Corporate Aviation

When comparing careers available for current and future aviation workers in corporate aviation and at an airline you might find that jobs are very similar but may be on a smaller scale. In corporate aviation an employee is dealing directly with fellow co-workers vs. an airline where they are dealing with other co-workers and the direct public. In the corporate world someone that is going into Aviation Management may be able to find a job in some of the following categories: Aircraft sales, Consultant, Charter sales, Administration, and Marketing. Careers available within the airline industry may include the following: Business Consultant, International business consultant, Business analyst, and Marketing. As you can see jobs are very similar but are on different scales. 

Corporate aviation departments do have the ability to save a business money. In the world of business "Time is Money" meaning if you have a sales meeting to get to from Detroit, MI to San Diego, CA and flights with a major airline are booked and the sales representatives cannot leave until 5pm versus the desired time of 9am to make a meeting they ultimately will miss the meeting. If the business has an aviation department one could quickly jump on an aircraft and fly directly to the meeting with no stops in between (unless refueling is necessary). This allows the company to make the critical sale or whatever the situation may be. The initial cost may be higher to obviously purchase a aircraft that will accommodate your employees and future clients. As stated before if a flight is not available to make a sale for your company this could lose the company millions of dollars which in turn could have paid for the aircraft. 

Back in 2008 General Motors had an aviation department and with the bail out of the automotive industry they were being ridiculed for having such an "expense". People within the Government and citizens of the United States believed that if they were not able to keep "their doors open" that this should be one expense that needed to be eliminated. However, back in 2010 GM reinstated their aviation department for corporate flying. GM keeps their fleet of aircraft at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW). They had a fleet of seven aircraft including a high end Gulfstream. Currently GM has several openings in their aviation department for engineers. For the positions available they all require 5+ years of experience and a Masters
Degree. 

Works Cited

Business Aviation Jobs. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2015, from http://jobs.nbaa.org/c/search_results.cfm?                     vnet=0&site_id=8102&str=26

General Motors CFD Jobs. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2015, from http://www.linkup.com/b/cfd-jobs-at-                        General-Motors.html?page=1

NTSB Most Wanted

I believe that the issues identified by the NTSB are in fact significant problems. If the issues were small and did not put people in jeopardy of losing their life then the NTSB would have never issued a "Most wanted list" for safety improvements for 2015. The number one goal in aviation is safety. General Aviation seems to be more of a problem when it comes to fatal accidents than commercial aviation. As stated in the NTSB article "over 40 percent of fixed wing GA fatal accidents occurred because pilots lost control of their airplanes" (Prevent Loss of Control in Flight, 2015). With that being said there needs to be a solution to drastically decrease this number. Currently GA pilots have to complete a flight review, consisting of 1 hour of ground training and 1 hour of flight training, every 24 months. In my opinion that does not seem like enough training. Since GA pilots are typically not flying everyday they might fly on weekends once in a while when the weather is right. It may be encouraging for the NTSB to monitor GA pilots a little more closely to determine which pilots are not flying regularly and those who don't should spend more than two hours every 24 months as a refresher course to safely maintain their skills as a pilot. The NTSB however suggests that airplane owners "should consider installing an Angle of Attack (AOA) indicator, which, coupled with pilot understanding and training on how to best use it, can enhance situational awareness during critical or high-workload phases of flight" (Prevent Loss of Control in Flight, 2015). That is a step in the right direction and this could decrease the number of fatal accidents in GA that resulted in pilots losing control of their aircraft.

The greatest factor negatively impacting safety for the general aviation community would be the lack of training. Pilots going through the training/education of obtaining their pilots license are not taught several of the problems that may occur while flying such as stall/spin. With more training this could lead to better situational awareness in the cockpit. The NTSB recommended procedural improvements, including "requiring pilots to conduct landing distance assessments, revising the procedures for handling thrust reverser lockout after landing, and in non-precision approaches, discontinuing so-called dive-and-drive approaches in favor of continuous descent final approaches" (Strengthen Procedural Compliance, 2015). With those three issues addressed this would contribute to safe operations as well. The NTSB has made some great recommendations to both preventing loss of control in flight in general aviation and strengthening procedural compliance. The industry can implement these recommendations by training and providing better education to pilots which would lead to a decrease of fatal accidents.

Resources

Prevent Loss of Control of Flight in General Aviation. (2015, January 1). Retrieved February 7, 2015 from

             http://www.ntsb.gov/safety/mwl/Pages/mwl7_2015.aspx

Strengthen Procedural Compliance. (2015, January 1). Retrieved February 7, 2015 from 

             http://www.ntsb.gov/safety/mwl/Pages/mwl10_2015.aspx

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