INDUSTRY OUTLOOK
WE HAVE A PROBLEM ATTENTION HELICOPTER INDUSTRY, R. Fred Polak
The bad news is that as an industry we have a serious problem with regard to retaining and
recruiting maintenance professionals. The good news is that we are an industry that includes a tremendous number of individuals with problem-solving expertise. This is seen daily in their job performance. Problem solvers, now is the time to come together and take a giant leap forward.
Individual Membership As helicopter maintenance professionals, we have problems that need to be addressed. We have had these problems for a long time and now is the time to start doing something about them.
The helicopter industry in the U.S. and around the globe has been and is facing a critical shortage of licensed helicopter maintenance professionals. These individuals are retiring or going to better-paying industries faster than replacements are being found. I am 68 years young. In those 68 years, we have
gone from gasoline engine cars to electric cars, from the switchboard to the smart phone, and from reading science fi ction stories about going to the moon to actually walking on the moon. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the helicopter
industry where A&P/AMEs are concerned. The license curriculum has not kept pace with the new technologies in airframes, engines and avionics systems. In the U.S., the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) still has aircraft mechanics and service technicians listed with automobile and truck mechanics. The BLS still thinks of A&P mechanics as blue collar workers and not highly-skilled professionals. As recently as June 2015, the BLS was considering removing the title of avionics technician from its occupational listing. The respect for and recognition of the helicopter maintenance professional is not what it should be. We need to do better. As an industry we have the
expertise, experience and willpower to do better. If you believe in what we are saying and you want to help make a diff erence now and for the future of our profession, join us.
If you are a thinker, a make-things-happen individual,
join us. If you want to regain the respect and recognition your profession deserves, join us. The International Association of Helicopter Maintenance Professionals (IAHMP) needs you to help reshape our industry. What is IAHMP, and how did it come to be?
The seed for IAHMP was planted at Heli-Expo 2013
in Las Vegas. Safran Turbomeca hosted the fi rst symposium on the global helicopter mechanic shortage. As the then- editor of Helicopter Maintenance magazine, I was asked to attend this by-invitation-only event. It was a great symposium and some of the biggest companies in our industry were represented. The problems discussed and responses were eye opening. This was just a start to a truly serious and indeed global issue. I wrote an article about the symposium (see the December 2013 issue of HMM), and that’s how it all began. Soon afterward I received a phone call from Jean-Louis Mostajo, corporate training director for Safran Turbomeca, and we discussed the article. The next thing I knew, he and I were discussing the possibility of another symposium to be held at Heli-Expo 2014 in Anaheim, CA. It was already early November and, between Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays here in the U.S., we were at a serious timing disadvantage. Over the next few weeks, Mostajo and I spent lots of time on the phone and exchanging emails on the thought of another symposium for Heli-Expo 2014. In the end we decided that we did not have enough time to do it right, and opted for another way to go. We would jointly develop a survey that would be kicked off at Heli-Expo 2014 in Anaheim, and we would use the answers to the survey’s questions as the core for a second symposium to be held at HAI’s Heli-Expo 2015 in Orlando, FL. The survey was endorsed by both Helicopter Association International (HAI) and the European Helicopter Association (EHA). Beside information about the survey being distributed at Heli-Expo 2014, access to the survey was also available through the HAI, EHA and Turbomeca Web sites. The response was truly fantastic and
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HelicopterMaintenanceMagazine.com February | March 2016
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