Plane Conversations

Social Marketing has revolutionized business.  The ability to reach, communicate, and build relationships with customers has never been more accessible (at little or no cost) than it is today.  Far from a “flash in the pan” gimmick, social media marketing using tools such as Twitter and Facebook are here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future or until the next generation of marketing emerges.  The company that engages in intentional social media marketing is vastly extending its reach and its potential client base.

Today consumers research and engage businesses online long before they click “Order” on a product or darken the door of a business.  A 2009 study by Pew Research showed that people with higher income and/or education levels were the most likely to research online –87% of college graduates and 88% of those earning more than $75,000.1  This demographic is very much in line with the income and educational levels of those likely to involve themselves in flight training and other aviation related products and services.   Specifically in regards to social media, the same Pew study demonstrated that nearly half of Americans use social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn.2   Additionally , a recent Nielson survey reported in Entreprenuer magazine found that almost of quarter of consumer’s online time is spent on social networks.3

If our goal is to raise visibility and awareness of our products and services, then it follows that social media should not be neglected.  Simply put, if we want to be where the customers are and then we should be in the social media marketplace.

Are you ready to engage?

1.  http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=136747

2.  Ibid, mediapost.com #1

3.  “Baking, Listening & Selling” Entrepreneur Magazine, February 2011, page 61

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So often we allow ourselves to get bogged down by our own thoughts and habits.  Year-end reflections remind us that there are things we should stop doing and that there are valid reasons for changing our behavior.  I think that today I’ll avoid dwelling on those thoughts that mire down my thinking and, instead, focus on a vision of the value that change can bring.

Checking the clock for the tenth time, she sees the hands creeping towards midnight.  In the nearly abandoned library, a college freshman furiously scratches out the last half-page of her calculus homework thinking, “Maybe I’m not cut out for this.”  A vibrating alert signals a message.  Opening her phone, she scrolls through a list of updates (hmm…that party is looking more inviting); but, the newest message, marked with an airplane icon, simply reads, “Thought you’d like this story.” The link is from Mike, her study partner in aero class.  She clicks on the link to discover that it’s a first-hand account of the first flight of the X-99 including a video of the landing.  She dives back into her assignment with a determined smile…Inspire.

Late one Friday afternoon, a test pilot looks at the test cards for a new commercial aircraft terrain avoidance system.  This is the third weekend in a row that he’s had to work late.  The cutbacks are wearing him down.  Something stirs in his mind, a distant memory of another test program—F-16 advanced ground collision avoidance testing.  Something in that distant memory tickles his mind.  What was it?! He opens his laptop, opens Google Reader, enters search terms; and, there it is – a blog shared by his chief test pilot detailing the test program.  Returning to the current test, he realizes that this altitude isn’t high enough. An FTT performed at that speed and dive angle will almost certainly be unrecoverable.  He knows that delaying tomorrow’s flight won’t be popular, but the test team needs to see this error and that article…Inform.

Rubbing his temples, a college provost reviews the budget…again.  Asking himself which of these programs he will have to cut, one line-item catches his eye.  “How much money does it take to fund a flight research laboratory?” he wonders.  Delaying his decision until after dinner, he goes home to be greeted by his son, excitedly telling him about the newest YouTube video.

            “Watch this dad! A spinning airplane deploys this chute and recovers safely.” The narrator said that the flight test was a joint project between that test pilot school and his university.

            “That’s your work, isn’t it dad?” An email address hyperlink next to the video catches his eye.  Maybe that aero department is worth the money after all…Invest.

Sharing what we do in flight test allows us to inspire, inform, invest, and even innovate. Social media can transform the way we share, multiplying the speed and breadth of our influence on the important people, from students to policy-makers, we want to touch with our message.  After all, one of them might just be the next Chuck Yeager.

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In college, I took a class called International Strategies and Security.  I believe that I may have been the only non-military student in the class which, for a civilian, turned out to be like a Tom Clancy novel – only it lasted for a whole semester.  We discussed technology that just blew my mind.  I had no idea the things that were possible and I’m sure that what blew my mind then is Stone Age compared to what is possible now.

So yesterday, we talked a little bit about test flights Alaska Airlines is conducting to be greener both environmentally and economically.  I think that there is a lot to celebrate with that.  My one concern with their reliance (and more, with NextGen’s reliance) on satellite technology is the increase in solar storms projected over the next few years.  I am curious to see how the technologists will handle it.

Since the systems do rely on satellite communication, they will be vulnerable to solar flares and storms, the kind we discussed back in March, which brings me back to the same concerns I expressed then.  With so many new pilots being trained using only glass cockpits and satellite approaches, what happens when those systems are compromised?  Worse, what happens when those systems are compromised and the pilots don’t know it?  NextGen, RNP, OPD and RVSM (Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum) are all designed to increase efficiency by tightening up the airspace.  This precision puts more aircraft into smaller spaces.  Well, if a pilot was flying along a flight path ten years ago, he might have encountered another aircraft along the same path; but, since neither of them was flying with today’s degree of precision, there was still likely to be a safe distance between the aircraft.  However, with todays’ greater precision, the space is greatly reduced.  If all systems are operating as advertised, that’s no problem.  In fact, it’s positive situation.  However, if solar flares contaminate the positioning information, an aircraft may be hundreds of feet off position and not know it.  If two aircraft are in the same situation, but are separated by only a few hundreds of feet to begin with, well, you do the math.

The Federal Aviation Administration recently awarded $125 million to Boeing and other companies to develop greener aircraft, fuels and technology.   As aircraft become more advanced and the Gee-Whiz factor in them increases, by definition, they get further away from the simple, stick-controlled Stearman.  I love the advances, don’t get me wrong.  I just know that a great many young pilots are learning on advanced equipment and may not be learning some of the manual basics of their predecessors.  For now, the young group still has access to pilots trained without all of the gizmos.  Those pilots are available to act as mentors and assist the younger generation of aviators in gaining some wisdom, an invaluable asset, as Billy Minkoff pointed out last week.  His example of the new, accessible very light jet and microjet is perfectly appropriate here.  As precision flying gets more precise and pilot training gets further removed from non-precision equipment, without mentoring, how do we avoid the dangers of corrupted satellite data?

What technology and training do we develop to slow or halt the current trend as expressed by CFM Director of Operations Dwayne McMurry, “It used to be that the last words on a cockpit voice recorder were ‘Oh, (explicative)!’  What you hear these days is, ‘What’s it doing now?’ “

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In any family dynamic, each member has a role to play.  Until the invention of Trivial Pursuit, my role was to lose at every single board game we played.  It didn’t matter which game it was, I stunk equally badly at them all; but, I was okay with that.  It’s just how it was.  When I went to college, my liberal arts studies did not include Game Theory; so, in spite of its 50 year history, this business decision making tool is new to me.

In a July 24, 2010, article in Financial Post, Michell Osak highlights both the strengths and the weaknesses of using Game Theory in the strategy development process.  The theory is ideal, he says, in “strategic situations where competitive or individual behaviors can be modeled.”  However, the theory’s flaws are that it assumes that “the players act rationally and in their self-interest” and that they “act strategically and consider the competitive responses of their actions.”  Osak goes on to quote The Economist magazine which said, “Managers have much to learn from game theory provided they use it to clarify their thinking, not as a substitute for business experience.”

It seems to me that wholesale flight department liquidations were an example of a time when Game Theory was substituted for business experience – to the detriment of an entire industry.

Studies have shown that companies which either own or use private aircraft tend to pay larger dividends to their shareholders.  Yet, some of those very same companies dissolved their flight departments.  Those decisions were not based on months of study, but, rather were a knee-jerk reaction to negative press reports.  Game Theory said that a company using a business aircraft would look wasteful when compared to a similar company that didn’t.  Game Theory predicted a negative public relations issue.  Game Theory dictated that companies jettison one of their most useful business tools.

It’s time to start making decisions based on business experience again and leave the board games for family night.

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 I was at an advisory board meeting for the Middle Tennessee State University’s Aerospace Department this past week and one of the other members of the board who runs a training facility in South Florida was sitting at my table during the dinner. He made a comment that in just a few years we will see a shortage of pilots based on the fact that he is seeing less new pilot trainees, with the exception of foreign students. He also commented that other major training schools in the country are seeing the same thing.

Throughout the last two decades US trained pilots were in high demand in foreign countries because these countries did not have a developed system of growing their own pilots. Will we wake up one day in an opposite scenario and find ourselves recruiting pilots from other countries to fly our airliners because we don’t have enough candidates to fill the seats?

It is hard to imagine a pilot shortage when so many pilots were put out of work in the last two years.

Later in the week I read an associated press article published in the Chicago Tribune (www.chicagotribune.com/travel/sns-ap-us-ntsb-professionalism,0,3783173.story) about the same subject.

Quoting from the article by Jan Lowy:

There are signs that future airline pilots will be less experienced, less ethical and in short supply, a panel of experts told an aviation safety forum on Tuesday.

While there are more pilots than there are airline jobs today, the reverse is likely to be true as airlines recover from the economic recession and begin hiring again, experts on pilot hiring and screening told the National Transportation Safety Board. The coming shortage may likely fall heaviest on regional airlines, who generally employ less-experienced pilots at lower salaries, they said.

There are about 54,000 pilots working for major airlines, nearly 19,000 regional airline pilots and about 2,500 qualified pilots available for hire in the U.S. today, said aviation consultant Judy Tarver, a former pilot recruiter for American Airlines. She estimated that airlines will need to hire about 42,090 pilots over the next decade, due to retirements and anticipated industry growth.

Panel members said there are far fewer military pilots leaving for jobs with airlines. Fewer college students say they want careers in aviation because they see it as an economic dead end, and airlines are increasingly having to compete with corporations for pilots.

The basic problem is this: Starting pay for entry level jobs in the airline industry is dismally low. You can make more money doing just about anything else with a college degree that doesn’t require you to spend an additional $70,000 – $100,000 in costs to get your pilot ratings on top of the degree.

The reason most of us got into aviation was for the passion of flying and not the money. Most of us who still get into this industry are doing it for the passion. The problem is that there are less young people today passionate about the opportunity to fly an aircraft. Maybe the new has worn off and flying doesn’t have that same magnetism it had in generations past. .

So if it all becomes about the money then the airlines are in trouble.

The consumer wants cheap airfares and convenient flights and they also want safe aircraft and great service. So to give them what they want the airlines beat down the costs and that includes the pay scales of all who keep the airline going – not just the pilots but everyone. So you get a pilot making starting pay of $16,000 per year!  If you translate that into a 40 hour work week it comes up to $7.69 per hour. About what you make starting in fast food. It is hard to get anyone excited about a career in aviation with that kind of money.

You would like to say the airlines are raking in the big bucks at the expense of labor but the earnings of the airlines don’t reflect it.

I am not sure what the solution is, but things continuing as they are will not result in any solution, so it will be interesting to see what happens. Maybe we just outsource flying jobs like we have done with other jobs in this country. I hope not!

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