EDITOR’S NOT E BOOK Myths and technology-averse.
Misconceptions S
BY JOY FINNEGAN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
omewhere along the way, a myth about the maintenance industry has been perpetuated. The myth is that the maintenance industry, and the people who work in it, are
While I have been covering maintenance during the last 10 years, I have heard it repeated so many times, that if I didn’t know better from first hand observation, I would have believed it. But, I have seen more acceptance of technological advances in the aviation maintenance industry than any almost any other industry. And I’m not talking about acceptance with a begrudging attitude as if to say, “I’ll do it but I’m not happy about it.” I’m talking about embracing the waves of advancements that have come down the pike in the last 15-20 years.
Once, several years ago, we conducted a survey of our readers along with our then sister publication, Avionics Magazine’s readers. The survey was designed to determine how readers of each magazine used technology in their daily work life. We were so pleased to learn that Aviation Maintenance readers used technology far more frequently and for a wider range of purposes than did the readers of the other magazine, who are typically thought of as techno-geeks. I do hold “tribal knowledge” in high regard when it comes to mentoring and passing along information from one generation of maintainer to the next. It will always be invaluable to have a seasoned mechanic who has worked on a model of aircraft for years explain to a new one why “we do things the way we do them.” While it is true that there are some things that cannot be passed down from one mechanic to another via a computer screen, there is so much about maintenance that can and does benefit from advances in technology. Just ask anyone who remembers the days before the digital multimeter came along. As components in aircraft have become increasingly advanced, so have the methods used to maintain them. On-board systems now help troubleshoot and diagnose problems, electronic flight bags and health monitoring systems tell those on the ground what is happening prior to the aircraft’s arrival on the ramp and trend analysis and predictive maintenance forecast failures that haven’t happened yet.
I believe this industry has embraced these advances and the benefits are evident. Incidents and accidents are at record lows. In February 2011, The International Air Transport Association
(IATA) announced the aviation safety performance for the previous year (2010) showing that year’s accident rate for Western-built jet aircraft as the lowest in aviation history. “The 2010 global accident rate (measured in hull losses per million flights of Western-built jet aircraft) was 0.61. That is equal to one accident for every 1.6 million flights. This is a significant improvement of the 0.71 rate recorded in 2009 (one accident for 1.4 million flights). The 2010 rate was the lowest in aviation history, just below the 2006 rate of 0.65. Compared to 10 years ago, the accident rate has been cut 42 percent from the rate recorded in 2001,” according to IATA. In accordance with the love of technology exhibited by the
industry, Aviation Maintenance has recently established an iPad and iPhone app for accessing and reading the magazine via those devices. The app can be found here:
avm-mag.com/ipad.
It is a free download and once you have the app, you will be able
to read your issue of Aviation Maintenance on your iPad or iPhone. As new issues are released, they will drop into your newsstand automatically, ready for your perusal. I have already downloaded the app and the experience of reading the magazine on the iPad is excellent. Here is a picture of my iPad with the latest copy of Aviation Maintenance sitting right next to O Magazine and the New York Times! We want to thank our iPad app sponsor, Aviall, for embracing this advanced technology, having the vision to see its benefit and for sponsoring it for our readers. Please download the app and enjoy. Wishing everyone a very happy conclusion to this challenging year and best wishes for all in 2012. AM
Aviation Maintenance |
avm-mag.com | December 2011/January 2012 3
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