Like many of you, I’m a ‘morning person’ meaning I go to sleep early and rise early to start my day. When challenged with a big project, my preference is to wake up early and get to work to put in that long day. When it’s time to go home, I leave on time even though I may have worked extended hours by coming in very early. In discussions with persons of similar dispositions, it seems we all have one common gripe; very few people notice our extra effort. For example, we routinely may come in hour...

I’d like to add a new choice of terms to our ever evolving aviation lexicon. When an aircraft reaches the end of its life and it’s being parted out, we’re not removing the parts- we’re harvesting the parts from the legacy asset. A word that has managed to survive the trendy, revisionist makeovers is ‘cannibalize’, as in cannibalizing aircraft parts. Used interchangeably is the equally, potentially offensive word, ‘robbed’ aircraft parts. My, oh my, I’m wont to retreat to a safe place and curl in...

Can I order a Big Mac with bitcoin? Not yet, but bitcoin (cryptocurrency) excites many, and is based entirely on blockchain. But is blockchain ready for prime-time in aviation? Use of popular words is observed to cycle through articles, literature, and social media with some regularity. For example, use of the terms ‘core competency’ and ‘paradigm’ seem to be waning. On the other hand, use of the word ‘disruptive’ seems to be peaking. Initially, use of this word demanded our attention; a herald ...

Think you know logistics? How would you handle the specialized global logistics needs of a world super power and economic behemoth; their humanitarian, government, and military logistics needs? Those needs are indeed gargantuan in scope, but USTRANSCOM makes it happen 24/7/365, and they make it look routine. Consider the following occurring every day: 3 1,235 railcars loading/enroute/off-loading 170 ships underway plus 38 ships loading or off-loading 190 airlift sorties 70 operational air refu...

Ok, time to wax cynical and poke fun at some non-performers in the aerospace and aviation industry. Ah, the tyranny of the ‘but’ word. ‘But’ is a conjunction used to introduce something contrasting with what has been already mentioned. Anticipation of the ‘but’ word most of the time makes us cringe. For example, ‘Joe you’re a good worker but…’ oh no, here it comes, the compliment- criticism strategy. Really now, is it worth anything at all to the listener to hear that compliment? Probably not...