Summer to School

Now back at Purdue where the student population is growing at an epic rate. As more freshmen were admitted than ever before things are looking much more crowded. The journey back to West Lafayette was not too bad and my schedule calls for early mornings, but not as early as back at Hanscom. The days of handling the Embraer Brasilias for Streamline are over for now. It was quite a rush using my motions to conduct engine starts and marshal the aircraft out after arranging the baggage myself. Greeting the passengers and hearing their tales about how this airline fits into their lifestyle and business needs so well is very rewarding too.

I have only one aviation course this semester-Air Transportation. So the focus will be primarily on general studies with Accounting, Physics, Economics and Applied Leadership. It looks like this fall will be a time of new and enjoyable things to embark on. I also hope to get onboard with the Aviation Technology Student Council soon. That is one of many things here to engauge in as an involved undergrad. Looking forward to the start of football season out here, despite more injuries with some of those who we had hoped would carry the team.

Summer Arrival

The sun is high in the sky and traffic is up all around the area, summertime turns all airports into very active sites. Streamline has become embedded very well at Hanscom, bringing return customers or "regulars" that have come to rely on the new service. I have started working the airport again too, and can see how many passengers disembark from the morning arrival each weekday. Commerce is continuous at this secondary airport and many moving parts come together to keep things looking good.

Meanwhile, just beyond the terminal building sits the Liberty Mutual ramp and hangar. I am very puzzled by the sight because this customer prides itself on "responsibility, what's your policy?". The insurance premiums appear to be funding a fleet of Falcon and Bombardier Global jets that are coming and going every hour or so into a ramp area with "do not enter" written around the edges and a space-age hangar that has barbed wire fences and a security gate protecting it from the public. Even the mailman must go the distance to call up the guards each day just to get them their deliveries. I would not want to do business with a company spending presumably millions of dollars annualy to keep an operation up and running for the benefit of maybe a few dozen jet setters. Just use an FBO like an honest company.

In the family my younger brother has taken up being an aviation junkie on the computer. He has been playing Airline Tycoon religiously, plotting out fleet schedules and hiring flight personnel with a budget and a mission to outperform competing airlines at bases around the world. Also two days before today, his 7th birthday, I've been told he opened up the air traffic control simulator and handled ground and local traffic at Tokyo-Haneda airport for 90 minutes simulation time like a pro and with few unanswered calls. I am impressed with his potential to be a pioneer in the sky sometime soon.

On the Purdue front, classes wrapped up with few surprises. Psychology ended up standing out as the tough reach at the end and Calculus has proven to be unattainable and will need more attention at some point in the future. Next fall's schedule of classes is dubious and will require even earlier wakeups than in the spring. I will like being back in West Lafayette as a shophomore with new adventures. Basketball star JaJuan Johnson is Boston-bound and should represent the Boilermaker style of play very well.

Anywhere and Everywhere

A tremendous amount of things have been evolving and unfolding over the past few weeks. Hanscom once again has an organized flight schedule despite having on-demand jet charters account for one sixth of the overall traffic. Logan Airport is flipping around all sorts of configurations as Continental's United will be moving to Terminal A and freeing up space for jetBlue after very thorough renovations are completed. Going home for spring break I flew US Airways for the first time in a while and my Republic E-175 flight actually topped my A320 leg out of O'Hare. The Embraers are outfitted to all economy, so services are equally distributed for everyone onboard those shorter flights. On the other hand, returining nonstop on United's Shuttle America the six first class passengers in "ExPlus" were the only ones offered food of any sort on this 2 hour 38 minute flight. Upon further communication with the ones in power to make decisions the economy cabins will likely be getting mainline-style service for longer routes such as BOS-ORD to open up a new revenue stream with buy-on-board; a smart move.

I am now searching for how to get from the east coast of Florida to Boston in the May off-peak travel time. As incentives go, I find that one way fares are no higher than each portion of a round trip, however the early morning departures are at a fraction of what afternoon flights are costing. I may be using this opportunity to try out Melbourne Airport on Delta, but Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale are low balling me. It appears this graduation trip will be the only flying I do all summer, and I will be observing most activity in the air from the ground, with the exception of some possible comped Streamline flights for examination of the new Trenton operation. Also I want to throw out there that the Embraer 120 registers a decibel readout of 81, which is the equivilent of a Cessna 182 on final.

I requested a very nice brithday gift last month and I think I will be using it today since grand prix has been monsooned thus far. It's a World Air Routes DVD of Canada's WestJet containing about 3 hour's worth of footage. It is one of the only modern North American airlines to sanction having the inside perspective while conducting their flights and I think I will get a good glimpse at many airports in Canada I know little about. All in all WestJet is a mix between Southwest and jetBlue and boasts being the second largest carrier in that country right now with such high LCC demand. However they don't accept reservations going from a US city through a Canadian hub to a US destination; so I doubt I will have the chance to fly them anytime soon.

Finals are fast approaching and I am trying to do my studying and chilling outside whenever I can. The harsh wind can ruin a nice looking day, but there have been a few recent days with conditions that have kept me away from the keyboard. I have a market-research project to present in my English course and a review of Pratt & Whitney turboprop engines to work on for my Powerplant course, so there are fun activities and not-so fun activities in the academic arena to tackle as the final days apprach fast. I also look forward to plotting out my extended routing on the highways to get home with the delicate fuel managemnt mapping of where are the best areas to approach fuel starvation on my long haul with each state's policies making the prices at the pump so incredibly variable.

Who's Republic?

I am sure many thousands of passengers board airplanes this year after booking the lowest price online and not seeming to care about the operation. The fact of the matter is, people should focus on the operations of Republic Airways Holdings, because they stand out above the other regionals and are well worth paying a few bucks more on your next trip. Upon futher research of this airline and you'll find that they are not as simple as meets the eye; in fact they are tasked with running one of the most complex airline operations in the country right now. From a recent 3-way merger, the new Frontier-Midwest combination outfitted as Frontier Airlines resides within the holding company alongside Republic Airlines, Chautauqua and Shuttle America. The flights operated on scheduled service are under American Connection (with only 15 aircraft), Continental Express, Delta Connection/Delta Shuttle, Frontier, United Express and US Airways Express. Their consolidated headquarters just down the road in Carmel, IN houses all of the operating oversight for each brand with employees absorbed from Denver, Milwaukee, Hartford and elsewhere.

The thing that makes Republic Airlines and Shuttle America stand out among other regionals is the brand new Embraer fleet. Supplementing Frontier's DirecTV equpped Airbusses is what has replaced Midwest's aging operation in the form of Embrer 170's and 190's with no middle seats and a cabin experience to carry comfortable passengers an impressive range. The grey area between regional and mainline has been blended by these outstanding aircraft and I continue to hear nothing but good things about them (Shuttle America also operates the Embraer 170 on former Delta Shuttle routes). The other operation under the company is Chautauqua, which flies the smaller Embraer 135 and 145 which are only accepted as suitable for flights under an hour or so to smaller markets. These low-end aircraft fly as American Connection, US Airways Express, Continental Express, United Express, Delta Connection and Frontier. All but American contract the 170 family for the more stretegic routes to go over 70 seats. As those last two paragraphs entailed, this company is no simple operation and they somehow emerege victorious as they were ATW's regional airline of the year in 2008 and customers remain delighted with this splended operation that rivals jetBlue in overall size and scope.

Now is where I come in, I flew on Frontier to and from Mexico twice in recent memory and have flown on the present-day Shuttle America as Delta twice in the last two years. The product is outstanding from a customer perspective and knowing their internal workings, mastering that effect is very difficult. On the cheap customer's end they among the most affordable itineraries on Expedia and somehow remain profitable and impeccable in safety and employee well being. Frontier was also an "Undercover Boss" company last fall in which the crazy world inside america's airlines was examined in detail with their CEO going down to the bottom of the ladder for a week in the midst of the Midwest merger and acquisition. I am extremely impressed with this Indiana company and have been contacted by an old friend to get back inside the private sector on the operations side just down I-65. From my conversations so far and my encounters at headquarters, it looks like I may be able to work the Boston gate in the summer or at headquarters in the coming fall. I know whatever possible opportunity with Republic Airways Holdings would be outstanding and really propell me as a management major.

Outside of that whole situation, I went through the application and recruitment process for Purdue's own Aviation Technology Student Council at the first chance it was offered. I made the first cut of resume and essay applications and was selected for an interview in February. I was at an advantage being an aviation management major since the ATSC is oversaturated with pilots, and they wanted to even things out. However I was still placed at a disadvantage as a freshman and was told after my interview that I would have another chance in the fall after their older members have graduated. I enjoyed the opportunity to network within our aviation technology department and hope to talk with some of our professors more about arranging Republic internships for myself and others. Classes are going as expected and things are moving along steadily into the spring and conclusion of semester two. It has been a fairly busy couple of months and that has kept me on top of my game and enjoying the ride.

Start to Semester Two

I am now back situated at Purdue for the Spring 2011 semester. There have been a few changes to my academic experience. I am now spending 8 hours a week at the airport up from 3 last fall. My two aviation classes are AT187 aircraft propulsion and operating systems and AT144 which is a changing curriculum known as fundamentals of flight or private pilot lectures and is a "ground school" of sorts. The AT187 class with Professor Jay Hedden is almost exclusively management majors this semester with about 50 of us and Hedden has worked as a mechanic for United. AT144 will take us through FAA manuals and get us familiar with things such as METARs and safety protocols with instructor Brian Dillman who came through the AvTech program himself in the 90's.

My other courses are Calculus 3 times a week with a perminant instructor yet to be announced, English Composition 4 times a week and Elementary Psychology 2 times per week with me and 450 of my closest friends. That leaves me at only 5 courses down from 6 last semester but at 18 credit hours, up from 16. The Aviation Technology Student Council is opening their doors this coming Wednesday so I will finally have a chance to get involved pending their approval. I am eager to represent air traffic control and have a voice with the institution for a number of years.

I failed to mention before that Captian Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger who splashed down US Airways 1549 in the Hudson River two years ago today had visited Purdue a couple months ago giving me the chance to pick up a signed copy his autobiography and mention to him with all my childhood years flying his airline that I was a huge fan. He studied industrial psychology at Purdue after finishing at the Air Force Academy and the human factors side of things has helped him as a safety specialist and pilot as he describes in detail with the book. His visit though was overshadowed by Neil Armstrong being here the same weekend and even rallying our football team during an end of 3rd quarter "Shout" dance.

My schedule is quite demanding but the distractions around campus are being replaced with snowbanks and slush that will not be going away anytime soon. It feels good to be back and my horizons continue to broaden each day for new and exciting things as the new year gets going. I will have plenty more to report on if this ATSC thing really does happen.

The Busiest time to Travel?

Thanksgiving notoriously is known to backup the airports and disrupt the system nationwide when planes are packed to the gills with quite a few flying for the only time all year. The airport is packed, you need to budget an extra hour to handle the long lines. The pre boarding block of families with small children becomes the majority of those wishing to board. Backlog of pushed times to push mess up the schedule for the airlines all week. None of this seemed to happen from what I encountered flying the Tuesday before and the Sunday after Thanksgiving 2010.

I was on one of two Delta MD-88s heading from Indianapolis to Atlanta within one hour of eachother. Repositioning a total of about 300 travellers in time to make the last flight out of ATL to their feasting destination for the night. I remembered from my last time going at this time of the evening that lines get long with this mostly regional jet airport of Indianapolis having many more passengers leaving at one time. Even with the security "opt out" rumors to slow things down as a form of protest things moved along much more smoothly than I envisioned and personnel were very vocal with each and every one of us to be sure we were well informed. In Atlanta I did notice that every last Delta aircraft had its tail tell light turned off, making them quite a bit harder to see in the night environment. Perhaps not using the optional lights extends the life of onboard systems and slightly less fuel use.My next flight was on a 757 also 100% full and we were moved up to the northern runway to get an early right turn towards Boston to land at 11:58, just before the airport "shuts down" for the night in consideration for sleeping neighbors.

My flight back was on an evening nonstop that surprisingly was not full. Comair had surrendered the route to Shuttle America in October to offer slightly more seats on the sleek ERJ-175. The two hour flight felt more like 15 minutes and the service was stellar. I had picked out a window from what looked like where a couple had bailed on their reservation of two together when I was at the kiosk. The aisle seat next to me remained vacant. The young friendly crew represented the upper Delta brand very well on this roomy RJ. My professor here teaching us about airlines said the Sunday after Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year by passenger numbers, though about 6 or 7 empty seats came back with me.

As for academics, my Basic Aircraft Science course has moved on to helicopter flight concepts which can be difficult to grasp, though I memorized FAA helicopter manuals over the summer the prepare for a flight with an instructor so this is more of a refresher for me. Weight and balance is also being slipped in last minute as we look over the physics concepts and reglations that have been taught. Less than three weeks from now I will be all wrapped up with fall semester and boarding another flight to get to the festivities for the next holiday.

AirTransition for 2011

I am back from my Columbus Day weekend trip to south Florida flying nonstop IND-FLL and back on AirTran Airways soon to become Southwest and promised to evaluate the structure of the airline from a passenger's and employee's perspective to several enthused airline buffs. The $1.6 Billion acquisition comes in several phases and the people on top have some heavy decisions to make as the branding combines in a few months time. On my way out of Indianapolis on Saturday, TRS1120 and several other outbounds from the new terminal building were each being pushed to leave a good 10 to 15 minutes early, and airport-wide announcements were made to encourage customers to make it down to their gate to ultimately arrive at the other end ahead of schedule. It is important to note that IND is not used as a hub but instead solely as an originating point to eight nonstop cities. The weather was not a factor anywhere the planes were going to or coming from, so this must be their usual standard operating procedure for keeping up through the day.

I found a group of pilots discussing flight structuring in front of the departure moniters and one responded that he will be going to FLL when asked. He said he's exclusively been on the 737 and past experience was mostly in Desert Storm in B-52 bombers, I later determined this was the first officer and he would be given pilot in command for this leg. Pilots at almost any airline love to get airborn early, but "on time" passengers and other loading factors can often keep this from happening. In this case, once we were seated and pushed back the flight attendents actually did not start their safety briefing until a solid 3 minutes into the taxi phase getting close to the end of the runway. The cabin crew's hiccup here led us to sit at the end for another extra minute and a half with the engines running before the flight crew was given the okay to take the runway. Our departure ended up being 5 minutes early and arrival 15 minutes early at the very high cruise of 41,000 feet moving us along.

As a passenger, many would expect a "no frills" experience on any LCC today, but AirTran's advertising division held a great contest last year to get votes casted on the most desired in-flight service on their aircraft. The winning idea was the availability of wi-fi, which you may actually be using to read this and 100% of the mainline fleet is now equipped while Continental and Delta have only a limited rollout at this point. In addition to that, there is an audio out at every seat with complementary Sirius XM radio throughout the flight when the PA is not being used. Though there is no buy on board menu for indulgent meal options, some pretzels, soft drinks and a later offer for a refill are included free of charge and, to my liking; a little ways into the flight rather than immediately after the first 10,000 feet. On the way back the same system was taken, leading one to assume they'll always give you a second offering and that don't want any more of your money unless you want an adult beverage regardless of the flight length. Our cabin crew on the return even used some comedy in the end of flight briefing after landing in Indianapolis about 10 minutes early on Tuesday, Southwest has often been known to have comedic flight announcements.

The powerful executives at Southwest have some time to weigh their options as to what to adopt and what to send adrift. They have already pledged to keep bags flying free. As for the fleet, someone has written on wikipedia that the 717 fleet will be adopted by SWA, but that could be speculation as it's clear the 717 aircraft did not get as many operators as Boeing had hoped, and less than 10 airlines worldwide have it in service, meaning maintenance is not very streamlined and will cost more comparitavely than with the popular 737. No word yet on whether Southwest/AirTran will back out of its ordering of larger 737-800 aircraft which will be the highest capacity plane for either airline. Side note, in the route structure Southwest has been all-domestic, but AirTran right now is at five destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico and somehow does okay flying to Tunica, Mississippi: a town south of Memphis with about 1,100 people! It goes without saying most of the enplanements are only really there for the casino experience.

Introduction and Basics in Purdue AvTech

As stated before I am currently in two aviation technology courses this fall semester at Purdue. The first is Introduction to AvTech and only takes place on Mondays with our top dog in ATC lecturing almost 200 new freshman. The other is Basic Aircraft Science in which a grad student in AvTech teaches a small classroom full of Freshman (mostly management like myself) about the physics around flying and what alterations or characteristics can suit planes for variable missions.
The only assessment I have had thus far in Into to AvTech is an adobe voice-over powerpoint presentation heard out of class about the structure of Purdue's aviation program accompanied by an online quiz reviewing which of the three specific majors have what specific inner workings. Though the class meets once per week (in the vetrenary medicine building?) we have a heavy amount of complex material including the dreaded acronyms that get more complex as more technology emerges. However, after studying the hundreds of vocab items, there has been no real assessment in the first 6 weeks, but the final is sure to have a number of them. By the way the final is planned to be given online so we don't need to still be on campus the Saturday that kicks of winter break as mandated.
In Basic Aircraft Science we have had one exam and there will be our second tomorrow. The first had much more material than tomorrow's will have and that's a relief. The class by and large had a fairly low percentage correct but we were told we did better than most classes. I guess an exam such as good was intended to separate the good AT students from the great ones by getting a B+ or better. (B+ being 92% as below 70 is an F in AvTech) Today's currrent material revolves around aircraft stability and terms and designs associated with the sound barrier.

Getting Started in Purdue Aviation Technology

I have launched M.E.I.T.S. as my own blog reflecting on the happenings at Purdue University from my own perspective now getting started as an Aviation Management undergraduate in West Lafayette. I had a selection of great universities across the country but ultimately Purdue had my perfect degree program of study already well outlined for me and anyone else who desires to learn what it takes to immediately become an air traffic controller while still learning about working behind the scenes in the airline industry.

At Purdue, one of the first and only schools to have an aviation program the aviation technology sector is well established complete with LAF airport on campus and new state of the art facilities and trainer aircraft. The draw for me as an aviation management major is to learn about working in an airline and picking up the essential training for the atc world straight out of college. The other two majors within Purdue aviation tech are Professional Flight and Aeronautical Engineering Technology. Simultaneously this land grant university is preparing tomorrow's pilots, mechanics/designers, and managers/controllers all at once in this corner of campus much like well orchestrated final approaches at ATL on 26R, 27L, and 28 day in and day out.

So far I only have two aviation intensive classes in the mix with Math, Speech, Int'l Relations, Organizational/Leadership Skills taking up the rest of my studies. As with most collegiate programs, the hands-on intensive courses do not happen freshman year and many times not sophomore year either. The most recent figures I have on Aviation Technology (AT) majors is that there are about 650 students invloved breaking down to 23% engineering, 43% flight and 34% management; and overall about 87% are male, while the whole school has 31,000 undergrads being 58% male. I think the females in AT will be making a lot of new friends rapidly.

My classes outside AT are very good for the underlying framework for what I plan to be doing. Keeping aircraft separated will require some good mathematical thinking and speech delivery over the VHF transmissions is a crucial part of getting the job done right. Knowing federal and international policy will be a given; knowing the human behavior within an organization such as an airline or the FAA will help keep people focused and co-operating in a supportive manner. I have thoroughly enjoyed my first month here and will continue to stay enthusiastic about our Boilermaker football team so long as we don't have any real embarrassing losses, their record today stands at 2-2.