The numbers are up for the NBAA Maintenance Conference, which concluded Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas, and they are the highest they’ve been in its 33 years. Attendance at the three-day conference was 1,300, “by far the largest we’ve ever had,” NBAA senior v-p of strategy and innovation Mike Nichols told AIN.
This year’s conference also recorded an increase in companies exhibiting, as well as booth spaces. More than 180 companies exhibited in 200 booth spaces, compared with 140 companies exhibiting in 180 spaces at the 2018 conference held in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Nichols attributed the increases in attendance and exhibitors to several factors, not the least of which is a healthy economy that’s encouraged companies to loosen their purse strings for professional development. Fort Worth’s central location and proximity to a large commercial airport likely contributed to the increase as well as larger than typical exhibit hall for the conference that was held at the Fort Worth Convention Center, he added.
Also, the Flight Attendants/Flight Technicians (FAFT) conference, which was jointly hosted with the NBAA Maintenance Conference, attracted nearly 200 attendees. With the addition of exhibitors specific to the FAFT, total exhibitors at the combined Fort Worth events were more than 190, occupying more than 230 booth spaces, according to NBAA.
A common theme throughout the 2019 NBAA Maintenance Conference May 7-9 in Fort Worth, Texas was the development of a future maintenance workforce in business aviation. It was top of mind for NBAA chief executive Ed Bolen in his speech on the second day of the conference who suggested to attendees that excitement in the aerospace industry around developments in commercial space travel with companies such as SpaceX and progress by Aerion in developing the first supersonic business jet could be just the thing to attract young people to business aviation. “We’re going to be part of things that can give us a hook as we try to bring in new talent,” he explained. The second day of the Maintenance Conference also was the first day for the Flight Attendants/Flight Technicians Conference, held jointly for the first time.
Business aviation workforce recruitment and development has been a consistent theme of Bolen’s speeches at NBAA events in recent months. But this time around, Bolen told attendees the industry has many qualities that appeal to younger generations: technology, such as working with avionics and cabin connectivity; experiences, such as travel; a career that offers purpose by way of using airplanes to assist people affected by disasters and through programs such as the Corporate Angel Network; professional growth opportunities; the industry’s focus on sustainability through efforts such as sustainable alternative jet fuel (SAJF); and the sense of belonging to a community that Bolen said is unique to business aviation. “We’ve got good talking points because we’ve got a great industry,” he noted. “The message is there, but we need to tell it at a grassroots level.”
The workforce development pipeline theme for aircraft maintenance technicians (AMT) was also the focus of a two-part session, “Who is the Aircraft Technician of the Future?” led by ServiceElements president Bob Hobbi, PepsiCo director of aviation Pat Cunningham, and Duncan Aviation sales manager Phil Suglia, who discussed the challenges of an aging workforce and empty AMT school classrooms. Thirty percent of the AMT workforce is 60 or older and nearing retirement, Suglia said, and the average age of an FAA-certified mechanic is 51. And new mechanics make up 2 percent of the total population of mechanics while departing mechanics are expected to outpace the entry of new mechanics by an average ratio of 4 to 3, he added. “So we’re really looking for all of you to get engaged and get out there and help out,” Suglia said. Cunningham acknowledged that the industry needs to improve in raising awareness of AMT careers in business aviation, especially with younger generations. “A lot of young people today are not hearing about aviation as a career option,” Cunningham said. Airlines are also actively involved in the schools that train AMTs, Cunningham added, and suggested business aviation should be there, too, actively recruiting students.
Kids aren’t considering aviation because there’s a lack of “career awareness and a negative public perception of what it is to be a mechanic,” Suglia said, and the industry should be reaching out to high school counselors and parents of teens about the AMT profession and its opportunities. Ways to attract more young people to business aviation and the AMT profession was largely the focus of the second session, with one attendee who identified himself as a current AMT student suggesting social media as a means to recruitment. It was a series of YouTube videos created by an AMT documenting his daily work that led the attendee to pursue AMT training, he said. Others suggested hosting school tours, offering job shadows and internships, and visiting high school guidance counselors as a means to raise the profile of business aviation and its career opportunities.
Safety Training and Analysis
But those two sessions were a fraction of the conference’s slate of general and break-out sessions on more generalized topics such as skillsets for new and experienced leaders as well as more specific ones such as technical sessions hosted by aircraft, avionics, and engine OEMs as well as connectivity providers.
One popular session, “Worker Fatigue and Procedural Non-Compliance: FAA Solutions to On-Going Challenges,” looked at why AMTs may not always follow procedure. FAA chief scientific and technical adviser Bill Johnson spent most of the session focusing on failure to follow procedure (FFP) and suggested that it’s not just an AMT issue, but an organizational one. “I was going to call this, ‘Wake Up And Follow Procedures,’ but the problem with that is I would be suggesting that it’s fatigue causing the procedure issue,” Johnson said. “Our culture, whether it’s with respect to following procedure or fatigue, is the enemy.”
Johnson explained that FFP by an AMT can involve every person in the maintenance chain, including managers who pressure AMTs to complete their work quickly, inspectors who overlook potential mistakes, the writers of the procedures, the lawyers who added cautionary notes and language to the written procedures as well as the regulator whose guidelines necessitated the lawyer’s involvement.
“Everyone is the problem” when it comes to FFP, Johnson said, but they can also be the ones to change that. It starts with the individual becoming a “safety champion.” Last fall, the FAA launched a self-directed training program, “Follow Procedures: The Buck Stops Here,” aimed at reducing FFPs in aviation maintenance organizations. So far, Johnson noted, 4,000 people have accessed the program’s website, www.followprocedures.com, and 80 percent of those taking the voluntary training have completed it. “Following procedures 100 percent of the time, that’s a pretty good idea.”
At another session, “Next Gen Investigation and Root Cause Analysis,” attendees learned investigative techniques from Kent Stauffer, head of Constant Aviation’s safety, quality, training, and technical programs. “It’s for injuries. It’s for accidents,” he explained. “The concepts are the same for every negative event you have.” Stauffer told attendees to follow the five same steps each time: identify the problem, gather the data (including interviews of all personnel involved), analyze the data, develop a corrective action, and communicate it. He suggested making a checklist to make the investigative process repeatable and when interviewing witnesses to make them feel comfortable and don’t ask leading questions. A combination of photography, drawings, and mapping are best for telling the story of what happened, he said, and recommended photographing the site of the incident by drawing an imaginary box around it and working in from each corner of the box, being careful to photograph everything including debris, skid marks as well as the position of flight controls and switches.
Other notable events at the conference included NBAA scholarship committee co-chairs Jim Huntoon founder of Satcom Direct, and Scott White, regional sales manager at StandardAero, announcing the awarding of 42 scholarships to students and recent AMT graduates and the establishment of the John F. Rahilly Memorial Scholarship for Future A&P Technicians, which was awarded to W. Christopher Stanford, an AMT student at the Tulsa Technology Center.
The second day of the maintenance conference also marked a first for the more than three-decades-old event: its first joint-session with the NBAA Flight Attendants/Flight Technicians (FAFT) Conference. NBAA senior v-p of strategy and innovation Mike Nichols told AIN the organization chose to co-locate the conferences because both of them were developing and offering content relevant to the role of the flight technician. “By co-locating these conferences, attendees could pick and choose the educational content most relevant to their professional development goals,” Nichols added. “We heard from several flight technicians that this co-location was of great value to them.” There were other benefits to companies by holding the conferences jointly, he said, including reducing travel for experts speaking at both conferences as well as companies sending their personnel to both events. Both conferences will be held jointly again next year in Hartford, Connecticut. Air Force Lt. Gen. Leslie Kenne (Ret.) was the keynote speaker for the joint session. She spoke on the qualities of an effective leader, which include being approachable and enthusiastic and having a sense of humor and a desire to take care of others.
Attendance numbers were the highest they’ve been in the maintenance conference’s 33 years, Nichols said. Approximately 1,300 people were at this year’s conference, “by far the largest we’ve ever had,” he said. This year’s conference also recorded an increase in companies exhibiting at the conference as well as booth spaces. There were more than 180 companies exhibiting in 200 booth spaces compared with 140 companies exhibiting in 180 booth spaces at the 2018 conference held in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Nichols attributed the increases in attendance and exhibitors to several factors, not the least of which was a healthy economy that’s encouraged companies to loosen their purse strings for professional development. Fort Worth’s central location and proximity to a large commercial airport likely contributed to the increase as well as larger than typical exhibit hall for the conference, Nichols added.
Also, FAFT attracted nearly 200 attendees. With the addition of exhibitors specific to the FAFT, total exhibitors at the combined Fort Worth events were more than 190, occupying more than 230 booth spaces, according to NBAA.