Southern California Hopes to Attract Mechanics With Job Training Contracts
A lack of trained and qualified workforce has prompted the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency to approve numerous job training contracts including a contract for $179,600 to the County of San Bernadino, Workforce Investment Board (WIB). The WIB will use the funds to train 100 employees of aircraft maintenance companies in skills necessary to improve efficiencies to help each participating company maintain its competitive edge.
"We have a lack of trained people in the area," said Jim Worsham, aviation marketing business development for Southern California Logistics Airport. "Victorville Aerospace had to turn away three big jobs due to lack of workforce. We need A&P mechanics here."
Worsham plans to work with the board to reach out to young kids fresh out of high school. "We have a program where we will be offering jobs to high school students to work part of the day and take class part of the day," he said. "They will be paid while they work. Once they advance and get an A&P, then they get a $10/hour raise."
IAC Introduces SuperHUMS at Heli Expo
Intelligent Automation Corporation (IAC), introduced their SuperHUMS family of products at the Heli Expo Conference in Orlando, Fla., last month. The SuperHUMS product line is based on the combat-proven IAC 1209 Modern Signal Processing Unit (MSPU) already in use by the U.S. Army.
IAC’s SuperHUMS product line is an advancement in diagnostic technology for aircraft condition based maintenance (CBM) applications. The patent pending, reconfigurable computing architecture features faster than real time processing using the latest Virtex-4 field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) and XtremeDSP (Digital Signal Processing) technology from Xilinx Corporation. The result delivers a machinery diagnostic and monitoring system with more than ten times the performance of the previous generation HUMS product for about the same price.
IAC said they have leveraged the significant growth and availability of commercial off-the-shelf FPGA software tools, services, and Intellectual Property (IP) cores into an affordable and FAA-certifiable FPGA-based processing system. As with all previous IAC HUMS, the new SuperHUMS product line will provide users with the ability to remotely reconfigure their HUMS anywhere in the world.
"This system has faster than real time diagnostics and can integrate the helicopter operations monitoring program (HOMP), flight operational qualitiy assurance (FOQA), automated flight regime recognition and flight data and cockpit voice recording in one system," said Bill Lawler, vice president sales and marketing. "Older systems were bogging down and taking minutes to process data. This new system is waiting for data," he added. The SuperHUMS product line consists of the IAC 1134 (light helicopters and fixed wing applications), the IAC 1239 (large helicopters), the IAC 1474 (unmanned aerial vehicles), and the IAC 1249 HUMS/CVR/FDR (cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder) combined unit intended for both fixed and rotary wing applications.
IAC also announced at the show an additional order for 101 IAC 1209 HUMS units by the Army for its fleet of 750 AH-64 Apache helicopters and a contract to integrate the SuperHUMS product onboard the U.S. Army’s Shadow 200 Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems.
Bombardier Invests In Customer Service
Tearing down old warehouses on a 13-acre parcel in Dallas’ Love Field, Bombardier spent nearly $17 million to expand their current service center and opened a new service center for its customers. They also held an evening gala for its clients, where the ribbon cutting ceremony occurred and guests were treated to a large band, professional dancers and a multitude of hors d’oeuvres on February 20.
The 100,000-square-foot expansion features a 52,500-square-foot hangar and 45,000 square feet of back shops, including avionics and office spaces. The facility increases Bombardier’s Dallas maintenance capacity by more than 60 percent and means numerous new jobs for technicians. According to Leon Botteron, Bombardier’s interim VP and GM, aircraft service centers, "We’re adding 90 technicians [and] looking for a lot of trained people, A&Ps and avionics. We will hire contractors [if necessary] and covert them to full-time employees." Bombardier expects employee growth of 200 people during the next five years.
The grand opening of the new service center ran in conjunction with the announcement that Bombardier will also invest more then $25 million to improve aircraft parts availability with its innovative Flexjet service. This service encompasses the Learjet, Challenger and Global aircraft and promises shipping for AOG parts within 24 hours from the time they were ordered. "We are focused on doing whatever is required to improve our support to our customers," stated James Hoblyn, senior VP, customer experience, Bombardier Business Aircraft. The AOG customer response center will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week and Bombardier will add 10 field service representatives and account managers worldwide. There are also plans to open a parts depot in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Tokyo this year.
The expanded service center with its opening night affair, additional employees and its new Flexjet service enforces Bombardier’s 2007 priority — its customers. Even the media briefing held for the event displayed large banners behind the podium the defined the term customer service. The service center contains well appointed customer lounges and tenants have private offices and meeting rooms that are fully wired for most electronic needs. The hangars are large enough to accommodate eight Learjets, four Challengers and two Global aircraft with some breathing room. There are paint rooms on site too. The AOG program will focus on the top 25 high-demand parts for all current production models and predicts delivery to achieve a 12-hour, counter-to-counter service.
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