When I Grow Up

When I grow up, I would like to imagine myself as a Captain for Delta Airlines flying a 747. That is my ultimate goal. I know I have a long way to go, and I have many little goals along the way to get me there.

I is hard to find what Delta's job discretion of a captain. I was able to a good discretion of what any airline captain does. This was found on Avjobs.com.The Airline captain checks each flight with the airline's flight dispatcher and meteorologist, checking weight, fuel supply, alternate destination, weather and route. The pilot also briefs the crew, checks out takeoff procedures, ascertains that the plane is operating normally before takeoff, gets takeoff clearance from the air traffic control tower, flies the plane over the designated route, lands the plane, and at the final destination files a trip report. During the time the airline pilot is aboard the aircraft, he or she supervises the work of the crew, gives instructions, and makes all decisions. The Captain is in command of the plane and is responsible for the safety of the aircraft, its passengers, crew and cargo.

Now a little about Delta. As we all know Delta is a major airlines based in the United States. Its headquarters is in Atlanta Georgia. This airline operates extensively domestically and internationally, with flight going to all of the contentment. The exception is Antarctica as the is no reason to. The airline's hub is Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which is the world's largest. Delta is the sixth-oldest operating airline, and the oldest airline still operating in the United States. Recently they merged with Northwest to form the worlds larges airline in terms of scheduled passenger. They are the second wold's larges in terms of passenger traffic.


As for the airline industry, it is vast and growing. Airline Industry Overview is quite lengthy.In the modern age, it is essential for economic growth, world trade, international investment and tourism. Because of this it can be considered the central for the globalization going on in many industries. The growth of world air travel has averaged approximately 5% per year over the past 30 years, with substantial yearly variations due both to changing economic conditions and differences in economic growth in different regions of the world. In the US airline industry, approximately 100 certificated passenger airlines operate over 11 million flight departures per year. This is also one-third of the total worlds traffic.

TSA Pilot Progams Have Good Outlook

Their are a few new things that the TSA are trying out, that have to potential to help relive the stress on airport security. It might make it better because of it. The idea is these new steps will help to transition the TSA from a technology based security to a information based system.

 A bill that was passed by the house the 29th of November. This was the Risk-Based Security Screening for Members of The Armed Forces Act. This allows Armed forces and their families to pass through airport security faster while on office business.

This bill does not impact current TSA measures, but helps solider get though the checkpoint faster. They will not need to take off their class A uniform. In other word they don't need to take off their boots. Soldiers also will not be subject to pat-downs. The Solders will be required to have a DOD's common accesses card to pass through. This is nothing more that ans official ID.

These measures are needed to make sure no unauthorized personnel pose as soldiers. All of these subject to intelligences showing the individual's no threat. This would be to stop something from happening like a soldier shooting up a airport like one did in the military bass not to long ago. If they take the right steps, this could help the transition by showing risk based security can be successful while helping to get people though security faster.

Delford M. Smith

Delford M. Smith is the owner and founder of Evergreen International Aviation. Delford M. Smith graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Science degree. He also earned top honors as a distinguished military student in the  Air Force ROTC. He continued to earn honorary Doctor of Aeronautical Science and Doctor of Business Administration degrees from Salem College and Johnson and Wales College. Smith served in the U.S. Air Force and was a commercial airplane and helicopter pilot for many years.

He earnes his right to be influentional beacues of his achievements. He began the company with the idea that aircraft could be used as angels of mercy as well as industrial workhorses. this idea grew and his company grew to 100 worldwide bases and over 4,500 employees, Evergreen International Aviation has worked for customers in 168 countries. His comaney has 5 subsidaries.

1) Evergreen International Airlines operates a fleet of B-747 freighter aircraft, which are employed in contract services for major airlines and U.S. government agencies. This division specializes in cargo carriage around the globe.
2) Evergreen Helicopters is the world’s most diversified rotor-wing operator, and serves agriculture, construction, forestry, health, peacekeeping, petroleum, and utility industries. The division also provides helicopter airframe and component management services, including repair and overhaul.
3) Evergreen Aviation Ground Logistics Enterprises provides full-service ground handling and express logistics serving 38 major airports in the United States.
4) Evergreen Aircraft Sales and Leasing specializes in matching machines to missions through managing the acquisition, trade, lease, and sale of aircraft assets.
5) Evergreen Air Center is an unlimited aircraft overhaul and repair station. This maintenance center is the world’s largest commercial aircraft storage facility, and provides maintenance services to major airline fleets and NASA’s shuttle aircraft carriers.

Smith has also been on several high influential boards. He was on the National Transportation Defense Association Airlift Committee Board of Directors, Chairman of the Board of the Helicopter Association International and was founder of its Economics Committee, and Air Transportation Board of Directors.

Some of the awards Smith has earned are of great value.  
Mr. Smith is the recipient of:
• The Horatio Alger Award for Distinguished Americans
• The Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy
• The Napoleon Hill Gold Medal Award of Entrepreneurial Achievement
• The Helicopter Association International Lawrence D. Bell Memorial Award
• Professional Pilot Aviation’s Humanitarian of the Year Award
• Museum of Flight Pathfinder Award
• Kaman Heroism Award
• World Vision Contributor Award
• Free Enterprise Award
• Boy Scouts of America Silver Beaver Award
• P.O.E. Leadership Award
• Optimist Club Leadership Award
• Chamber of Commerce First Citizen of the Year Award
• National Transportation Award

Chinese Taking The Step Into Manufacuring

The Chinese government officially approved the launch of China Commercial Aircraft in 2008. That makes major jet manufacturing economy very new, but is taking major leaps forward. They plan to have the first set of jets designed and made in China roll of the line by 2020.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China has projected that Chinese carriers’ passenger numbers will increase from 230 million in 2009 to 700 million by 2020 and 1.5 billion by 2030. This means that they are getting into the business in the nick of time.

 
The news has to be getting executives at Boeing and Airbus a bit nevus. Asian airlines are expected to buy nearly 10,000 new planes by 2025, with more than 2,200 of those going to Chinese airlines. Currently they are a hug market that give Boeing a major part of their business currently. The production of the C919 could pose a real threat to Boeing's presence thin China.

The C919 is still in production,  according to China Every Day, and is expected to undergo test flights by 2014. If they succeed there, they will be ready to be delivered by 2016. They also already have 100 orders by Major Chines Airliners. A step Has already been taken to put the Chinese as a major competitor to American and French companies.

This makes hug room for job opportunities. The Chinese aren't dumb by any means in airliner manufacturing. The China Aviation Industries Corporation (AVIC-I) produces components for Boeing’s 747 and 787 widebodies and operates a final assembly line for the Airbus A320. They will still need people to help that have experience. This would give hug room for managers in aviation to come and help fill these high level managing jobs.

As for pilots, there will be a hug increase in Airline traffic. That means they need pilots and, traditionally, they love American pilots. So this could be one of the biggest pilot hiring job markets in the world in a few years.

Leaving room for thought. If your a pilot or an Aviation management major in desperate need for a job. Your best bet might be to look of something in the Asian market.
  

NETJET

    The corporate department i chose is NETJET. They hire their services out. They are a fractional ownership company. They operate in 170 countries and operate 285,000 flight annually. IN the U.S they operate under part 135. The maintain 800 aircraft, consisting of 18 different types ranging from 6 to 18 passengers.Some of the aircraft are Citation, Hawker, Gulfstream, and Falcon aircraft.
 
The qualifications for  pilot are:

• Airline Transport Pilot Certificate (Multi-Engine Land)
• Current FAA First Class Medical certificate
• 2500 hours total pilot time
• 500 hours fixed wing multi-engine time
• 250 hours instrument time (actual or simulated in flight - excludes simulator time)

They offer:

• Excellent salary
• Complete medical benefits effective upon date of hire
• 401K plan with company matching
• Life and AD&D benefits
• Paid time off
• Annual vacation time:
  - 1 to 4 years of completed service = 2 weeks
  - 5 to 9 years of completed service = 3 weeks
  - 10 + years of completed service = 4 weeks
• Company provided uniforms and generous annual replacement credits 
• Generous meal allowance
• Travel and hotel expenses

• Job flexibility
  NetJets pilots have the ultimate in job flexibility
• They can live just about anywhere, choosing from among 100 crew bases in the U.S.
• They can choose from three types of work schedules:
         - 7 Days On  / 7 Days Off
         - 18 Day Fixed
         - 15 Day Flex 

For the Business Intelligence project manger position,The duties are:

1. 20%: •     Provides subject matter expertise and consultation to business units and colleagues in Technology Services in the design, development and implementation of reporting systems, data marts and data analytics applications.   Promotes best practices for the effective and efficient retrieval and delivery of data from NetJets computer systems.
2. 30%: •     Manages the sourcing, implementation, maintenance and support of company reporting application systems, including Hyperion (Brio) Reports, SQR and Intelligence.  Researches and makes recommendations on system enhancements and new, advanced technologies for business intelligence, data marts, analytics and reporting.  Oversees prompt and effective resolution of trouble reports and outages involving the reporting systems environment.     
3. 20%: •     Leads projects and activities to structure database views and queries, define and manage metadata, define common metrics and data elements, develop real-time and historical report output, streamline report outputs and schedules, and provide structured end-user training and guidance.
4. 20%: •     Manages personnel who staff the Reporting Systems team. Balances workload, defines objectives and assigns work assignments, coaches and trains, and executes performance evaluations
5. 10%        Develops, manages and optimizes the annual budget and expenditures for analytics, reporting and data warehouse related initiatives and systems. Provides related tactical and long-range financial planning and analysis.

Qaulifications are:

Expert level Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence credentials/experience.

Expert level experience with BI Program Governance

Proven experience with all ROI calculations associated with DW/BI environments

Proven Experience with DW/BI Project/Program Management and Risk analysis/mitigation

Experience with Enterprise reporting environments

Experience with industry leading enterprise reporting and analysis tools

Experience with industry leading EAI/BPI and ETL tools

Experience with Data Quality impacts on the entereprise

Demonstrated strong oral and written communication and presentation skills.

The Future of Space Travel

"The New Space Economy is Getting Real." To me, that is saying that there is now a real profit driven push to make it to space. Commercial space travel is in reach and the first to make it happen will be able to monopolize on it.

Space travel has been a topic for a while no. NASA's last shuttle lunch and private companies push to make it into orbit, have been to major reasons. the next 25 years of space travel may be able to be defined by two distinct motives and theologies. there will be private companion driven by profit and the government run entities based of exploration.Government entities will also have the responsibility to stimulate and make sure space travel stays profitable.

An article called "Space Future Tourism Industry In 2030" lays out what the private sector will look like. according to the article if some $12 billion of funding became available in the near future, commercial passenger space travel services to and from Earth orbit could begin in 2010. At a growth rate of some 100,000 passengers/year/year the business could reach 700,000 passengers/ year by 2017, at a price of about $25,000 /passenger. the next 25-30 years will be defied by low orbit travel. On that scenario 30 years from now would imply average growth rates of 18% - 26%/year through the decade 2020-2030, which are certainly feasible. If that where to happen the hotel industry would become very involved. So in the next 25 years, we would see daily commercial flight to hotels that are in low orbit.

NASA has a very different goal in mind. The recently released "The Global Exploration Roadmap."
The initial goal is to make to to the Moon and set up a permanent base with routine trips. this is only to train and prepare for going to Mars and beyond. These are all major goal for the traditional purpose. Search for life extend, human presence, and enhance Earth safety. the have an added goal though. they want to stimulate the economy by stimulating exportation. in short they want to take the next step to long rage exportation, and stimulate private sector.

So to put all this in one thought. There is still the historical goal for space travel. That is explore and research. But there is also a new segment coming into picture. It is to make it to space and profit from it. that included space tourism, and hotels.

I believe this can benefit mankind if done right. If companies set their gold on low orbit space truism and stop there, we will lose out. If they continue to pursue new efforts that are profit driven, it could lead to moving out future. At the same time the need to be entities there to make sure it is done safely. if it isn't i see failures that could so costly that it hiders the push to explore.

Al these leave a huge need for pilots. there needs to be pilots to fly aircraft that gets to orbit. this could crate a hug boost to the pilot industry. there will also be a big need for technicians to work in the aircraft while in operation. Then there will need to be the infrastructure to support space travel. There is a whole new world of opportunities that come out of this.

Dreamliner

The newest aircraft on the market by Boeing is the 787 dreamliner. Every one is talking about what this aircraft will do got the industry. Let take a moment to see what is going on.

 Boeing forested that about19,400 planes in 2010 to more than 39,500 by 2030. With that the fasted growing rate is fro twin-aisle at about 4.4 percent annually. This, with the demand for high efficient aircraft that can also make to to China, has led Boeing to develop the 787.

Boeing put out two series to the 787. The 8 and 9. The 8 ranges from 7,650 to 8,200 nautical miles and can seat up to 250 pax. Where the 9 series  ranges from 8,000 to 8,500 nautical miles and seats 290 pax. This airplane uses 20 percent less fuel than today's similarly sized airplanes. It will also travel at a similar speed as today's fastest wide bodies, Mach 0.85. Airlines will enjoy more cargo revenue capacity.

The 787 is unlikely aircraft out there today. Compost materials make up 50% of its primary structure. It also has more "leg room" and the window are much bigger to give the pax a better view outside.

I feel that this will shine some positive media onto Boeing, increasing their popularity with the public. this will help them gain more orders and help them peruse newer and more advanced technologies. this will help the industry as well. I believe this might get people exited about flying again. People might want to get out and get aviation back on track for profit

NEXTGEN

NextGen is a complete overhaul of our air traffic system. it will pave the way for point to point flying without way points. It will also help to allow much more tragic in the skies without the congestion. The major difference is that it moves out ATC from a radar based system to a satellite based system.

There are several aspect to the NextGen system that will work together to make it the further of aviation. these include, ADS-B: Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, CATMT: Collaborative Air Traffic Management Technologies, Data Comm: Data Communications, NNEW: Network Enabled Weather, NVS: The National Airspace System Voice System, SWIM: System Wide Information Management, AIRE: The Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions.

The issue that is on mind for just about every one in aviation in the coast and who will pay for it. according to an article in the Davinport post  by Ann Schrader, about $20 billion on the part of the government and about equal in part of airlines. impementing it would reduce delays by 35% and $23 billion in benefits. With that put there in no reason in my mind that airlines should get subsidized for this. they get a great return without it. that is different for General Aviation pilots.

In an article in the General Aviation News,the coast for a general aviation aircraft between $7,000 and $30,000.  There is a great return in information and safety, but not much in financial return. It will be more than the average aircraft owner can not afford this. it would make a major blow to GA. i feel the only way is to subsidize. this way GA pilots can still fly. otherwise i feel that it would take years for the average GA pilots to catch up.

I will say that I am not in favor of user fees. If every one pays for it the burden is much lower. In my opinion every one benefits from aviation in one way or another. With the just in time delivery, aviation has played a hug role. Without it there would be a much longer wait on most good that are produced across the nation and world, thus driving up prices. This is why I feel that the funding should come from taxpayers. if that is not enough then user fees are still acceptable. I feel that user fees should be dependent one the amount used. This would make the majority supporter by airlines and high traffic cargo operations.

Aviation Security Problems

Ever since September 11th, 2001, airport security has secured its place in the news. we had a dramatic change in the way that our government handles security. this was mostly by  adding more personnel and the invention of the TSA. the has also been in huge increase on regulation of carry on items. for most people, this all has been nothing but a hug inconvenience. But is it worth it? the government would like us to believe so, but were are the studies to show it. An article  "Airport Security Not Backed By Solid Evidence," says otherwise.

Eleni Linos and colleagues reviewed evidence for the effectiveness of airport security screening measures and comparing it to the evidence required by the UK National Screening Committee criteria to justify medical screening programmes.
Despite worldwide airport protection costing an estimated $5.6 billion every year, they found no comprehensive studies evaluating the effectiveness of passenger or hand luggage x-ray screening, metal detectors or explosive detection devices. There was also no clear evidence of testing accuracy. For example we know there are countless technologies that can be used to blow up plane. the Current major detection system is metal detectors. Biological explosives do not show up. there are a few other detection methods, but still nothing really show how effective and accurate they really are.

The article goes on to say that the TSA stop 13 million prohibited items. There is no real way of knowing what the harm really was. For all we know it could have been things like a nail clipper or shampoo that was in to big of a bottle.

So in reality our current security is nothing more than show. It may intimidate a few people out of doing anything stupid, but if someone really wanted to there are way to many inconsistencies. For the rest of us, it is just a major hassle. The first real step to to truly evaluate and open it up to academically debate the issue.

Automation Debate

Automation in the cockpit is a big topic of debate lately. Are pilots losing skills? Becoming to complacent to recognize failures? Theses are some of the major questions that need answers.

Mica R. Endsley wrote Automation and Situation Awareness. He goes really in depth on the problems and that benefits of automation. He feels there are several factors that are causing problems.A couple major ones are complacency, and feedback.

Complacency causes on of the biggest problem today, many will argue. pilot tend to trust the system to much. It never seems to fail, so pilots will focus their attention on other tasks and become situationaly unaware. this is and effective coping strategy for a person's  limited attention in  a high attention environment.

Feedback can also lead to problems. It has been known that operators ignore alarms and warning that have a high tendancety to produce failures readings. the way the system provide feedback can cause problems. In some cases, information is replaced with automation that does not provide the same level of information to the pilots. Information can be hidden all together as well.

As of right now there is not standard for automation and the way it presents information to pilots. A pilot may have to learn several differn systems for several different aircraft. If and indecent ever occurs, pilots always revert to training. That may lead to a wrong reasons/action to a cue provided by the automation.

With that said, pilot can very easily be seen as computer operators rather that conventional pilots. This can refined pilot's skills in many ways. One major one is that skill based training will be more focused on computer interpretation than actual flying skills. in a since out take the pilots out of the equation of flying and put in a computer technician.

I am currently a private pilots with my instrument rating. I am also currently working on getting my commercial. all of out Cessna 172's have the G1000. It is a glass cockpit with only a few Standby instruments that are note operated by a computer. at the beginning, most of out time is concentrated on flying without the display map, weather and flight view(follow the magenta line). Now further in we use everything. Once in a while we do have to shut it down and simulate a failure. This is where you only fly by standbys. It really does take a second to get oriented. it makes you appreciate the automation.

When it is all said, I feel there are a few ways the stop complacency and keep pilots skills to conventional pilots standards. the first is training and more training. make sure that they know how to fly without automation before putting them in automation.the second is to make it mandatory that they fly by hand more often. this will keep those skills present.

How Aviation

    I have been interested in flying as long as I can remember. I would always go to the air show and be in

amazement. I wanted to explore the skies and see the world from above. It wasn't later that I realized that is what I wanted to do for a living.

    It was when i was in high school that I realized that being a pilot that I realized that i could do this for a living. I had to to a class project to search for career opportunities. This lead me to search for things in aviation. I quickly realized that becoming a pilot would be a hard road. 

    I looked around and found several colleges that would help me on that road. That solidified my determination to go to school to become a pilot.