Plane Conversations

I recently finished reading Falcon 7 – the new novel by best selling author James Huston. His last book, Marine One, made the NYT best seller list. I needed to try out my I-Pad book reader and Apple has this title in their bookstore so this was the book to try out the I-Pad reader.

James Huston takes aviation, international law, and the world of military special ops intrigue and weaves a story that will not let you put the book (I-Pad) down until you are finished.

The name for the book comes from the new long range business jet the Falcon 7X, manufactured by French company Dassault Falcon. The Falcon 7X is the culmination of state-of-the-art technology in business jet manufacturing and has a non-stop range of 5950 nautical miles at high cruise speeds. The aircraft incorporates fly-by-wire technology that has usually been reserved for airline class aircraft.

The Falcon 7X plays an important role in the book, a role revealed in the first few pages, and it continues to play a part in the plot as the story progresses.

For aviation lovers, the book includes great scenes involving helicopters, low level flying, FA-18 fighters and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

James Huston is an attorney with a practice in international and aviation law. He was also a Top Gun Naval aviator and flew the F14. He has used his knowledge of aviation and law to tell the story that will keep you spellbound and will convince you that this could really happen..  

The book starts with an FA-18 over the skies of Afghanistan on what was to be a routine mission. While on their flight back to ship, the crew is diverted to a target across the border in Pakistan. After making what was assumed to be a bomb drop on a terrorist meeting site, things start to go wrong, the aircraft is shot down and the crew ejects.

I won’t go farther in the story and give it away. If you like aviation and you like to read Grisham novels you will love this book.

Buy it in the airline terminal or at the Apple Book Store on your I-Pad and it will get you through a long stay in the terminal or a cramped and boring international flight.

You will wish you were in the back of the Falcon 7X instead of the coach seat in the back of the Boeing; but, you will not want to go where the Falcon 7X takes the characters in this story.

In the New York times bestselling book, Delivering Happiness, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (pronounced “Shay”) chronicles the rise of Zappos .com from obscurity to profitability and finally to its now infamous  1.2 billion dollar acquisition by Amazon.com .  He outlines Zappos’ legendary focus on customer service and corporate culture.   As I read Hsieh’s book, I couldn’t help but imagine the possibilities and implications for those of us who love flying and aviation related businesses.

In the introduction, Hsieh, takes us into his thoughts as he prepares to announce to Zappos’ employees that Amazon was acquiring the company.  While the media was focused on the sheer size of the deal, Hsieh’s thoughts were elsewhere:

 “To all of us in the room, we knew it wasn’t just about the money.  Together, we had built a business that combined profits, passion, and purpose.  And we knew that it wasn’t just about building a business.  It was about building a lifestyle that was about delivering happiness to everyone, including ourselves.”¹

There are several things noteworthy in this quote.  One is the sense of team that you feel.  Hsieh speaks in terms of “us”  and “together”.  Clearly the focus is on something more than the bottom line.  Words such as “passion”, “purpose”, “lifestyle” and “happiness” all speak to the company’s core values and goals.  Hsieh notes later that, “We decided that we wanted to build our brand to be about the very best customer service and the very best customer experience.” ²  What Zappos discovered was that by creating a culture centered on these values and expectations,  profitability developed.  

 Zappo’s Rabid Dedication to the Customer & Employee

As I read, I would often seek out my wife to read her passages (some guys read poetry to their wives…so much for romance!)  I would begin with saying, “Can you believe that a company would do this?”   Here are a few examples: 

• Customer service that includes free, unannounced upgrades in shipping.  You place an order for shoes that should take 4 days to arrive and without warning –for free—they’re on your doorstep the next day.
• A reward system for employees for pursuing personal development.  A lending library of the best personal growth books was created in the lobby to do just this.
• Free shipping on all orders…and if the shoes don’t fit you can send them back for free!
• If they don’t have the shoe in stock, they will research three competitor’s websites and will direct the customer to the competitor.
• In 2008, Zappo’s was faced with making a round of layoffs.  Instead of the standard 2-week severance, they offered to pay each employee through the end of the year (which at the time was about 2 months).  They paid an additional amount for those who had been with the company 3 or more years.  They reimbursed laid-off employees for 6 months of COBRA payments.

This made me want to buy shoes, just to have the Zappos experience.  Which is exactly the point- the experience.

 The Zappos Experience- Happiness

In 2009 Zappos inserted a simple statement into their vision that reflects the underlying core value that is at the heart of their company.  It says, “Zappos is about delivering happiness to the world.”³

Hsieh and Zappos are not talking about some “fuzzy” notion of happiness, which many people equate with silly giddiness.  Instead, Hsieh studied the concept of what makes people happy and investigated ways to integrate his findings into his company.  In his book, he offers several frameworks to consider, such as our need for perceived control in our lives (having a say in our future and in our work), perceived progress (we can see that we are going somewhere—don’t we all hate “dead-end” jobs?), connectedness (being in relationships that are truly fulfilling) and meaning/vision (being a part of something larger than ourselves that we believe in). 

This type of corporate emphasis helped develop a company culture that focused on amazing customer service, which aimed ultimately at customer happiness.   While Zappos was certainly concerned with profitability and bottom line, they managed to never lose sight of the crucial importance of what they were delivering, but how.  I think this begins to intersect and have application for the aviation industry. 

What if a flight school moved into the realm of radical customer service?

As an industry it simply doesn’t appear that we’re asking the customer experience question.  And yet, in some ways, flying is all about experience.  It’s built into the act of flying.  But what isn’t built in is how we attract and retain customers by giving them an experience of service.  

For instance, let’s consider flight training.  How do we attract and engage the customer before they officially become a customer?  What could we do to serve them before we’re asking for their money?  

• How about having a pleasant lobby area and facilities that are well kept?  (Seriously, the urinal that overflows regularly should be fixed. Gross.)
• How about having snacks available for free?
• Coupons (have any Flight Schools tried Groupon.com) for flights?
• Free airplane rides.  Publicize well, donate a couple of hours on a Saturday to give rides to the community.
• Flight training material professionally produced and ready to be given to the new student.
• Aircraft that are clean, up-to-date, and well-maintained.  (If your preflight involves duct-tape, think again.)

 As a customer, what kind of experience might we give our customers if we:

• Randomly chose a student to receive a free hour of instruction?  They come in from the flight line only to discover they owe nothing. 
• Instead of having them buy more and more books and videos, develop a lending library
• If you have access to a twin or jet and space permits, let your student go for a ride
• Quarterly celebrations for new solos and new licenses.  Could be as simple as a cookout at the airport in honor of these new pilots. 
• Encouraged lifelong learning by giving seminars and offering guest speakers to the larger aviation community

What about instructors?

• Incentives for recruiting (Bonus for giving 5 or more discovery flights…extra for each one who begins training) 
• Bonus for each student who successfully receives their license
• Reward for longevity (create a stable base of instructors)
• Instructor dinners and socializing
• Opportunities for adding new ratings at reduced cost and free recurrency training.

These are just ideas, some of which might be difficult to employ.  How refreshing it would be to potential pilots and employees to discover a flight school with a culture that was geared to providing the best possible service and create what Hsieh calls a “WOW” factor. 

Whether we’re talking about flight schools or maintenance departments or FBO’s, I believe there is something to be learned from Zappos.  Imagine, tomorrow, what it would be like to be “WOWED” by your company in its relationship with you.  Imagine what it would be like to WOW your customers and the transformed relationship with them.   Imagine the impact of those combined experiences, the word of mouth that would ensue, and the absolute fun of being in the flying business.  

It begins with a commitment to developing or changing the culture and embracing a foundational shift towards clearly defined values and competencies that will shape the entire organization.  It is about delivering an experience that is first class and recognizing that our happiness is found not only in profits (which is certainly needed) but in living with passion and purpose. 

If Hsieh and Zappos can do it with shoes,  I believe we can certainly do it with airplanes. 

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose, Tony Hsieh, Business Plus, New York: NY, 2010

 1. Page 11

2. Page 121

3. Page 177

As I’ve mentioned before, my father is a forester and he has always said that there are no better conservationists than his colleagues.  If they don’t take care to preserve the natural resources, foresters work themselves right out of a job.  If you harvest a tree, you plant one in its place, keeping the supply renewed and the resource in balance.  Compared with this “if you use it, you replace it” philosophy, buying carbon credits has the feel of hiring a penitent.  In theory, environmental or moral transgressions are atoned.  And, while I suppose hiring someone to offset one’s carbon footprint is better than doing nothing, that emperor still appears naked to me. 

The transportation industry, in general, and the aviation industry, in particular, has an enormous carbon footprint.  For years, the industry has sought to reduce costs by increasing fuel efficiency, enjoying reduced emissions more as a happy by-product than an actual goal.  Recently, however, there has been something of an ideology shift.  I don’t know that anyone is willing to increase costs to decrease emissions, but certainly, more players in the industry are willing to see cleaner burning, sustainable fuel as a goal in itself.  The shift from “wouldn’t it be nice if” to “how can we do this” can be seen in the developing partnerships.  These aren’t mad scientists cooking up fuels in their garages.  These are Boeing, British Airways, Rolls-Royce developing fuels or partnering with visionary companies like Solena, Solazyme and Honeywell’s UOP.  Big money and big aviation experience are teaming up with big innovation to do something good for both our industry and our planet.  We use  fuel resources and air; and, we are nearing a time when we can renew the one resource while lowering pollutants in the other.  It’s no wonder excitement is growing. 

Flightglobal reports that at the recent air show in Farnborough, England, Richard Altman, executive director of the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative went so far as to say that current technologies “can contribute on a significant level to achieving carbon neutral growth – it’s happening and it’s happening now.”  And it’s happening from different sources.  On March 25, 2010, a United States Air Force A-10 flew its first flight using a blend of conventional JP-8 jet fuel and biomass fuel derived from the camelina plant, like those fuels produced by Alt-Air and Sustainable Oils.  As we discussed on 26 May, Brazil has a dynamic bio-fuels industry currently based on ethanol production from sugar cane. Darpa and others are closing in on an economical process to produce jet fuel from algae.  And Honeywell’s Green Jet Fuel (a blend of fuels from algae and used cooking oil) was used in the first biofuel-powered helicopter flight by the Royal Netherlands Air Force in June. 

The majority of news reports in the United States for the past three months have been stories on the catastrophic oil rig explosion and subsequent spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  China saw a Yellow Sea oil spill of nearly 28 million gallons around the same time.  As I watched those reports, I kept thinking of the progress in bio-fuel production.  Imagine how algal fuel production would eliminate the possibility of such a disaster – how months of clean-up and decontamination could be replaced by a flock of ducks.  Now, you’re really talking carbon neutral and that emperor’s new clothes look good.

Chris Davis is an aviation insurance specialist and Manager of the Light Aircraft Division at CS&A Aviation Insurance. He is passionate about aviation and active in the Experimental Aircraft Association where he currently serves as the Secretary / Treasurer as well as the Newsletter Editor for Chapter 863. He is also active in the Warbirds of America as well as holding the rank of Colonel in the Commemorative Air Force.  His lifelong passion for aviation and various experiences give him an advantage in an industry where aviation safety and risk management are the focus.

We love to hear stories from other aviation enthusiasts and professionals, so here is a blog Chris wrote from the blogsite www.clearontop.com.  

Planes, Training and $100 Pancakes by Chris Davis.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! The alarm sounds so much louder at 05:30 on a Saturday morning than it does during the week, but what a sweet sound it makes. Today is the 3rd Saturday of the month and that means pancakes for breakfast. I ease out of bed, get dressed, kiss my wife goodbye and head to my sons room. Jacob is only 2 ½ , but he loves pancakes almost as much as he loves to fly…combine the 2 elements and it will wake him up faster than a double shot of espresso.

  The sun begins to rise over the hills as we arrive at the airport to drag our steed from it’s hangar. We begin our walk around and the chilly morning air sends a little shiver through my body. Prop; check…Tires; check…Leading Edge; check…Fuel; clean and free of water…Control surfaces; free and correct. My dutiful co-pilot follows my every move, double checking each item on the pre-flight walk around. He faithfully asks the inevitable question at every item we check. Daddy, why? With all items satisfactory we enter the aircraft and strap in. Master switch: ON…Mixture: FULL…Boost pump: ON…as I lean my head out the window to check for prop clearance my co-pilot beats me to the punch “Keer Pop” he yells, with a grin so big his headset falls down around his chin. As the Maule breaks the morning silence, we turn on the avionics and enter 3M5 into the GPS. “Let’s go to Moontown and get some pancakes daddy!” I wiggle the rudder a bit to lock in the tailwheel and we begin our journey.

Our trip to breakfast usually takes about an hour and (thanks to my co-pilot) is filled with many steep turns, stalls, and floaters…the floaters are Jacobs favorite since he gets to be weightless for a few seconds. Often times we will join up with a few buddies for our breakfast journey and we use the trip to brush up on our formation flying maneuvers. All too quickly we make it to Moontown and enter the increasingly busy pattern to land. After demonstrating the proper soft field landing techniques to Jacob we taxi off the active runway and proceed to park. Breakfast seems to hit just the right spot as we sit around the picnic table and play “name that plane”. I talk shop with other pilots as Jacob finishes his second round of pancakes and then we proceed to walk down the growing flight line for some more hands on education.

Hidden amidst the tailwheels, trikes, amphibs and warbirds are a multitude of questions just waiting to be answered. Daddy, what kind of airplane is that? Why? What is the little wheel on the back for? Why? What makes it fly? Why? Why does it have two wings instead of one? I answer the questions one by one, often repeating the same question multiple times. Upon reaching the end of the current flight line we sit in the shade of an old Stearmans wings and watch the new arrivals as they land. How appropriate that we rest beneath an old trainer as I teach a future pilot.

The phone rings…a call from my wife signals that our kitchen pass will soon expire. The time has come for the men of the house to return home, the ladies have made plans for our afternoon. On the return flight my co-pilot reaches his duty limit…eyes closed and leaning against the window, his headset slowly begins to slide down. It is a quiet trip back to the hangar. This has been a fun trip and a very educational one for both of us…only 4 more weeks until we get to do it again.

Often times I hear light aircraft pilots complain about their insurance company requiring completion of an annual Flight Review or X number of dual hours prior to solo in a new aircraft. Just like my son, I have to ask why? Why are pilots complaining about having an excuse to fly? Many of the pilots who complain about the training requirements are the same ones that I will see at a pancake breakfast or local fly in. If I was a CFI and Jacob was older, he could receive his flight review endorsement each time we head out for pancakes provided we follow a few simple guidelines.

FAR 61.56 states: a flight review consists of a minimum of 1 hour of flight training and 1 hour of ground training. The review must include: (1) A review of the current general operating and flight rules of Part 91; and (2) A review of those maneuvers and procedures that, at the discretion of the person giving the review, are necessary for the pilot to demonstrate the safe exercise of the privileges of the pilot certificate.

Get a little creative. Find a local CFI and offer to pay his way to a fly-in breakfast in exchange for a flight review. Combine free breakfast with free flight time and most any pilot will jump at the chance.   If a fly-in is not your thing, consider getting some tailwheel training or some formal formation training. Both of these areas will greatly improve your situational awareness as well as hone your flying skills. You will learn to anticipate and lead the aircraft to where you want it to go instead of directing its actions as you ride along. Tailwheel training will improve your precision on landings as well as focus your attention during ground handling. Formation training will teach you to plan ahead and to fly very smooth and precise as well as teach you how to pay close attention to detail.

No matter what form of training you choose, it is only as good as the effort that you put into it. Why continue to dread the flight reviews and proficiency checks only to forget what you learned before your next flight? Make the training something to look forward to…plan your next flight review around an upcoming event and enjoy the training. I guarantee you will get much more out of it and you will find yourself looking for more excuses to train.

Every time I take Jacob flying he is learning and asking why. In some ways he is my best little instructor. He reminds me that I should always be asking “why?” as I too am still learning to fly.

Clear skies and tailwinds!

Being Australian, July 4^th was more about fireworks and grilling out than commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, as Americans do each year.   But as of now, Independence Day is exactly that for me.  It’s the day I took my first solo flight in the Katana DA-20.  It’s the day I independently flew an airplane, solo.  It’s a day I will never forget.

I wasn’t one of those people who grew up dreaming of flying.  I am just a girl who found herself one day working in the field of aviation.  Each and every day I would look out of my office window (which overlooks the ramp at KMQY) and see a multitude of large and small airplanes taxi up and park in front of my wall of glass windows.  It was bound to happen one day…..the day I decided I wanted to fly one.

It has not been an easy journey for me, getting to the stage of soloing.  I’ve had to overcome some discomfort of learning maneuvers which had me feeling as though I was about to fall out of the sky.  I didn’t.  I’ve had to bring an airplane down to land, fishtailing down the runway and trying to get it back on the center line.  But I got it down.  I’ve had to make myself put my head in the books when everyone else was out enjoying the gorgeous Tennessee weather.  And I’ve had to overcome the fear of flying the Katana without my instructor Kirk in the right seat, there to assist if needed.

I knew I was going to be soloing on Sunday the 4^th of July.  I made sure I was there early so the air was smooth and free of “bumps”, so the winds were calm, and I could just concentrate on flying the pattern and bringing her down for nice soft landings.  I thought I would have been more nervous.  I was much more nervous the weeks before when I knew my solo was coming up.  But honestly, on the day, while driving my car to the airport, I was relaxed and excited.  I was even singing in the car as my favorite song came on.  It was definitely the day!  I was feeling good.

So, Kirk and I took off and flew around in the pattern for three touch and goes.  All fine.  None messy, so that was a good sign.  He then told me to taxi and park in front of the FBO.  That was it!  That was the queue that I was about to do this all on my own.  I didn’t really even say much, I just pulled up and halfway heard him say to go and do three take offs and landings.  I was thinking about everything I’ve learnt, and how I have to do everything just as I had done many times before.  So I did.

When the wheels left the ground on my first takeoff, there was no going back.  I just kept talking my way through everything I needed to do.  “Pitch for 65….pitch for 65….flaps out….pitch for 75……right turn out…..power back at 1500ft….”.  And everything just happened as it was supposed to.   My first two landings were fine.  Not perfect, but pretty darn good.  Coming in for my third I was thinking I was going to nail it.  Three great landings on my solo flight!  Um, well, I was coming in a little fast, landed, then bounced back up to fly for a little more.  “Ok, power’s on idle right?  Yep.  Ok, well, just flare again Rachel”,  I told myself as I came back down onto the runway.  My third landing wasn’t so hot, but I didn’t care.  I’d just done something which only weeks earlier I thought I’d never do without Kirk being beside me.  It’s quite liberating, and for all the times I thought I couldn’t do, I was elated to have just proven to myself that I could.  I was proud of myself, and even happy to have Kirk cut the back out of my t-shirt (an American flying tradition).  It meant I was one step closer to being part of the club.  A pilot.   

I was told the other day that it’s all downhill from the solo.  NO WAY.  There’s still so much more.  There’s the solo cross-country, the 10 takeoff and landings at night (the first one of those was not so hot), the written test and the check ride.  Sigh…..I guess there’s a few more blogs coming then, eh?

Arranging travel isn’t rocket science, but there’s a lot more to it than throwing your suitcases into the trunk of your car.  Garden gnomes and Negotiators are on our televisions telling us how much we would have or could have saved if only we had consulted their websites before we actually spent money.    Some of their claims are likely true, others more along the lines of wishful thinking.  Regardless, their main point is valid – if you pay attention to just a few things, you can squeeze a little more out of your travel budget.

1.  Autoclub and similar memberships can save enough with just a few nights’ hotel stay to pay for themselves.  Beyond roadside assistance, maps, savings on prescriptions, at theme parks and at restaurants, a $64 AAA membership can save you money on airport parking (up to 15% in Nashville, Atlanta and Ft. Lauderdale) and on hotels ($9 per night at the Kansas City Marriott Downtown).  So, even with that relatively small discount, you’ve paid for the membership with all its benefits in just seven hotel nights.  Some credit card and frequent flier groups also offer discounts.  It’s worth your time to check your memberships to take advantage of all of the features.

2. International travel is cheaper Tuesday through Thursday.  As of today, if you depart on Tuesday, July 13, and return on Tuesday, the 20th, the lowest non-stop American Airlines ticket price with a two-week advance purchase is $1315.40, including taxes.  For the same trip on Saturdays with a departure on 17th and a return on the 24th, the lowest non-stop ticket price is 1560.40.  So, if you’re planning to go to the UK for a week, you’ll have more money for bangers and mash if you fly on Tuesdays.

3.  Depending on the size and weight of your luggage, you may be better off to ship your clothes to your destination than to check it, especially on your return.  A large flat rate box from the United States Postal Service ships domestically for $13.95.  Granted, the 12″ x 12″ x 5 1/2″ box isn’t all that roomy; but, if you pack it carefully, you can fit the contents of a small suitcase into two of them.  So for $27.90, you can ship the contents of your second suitcase directly from your hotel in Seattle to your home in Baton Rouge rather than paying the airline $35.00.

4.  Back-to-back ticketing can save huge amounts of money, but is forbidden by most airlines.  However, if you are traveling on different carriers along the same route, you are using each carrier’s ticket as the routing and dates are defined.  While the carriers may still get in a twist over this, you’ve abided by each carrier’s rules.

5.  A good travel agent can find better fares and better routings than online booking sites, particularly for international travel.   The computer reservations systems (CRS) that travel agencies use have access to more inventory than online resources – or at least any on-line resource I’ve ever found.  This allows a travel agent to get you the best ticket price for the set of rules you want.  If you want to purchase a fully non-refundable ticket from Omaha to Sacramento, an online service may work fine.   However, here’s a little trick I learned as a travel agent: when an agent is pricing an itinerary, she can ask the computer to price it like it is booked, to give the lowest possible fare on that itinerary or she can ask it to give the lowest non-penalty fare.   In my Fare Game post, I told you about inventory buckets.  There may be more than one coach class non-penalty fare code.  The fare code for that is often noted with the letter Y; however, sometimes it’s noted with other letters like B.  Neither fare is restricted, but the B fare may be $50 cheaper than the Y fare for the same seat with the same set of restrictions.  You will not see these differences on most online ticketing sites, but the travel agent can see them easily.  In addition to being able to see inventory, travel agents can see more schedules than the online sites offer.  When we were operating an aircraft in Western Africa, I called Jan, a former colleague when I was a travel agent.  Without exception, Jan was able to get us better fares and schedules on British Airways than we were able to get on even British Airways’ website.  She saved us more money than she charged in her fee and her efforts on our  behalf were worth it at twice the price. 

6.  Air charter can be more cost effective than airline travel.  Even now, there are many people who assume that a private plane is out of their budgets.  And, while a private plane isn’t always the most cost effective solution, it’s worth asking the question.  We’ve posted a couple of posts on this subject: my article, Eleven Hours to Texarkana and Allen Howell’s Real World Efficiency From Business Aviation, both articles give real world, actual examples of how people actually saved both time and money by using business aviation.  If you wonder how using a private aircraft compares to air mass-transit for your trip, call a charter operator.  They will be happy to look at the trip for you and it costs nothing to ask the question.

The economy is picking up and things are beginning to move again.  That doesn’t mean that we aren’t all still trying to get the biggest bang for our travel buck.  By remembering these keys, you can make your budget go a little further without turning every trip into a time and energy pit.

If you do then something is wrong with the airline system or your employees.

I will vote for a broken airline system.

Thinking about a recent NY Times article by Lisa Galst entitled “Rewarded for Flying Coach” makes me smile as I write this.

What is the world coming to when you have to pay your employees extra for the misery of riding in the back of the aircraft in the cheap seats as opposed to booking the more comfy seats up front? Sounds like hazardous duty pay to me.

I have never heard any of our clients having to incentivize their employees to take a flight on a private aircraft. In fact it is sometimes the other way around. Last week when talking to one of our good clients he was telling me that he uses the flights he books to see his clients as a morale booster for his employees. Those who travel with him are excited about the experience and when they get back to the office everyone else hears about how cool it was.

With all that is happening in the airline industry:

• reduced capacity resulting in high load factors which equals crowded airplanes
• oversold flights and increases in denied boarding
• cancellations due to the new tarmac rules
• a la carte fees for everything the ticket no longer buys you

Is it any surprise that people just don’t want to do this anymore?

And the federal government has the idea that they can step in and solve the problem with legislation to make it against the law to provide bad service.

Private aviation and business aviation are sitting on a gold mine of opportunity.

What if these companies took the money they are spending to incentivize their employees to fly coach and used it to fly more in private aircraft?  They would get happier employees and gain a lot of productivity by not sending them through a hub that is cheaper to save a buck. Besides, with business aviation there is no such thing as routing through a hub. Its all point to point.

Thanks to Forbes.com and Managing Editor Carl Lavin for giving business and private aviation a voice on their site.

Two weeks ago, Forbes.com started a new blog site called Wheels Up  to give a forum for conversations to those of us in the business of business aviation and to private aviators as well.

I was fortunate to be asked to contribute posts along with others including Plane Conversations and CFMCharter friends Clint White , Susan Friedenberg and new friends Jeffrey Reich,  and Jeremy R.C. Cox.

Other contributors so far include passionate private aviators Pierre de Fermor, Michelle C. Torres-Grant, and Carl Lavin weighing in from Forbes.com perspective.

This is great for our industry to get the opportunity to share our stories and engage in conversations with the Forbes readers about the value proposition of business and private aviation. Maybe we will no longer be the best kept secret?

The social media conscious people in our industry need to support Forbes efforts by promoting this new site with Tweets, Facebook and Linked In sharing of the posts, and most importantly, by engaging in the conversation through comments on the site. As we generate traffic and interest, and bring the conversation to the traveling public, we will all benefit.

From looking at the site daily it appears that we are getting some good traction and this is just the beginning.

Happy Fathers Day to all of you who are Dads. Being a father is the most important job we have! 

Have a great rest of the weekend.

A business aircraft is a productivity tool. It is no different than any other tool we use in business to become more productive. It has a cost and it brings, or should bring, value. The value has to exceed the cost. If it does then we get a positive rate of return on the investment. If the value does not exceed cost then it is not a good investment.

All of the mainstream and social media conversations about the “extravagance” or “corporate excess” associated with the business jet play well with the anti big business crowds and populist politicians, but they lack substance. So far, these conversations have had nothing to do with the reality of what a business aircraft does to enhance the productivity of a company and its most valuable assets – its people.

The discussion about the value of business aircraft should be all about productivity. If using business aircraft increases the productivity of an organization, and the measured gain in productivity exceeds the cost, then it makes sense. Bottom line!

I just purchased an iPad. I can use this device to increase my productivity in internet research and communications or I can play games on it. How I choose to use it doesn’t make it inherently good or bad. How I use it does determine its value in my personal and business productivity.

In that way, a business jet is no different than an iPad.

Those of us in business aviation need to do a better job of first understanding, and then selling the value proposition of business aircraft as a tool to enhance productivity.

Billions of dollars have been spent in research and development of new high technology aircraft that will take us higher, faster and further on less fuel.  All the while, business aviation has invested very little in the technology to truly measure the enhancement of productivity gained by flying in a private aircraft. It is not just the time saved that we need to measure and quantify. What about the social and physiological experience of travel and its effects on human productivity and creativity?

Additionally, we should invest in the technology to learn how to better utilize the business aircraft to bring the costs down. How do we cut the inefficiencies of business aviation without reducing the experience?

An industry-wide increase in the efficient use of the business aircraft coupled with a measurable understanding of the value would do more than just silence the naysayers. More importantly, it would grow the industry that supports business aviation and bring an innovative increase in the productivity of our economy.

Delta’s new way of booking airline and charter flights together through Delta Air Elite.

There is not much in the way of innovation in business aviation to report or discuss in the past 30 days. Innovation in our industry seems to be coming in increments measured in inches not miles.

Apple is on a constant innovation track with a new I-Phone this week and the I-Pad has sold over 2 million in a couple months. It seems that every few weeks new functionality comes into the mobile computing market to enhance productivity.  Innovation in the technology sector continues to happen at an ever increasing rate, and meanwhile our industry of private aviation creeps along. Isn’t aviation supposed to be about productivity much like computing technology?

Delta and its subsidiary Delta AirElite are making a valiant attempt at innovation with the announcement  that their customers can book segments on the airline and the private jet in a seamless transaction.

What Delta doesn’t say is that private jet travel is still expensive. More expensive than the majority of their customers can afford, so the announcement is really geared towards the users of private jet service to let them know they can also book their first class tickets to Europe at the same time they book the private jet to get them to the gateway airport. And at the end of the day airline service is still airline service working within a broken system – not the sole fault of the airlines in my opinion, but broken nonetheless.

If ever an industry was begging for innovation it is the aviation industry. Aviation is especially in need of innovation at the point of service delivery – that point where passengers get on the aircraft to travel.

On one side people are fed up with the increasing hassle of flying via the airlines and on the other side, where the experience of flying in a private jet is great, for most the cost is prohibitive.

It is really a shame that we can’t figure out how to bring the price gap closer.  Innovation on the private aviation side might even pull the airlines up a notch.  Especially if the airlines wake up and find the business traveler defecting to a different mode of air travel.