major airlines and many larger aircraft already use ADS-B and ADS-B systems, it seems to me that general aviation would benefit most from the NextGen Technologies. Now hold on, don’t jump to conclusions. I can already hear people yelling at their computers that it is expensive enough to fly without any new fees. This is not what I had in mind. We can all agree that the NextGen systems would increase safety through situational awareness. So how do we get GA pilots to spend extra money on these upgrades? Incentives. GA has been and is usually restricted from travel in and out of the larger airports, mainly due to the constant flow of the major airliners and the overcrowding of airspace. Having the NextGen systems would make it significantly easier for GA to use these larger airports and have access to their amenities. If the ability to fly freely into any airport doesn’t hold value what about things like maintenance checks and inspection reminders? Car have systems in place that can remind their owners when an inspection is due, when there is something wrong with the aircraft and even report a crash to both the emergency services and search and rescue, so why not NextGen in addition to the data it already transmits. Admittedly there will be fees, mainly from those who do not wish to upgrade or who are merely not upgraded by the time ADS-B becomes mandatory, and those fees can be put into the ADS-B infrastructure. Since the infrastructure will need to be expanded as well, the major airlines can be the driving force behind the infrastructure while GA is the driving force behind upgrading current tech. Spreading the taxes make sure that no one group pays for it all.

             I hope to see the NextGen systems come to fruition in my career, especially if it means a marriage of military and civilian operations. Even if it is only greater use of military air assets in civilian airspace for things like search and rescue, disaster aid relief, or public relations, NextGen would allow many systems to act as one.

References:

What is NextGen?

http://www.natca.org/legislative_current_issues.aspx?zone=Legislative-Current%20Issues&pID=200

Flying Cheap: Professionalism in the Regional Carriers

Hello aviators. With this post, the second weeks chapter is out in what is hopefully to be an ongoing aviation blog. Last week, we reviewed documentary "Flying Cheap", if you haven't please make sure you review it before you finish reading this post. It will make a lot more sense. Being the budding aviation student I am, I was asked a series of questions that I want to answer in this blog. The first question was, what specific job and company in the aviation industry would I like to end up at? I can tell you now, I had no interest in the airlines even before watching the documentary, and watching the documentary confirmed a lot of suspicions. My goal in aviation has always been two fold, I want to earn my rotary wing certifications for the military and fixed wing certifications on the civilian side. And now for the details, because I know you're sitting there thinking oh the airlines are great, airlines are awesome job and career. Well, I have been in the military for nearly 12 years now. I joined at 17 as an infantryman and have been deployed three separate times. Now that I am back home attending college courses, I wanted to switch my military career path from infantry to aviation. My end goal is to be a unit flight officer, preferably for a Black Hawk Squadron. This job would entail creating flight plans, scheduling fuel runs and training flights, and setting forth the overall tasking of the unit. Even though I would be behind desk for majority of my career, flight officers often have to retain their flight status by taking currency flights. These flights are similar to FAA check rides on the civilian side. I still plan to retain my civilian pilot certifications but only use them as a certified flight instructor at whatever base I am currently stationed at. Another question that was posed to me was, are there any safety or liability concerns with the job you listed? Considering that this is a military aviation job, a couple of risks immediately sprang to mind. For times sake, we'll avoid the obvious concerns and focus more on the job specific concerns. Aviation unit flight officers are responsible for the training and certifications of their units pilots. In addition, they also have to maintain and supervise the units maintenance records and aircraft. Mission planning is also a critical aspect of the job, officers have to plan training missions so they do not burn out their new pilots with too many flight hours. Things like load plans and fuel requirements also have to go into training considerations. Just like a normal flight, weight, balance, passenger manifest, and equipment needed are all taken into consideration and must be planned ahead by the unit flight officer. After sense, an aviation flight officer acts as a pilot in command with regards to planning and safety, and also and FAA representative while supervising and training others. In the documentary, it was suggested that the accident was caused by a lack of professionalism. One of the additional questions asked of me was define what I think professionalism is. In my definition of professionalism, a professional is anybody that is paid or compensated to perform an action or service to that professions set of ethical and technical standards. The Colgan accident demonstrates this definition by pointing out the lack of standards that was expected of the flight crew. Two of these factors were the self disregard of the mental and physical health of the flight crew, and the flight crew's reaction to the stall warning and stick shakers systems resulting in the crash. The flight crew knew they were not mentally or physically fit to fly. The first officer audibly complained of being sick and having to commute a long distance in order to make this flight. The captain upon hearing the news from his first officer, should have requested the flight be canceled or a new first officer brought on board but instead he disregarded it. To me that is a disregard of ethical standards. When ice build up occurred on the outside of the aircraft, the autopilot attempted to correct. Upon turning off the auto pilot captain attempted to raise the nose despite the fact that he was losing air speed. When the stick shaker went off as the airplane was approaching critical stall speed, the captain pulled up on the stick even further, causing the crash. This demonstrates a lack of technical standards. Overall, the documentary was a brief but not unexpected look into the world of regional airlines. If your own goals are oriented to becoming a regional, then professional airline pilot, don't let accidents or incidents like Colgan affect your decision. The airline industry depends on the regional pilots in order to draw for it's own pilot pool. The more professionals we have entering this pool will ensure safe for flight in future air travel.

Personal Introduction

Greetings to all in the aviation community and especially to my fellow aviators. I am an Eastern Michigan University student about to finish up my last year and earn my degree. This is my first attempt at writing a blog, so just as when I stepped inside my first airplane, this will also be a new experience for me. This blog detail my activities and experiences getting to where I am now and where I wish to be in the future. First off, let me tell you how I got into a aviation. Most small children want to grow up to be astronauts, firefighters, or cowboys. But there the rare few want to become pilots. And I'm not talking about fighter jet pilots, let's face it ever since Top Gun came out that jobs cool factor has been sky high. I'm talking about the everyday behind the scenes pilot. The guy you see the local airport towing the banner behind his plane or crop dusting a local farmer's field. It's these individuals that interested me in aviation career. Because when I watched world's wildest police videos or saw the news helicopters flying during disasters or big stories, I wanted to be the pilot. To me, those guys had the best job in the world. After joining the military at age 17, I had my first combat tour in Iraq in 2006. After that I was deployed to Fort Bliss Texas, then shortly after that, the mountains of Afghanistan. It was only when I returned home finally in 2013, I was able to enroll at Eastern Michigan University and begin my aviation career. Thus far I have achieved my private pilot certificate, am working on an instrument rating, and hope to have certified flight instructor by the time I graduate . I am still in the military and plan to serve there as well as a flight officer. I am currently enrolled in the Army ROTC program with aspirations to becoming a Black Hawk pilot. My end goal for an aviation career is to have all my fixed wing certifications and ratings on the civilian side while simultaneously having my rotary wing certifications through the military. Once all my ratings and certifications have been achieved, and I have finished my constantly moving lifestyle, I plan to make a career of being a professional flight instructor. Teaching students near whatever military post I happen to be attached to would allow me to continue to fly and maintain ratings for still serving in the military. When I do eventually retire from the military, I would like to open a part 135 operation. I have always had the notion flying people to their favorite theme parks or destinations in quick and less stressful fashion than going cross country in a car. Probably something having to deal with driving with my own family. While the idea of a large airliner can be attractive to some, it is never been an possibility for me. I believe my true passion lives in general aviation ans flying for the pure fun of it. Hopefully as I continue to write this blog, I can relate to you my experiences and knowledge while helping you avoid your own pitfalls in stumbles. In addition, I hope this blog will become a tool getting the aviation career I want. Whether it be working as an independent flight instructor, or becoming part of a small flight school, I hope to fly and teach other's the knowledge that's been passed to me and share the joy that is flight.