Aviation
A quest for excellence and an opportunity to inspire others.
Flight Instruction
Flight instruction began with my engineering colleagues at Bell Labs.
The culture was one of collaboration and team accomplishments.
Engineers and managers all had a thirst for knowledge.
Bell Labs was a unique place with many PhD's, Nobel Laureates, and famous scientists and engineers.
At the time, Bell Labs had more patents than any other employer.
My manager's boss held the patent for the transistor among others.
Ground and flight training was a unique experience.
In contrast, providing instruction to the public was challenging in a completely different way.
I purchased a Cessna 152 to provide training to my colleagues and friends.
I learned it is not just about flying.
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General Principles
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 Some people do not read the material prior to class.
Emphasize the practical items from each page of reading material.
Include the practical items in quizzes to reinforce learning.
Provide exams highlighting the most important practical items.
Provide scenario-based preparation prior to practical exam.
Gather statistics to identify items that need additional attention.
Continually seek ways to improve training material and methods.
Emphasize flows followed up with checklists must start early.
Good organization and flows are key to multi-tasking.
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Students that read, took notes, asked questions did well on their written tests.
Students that understood the scenarios did better, on average, with flight training.
Scenarios are good for engaging all students.
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General Values
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Truth - If you do not know, say so. This is generally a true statement.
Knowledge - Learning can be challenging. Knowing is satisfying.
Continuous Learning - Things change and memories fade. This is a fact.
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Adventure Club Inc
The Bell Labs Adventure Club eventually became incorporated as the Adventure Club Inc.
Initially focused on hiking, biking, hang gliding, skiing, and sailing.
Evolved to focus on aircraft charter.
Sold and merged with Meregrass, Inc.
Became a large international air charter company.
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The original mission was to share the cost of flying and the trips included evening dinner trips,
weekend adventures, and week-long vacations.
Evening dinner trips to Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, and numerous exotic locations became quite popular.
Weekend adventures included hiking, biking, kayaking, sailing, skiing, to name a few.
Trips to the Caribbean, South Pacific, and Mediterranean for sailing adventures were enhanced by sailing lessons
via the American Sailing Association.
Membership in the Adventure Club exceeded 500 members.
The Adventure Club held an air carrier certificate and the company was purchased and merged with Meregrass, Inc.,
which became an international air charter company operating large business jets for charter.
USAC emerged as an independent company specializing in air carrier certification.
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General Principles
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Automated Document Writing - Input company profile and access custom documents.
Computer Based Training - Assures airmen know the procedures and rules.
Operations Software - Automate dispatching and records to assure regulatory compliance.
Onboarding Software - Automate hiring and training to assure regulatory compliance.
Methods and Procedures
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Once Adventure Club Inc was sold, a new certificate was created, USAC Airways 691, which took 30 days to complete.
Today, there is a 1 to 2 year wait to start and an average processing time of 6 months or longer depending on size and complexity of the
desired operations.
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General Values
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Standardization
Automation
Training
Efficient Operational Processes
Sustainability
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The Adventure Club became an FAA certified air charter company and later operated as USAC Airways.
As a certificate holder, key growth areas included:
Methods and Procedures:
Operations and training manuals were developed to be compliant with the Federal Aviation Regulations and support both domestic and
international operations.
These manuals were written with the intent of developing operations software to minimize the effort to schedule, dispatch, and manage all
operations.
I have become an expert in documenting procedures and leading teams to develop M&P's.
Computer Based Training:
PowerPoint presentations were initially developed and subsequently automated.
Computer based training was introduced to cover general subjects and company procedures training.
The result was lower cost, better quality, greater standardization, and more consistent performance for myself and the other pilots
that worked for me.
Regulatory Compliance:
Compliance with regulations has been formalized by the FAA.
As part of certification, we were required to prepare a compliance statement that documented what we did to comply with each federal
regulation.
It serves as an index to locate the manual procedure that describes how the company and personnel will comply.
Later, I automated this compliance exercise as a task in my consulting business.
Liason with the FAA:
The FAA observes training, reviews records, and inspects aircraft and facilities.
As Agent for Service, I am the principal point of contact during each of these exercises.
I have integrated features into training and operations software to assure integrity, compliance, and
quality.
FAA inspectors can acccess records via the operations software I developed; and, I can provide instant answers to any question.
The Adventure Club was sold to Meregrass, Inc.
I served as Director of Operations and as a Falcon 900 pilot.
The certificate was grown to include large and small jets, authorizations to operate in North and South America, Europe, Medeterranean,
and the Pacific.
Meregrass, Inc.
Meregrass operates Falcon and Saab aircraft in North and South AMerica, Europe, Africa, and the Pacific.
When my company was acquired, the certificate was only authorized to conduct operations in North America.
As Director of Operations I was responsible for providing direction, training personnel, dispatching aircraft, and upgrades to the air
carrier certificate.
I planned and conducted proving and validation test flights to obtain authorization to fly in the North Atlantic tracks and added the
areas of authorized operations to the certificate.
I revised all of the manuals and established training programs to support the FAA approved operations.
The base of operations is a private airstrip in a remote area of Texas.
There are numerous challenges that reinforced the following skills and values:
The Value of Automation:
Procedures manuals written so that the operations and recordkeeping can be automated is priceless.
Training to assure that all personnel properly enters data into the computer at the earliest time possible is critical to successful
recordkeeping, regardless of the level of automation.
Software that checks the accuracy of the data and helps prevent erroneous data entry is a requirement.
Root Cause Analysis:
When a problem or error is discovered, the root cause is identified and changes are made in a procedure (manual, checklist, or
software); training program or material; and, a follow-up is made to determine the effectiveness of the change.
Software is available for anytone to identify a safety issue and, if desired, their identity can be kept anonymous.
This has been extended to support any time of suggestion to prevent the occurrence of a problem.
Operations Software:
I developed software for scheduling and dispatching aircraft and pilots, recording weight and balance, and recording flight data to
optimize data quality and recordkeeping.
Over the past two decades I have developed the software to track pilot currency and maintain pilot records; track aircraft time
limits and assure regulatory compliance; and, maintain company records.
I learned that integrating procedures, tracking, recordkeeping, and control is critical to assuring safe operations.
My experience at Meregrass was the first involvement in large aircraft operations.
Subsequently, I have developed and managed other large Part 135 air charter companies.
The lessons learned were directly applicable to developing technology and managing R&D in my other work.
USAC Aviation
USAC is a consulting company that specializes in air carrier certification and operations software.
The company has completed over 40 major certification projects.
USAC owns and operates an air carrier, USAC Airways 691.
As president and founder of USAC Aviation I created, purchased, grew, and sold Part 135 charter companies.
The key experiences that have proven of greatest value are described below.
Contract Pilot:
As a contract pilot flying for other charter companies, I have flown Citation, Hawker, and Falcon aircraft.
I conformed to both USAC and the client company policies.
I have learned from other experienced pilots and managers.
I understand and have adopted the best procedures and technologies that I learned; and, shared my experience and knowledge with the
client companies.
Southtrac Air Charter:
One of the charter companies I developed and sold subsequently engaged USAC for my services as Director of Operations.
In this role, I added programs to support large aircraft (29 passenger seats), a maintenance program, a flight attendant program, and
revised my operations software to better serve the large aircraft operations.
I hired and trained pilots and obtained all the required authorizations and certificates to conduct domestic and international
operations for large aircraft.
I developed all of the flgiht training materials, conducted ground and flight training, and was responsible for certification of all
pilots and flight attendants.
USAC Airways 691:
As president, founder, and chief pilot, I hired and trained all personnel; created all manuals, authorizations, and certificates; and,
serve as Captain.
We successfully completed proving and validation test flights with the FAA for final certification.
We are authorized to operate jets, turboprops, and piston aircraft.
The operations and recordkeeping are highly automated and efficient.
This is my personal air carrier certificate; hence, charter income offsets expenses so I can affort to own an aircraft.
Nice!
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