In The News: Star Wars Themed Plane, Re-designed Interiors, And A Revolutionary Airplane Toilet

 

Star Wars Themed Airplane

All Nippon and The Walt Disney Company have teamed up to create a one of a kind Star Wars airplane, check it out here!

Original Article by Kevin Polowy

The Future Of Flying For Passengers

Each year cabin interiors get more and more comfortable for the passengers. This year Boeing and Airbus came out with designs for a few modifications that look amazing! Click here for the original post.

Original Article by Mark Wilson

Zodiac Has Revolutionized The Airplane Toilet

Usually toilets aren't very exciting but Zodiac has changed the game. These changes will actually benefit aircraft mechanics more than anyone, in turn saving maintenance teams time and money. Click here for the original post.

Original Article by Marisa Garcia

In The News: Boeing's New Sleep System, Man Falls Asleep In Cargo Hold, Ways To Relax When Flying

Boeing Comes Up With A New Sleep System For Passengers

Boeing has recently been awarded a patent for a new sleep system which secures to each passengers seat allowing for a more comfortable sleep. This system is designed so the passenger would lean forward to rest instead of back in their seat. Click here to read more.

Original article by AOL

Man Falls Asleep In The Airplane Cargo Hold

A baggage handler on an Alaska Airlines flight leaving from Seattle heading to Los Angeles apparently fell asleep in the cargo hold. He woke up shortly after takeoff, and was banging on the floor. The pilot was notified and they landed shortly after. Click here to check out the original article.

Original article by CBS

A Few Ways To Make Your Flight More Enjoyable

Flying can be a stressful thing even for aviation professionals. Even if you aren't completely afraid of flying Click here to read more about how you can calm your nerves when flying!

Original article by Nicola Garrett

How To End The Day After A Stressful AOG

Stress is common and a big part of your aviation life. It grabs you tight, suffocating your every move.

Most days are made up of you scrambling to resolve the next urgent issue. One after the other. Urgent and more urgent.Your aircraft blew 3 tires, debris cracked your windshield, and your toilet valve jammed. You have the pressure of resolving these issues or being blamed for the downed aircraft. The stress beats you up, day in and day out.

Wouldn't it be great if you could accepts these stressful times and still be able to relax and prepare for the next day?

It’s possible….

Never bring chronic stress home

Bringing stress home is inevitable, it happens. I do it all the time. It’s very difficult to divide the two and no matter how much you try to escape it, it will follow you. Stress in its most basic form is healthy. On the other hand chronic stress kills you. You make bad decisions and it makes you anxious, tired, and wore out.

Control your chronic stress. It’s the fastest way for you to become unhealthy, tired, and unmotivated. It’s even a faster way to upset your home life.

Watch the sunset

Getting away from stressful events is key to giving your mind a break. A well deserved break. A great way to do this is to go somewhere quiet and watch the sunset. There’s something tranquil and amazing about it.

While you watch it set don’t worry about the next AOG, or what vendor really makes your life difficult, just be present, you and the sun. As the sun sets for one more day think about what you’re grateful for.

Spend an hour in nature

This is one of my favorites. Sit outdoors, breathe the fresh air, and surround yourself with green trees. If you’re in a big city, get on the roof top.  When you get back to nature it has a natural calming effect. It gives you the ability to clear your head and be present in the moment. Something that can be lost in the 24/7 aviation hustle and bustle.

Exercise, meditate or do yoga

Yoga and exercise get’s oxygen flowing through your body. When you’re stressed, you’ll need more oxygen. You don’t have to be the next bodybuilder, just do a quick exercise (even in your office) and get the blood flowing. Don’t over complicate it. Just get moving.

It’s not quite exercise but meditating helps you to eliminate the chatter in your head. It makes you be present and quiet the noise with everything else you have going on. Do a quick 5 minute meditation in your office and it’ll do wonders on your stress.

Take an epsom salt bath with lavender

This may sound funny to you but it really works. Fill your bathtub up with hot water and pour in a cup of epsom salt. Then add 1 - 2 drops of lavender oil and immerse yourself in tranquility for 30 minutes. The epsom salt will help relieve stiff and sore muscles while the lavender oil helps you relax.

Turn the lights down, listen to music, and enjoy the company of others

Once the sun sets turn down your home's lights. I prefer candlelight as it helps prepare my mind for bed. Blue light at night suppresses the secretion of melatonin which then affects your quality of sleep. Reduce the light overload and chill out with dim lights and music, and get together with the people you love most.

Aviation is stressful, there’s no doubt about it. You feel overwhelmed, high pressure, and high demand. The best thing you can do for yourself is de-stress and unwind after a long day. This will only help you be more awesome the next day.

P.S. At Skylink, it’s our mission to take the stress out of aviation. We have several programs to do just that.  Fill out the form below and speak to the best Account Manager in the industry.

In The News: Boeing & NASA Team Up, The Inside Scoop On Flying

The Inside Scoop: Questions You Always Had About Flying Answered!

There are thousands of moving pieces in aviation and thousands of questions we all want answered. If you've ever wondered how much jet fuel a plane uses on a flight, or why planes leave long white trails in the sky, or even what happens if the toilet on a plane fills up ...check out this post by clicking here.

Original article written by Chris Kitching

NASA And Boeing Team Up!

Nasa and Boeing have joined forces to come up with more efficient fuel saving solutions for the future. One of these techniques they are looking into is called Active Flow Control Enhanced Vertical Tail Flight. In this experiment they are looking to attaching 31 smaller jets across the back of the planes tail, changing the flow of air. Estimations state that fuel use can be lowered by up to 6% if the flow of air is more streamlined. For more, click here.

Original article by Tyler Lee

Skylink's Trip To Chile

Just a few weeks ago a couple members of our Skylink family got to go meet some of our extended family down in Vina Del Mar, Chile. Vina Del Mar means the vineyard by the sea, and the name truly speaks for itself, the views of the ocean are absolutely amazing. Below is a picture of Nate Anglin and Evelyn Rios having a wonderful lunch right by the sea with Mario Vigorena who is our Skylink team member in Chile.

In addition, while they were in Chile, they had the pleasure of attending a ceremony celebrating the 92nd anniversary of the creation of the Naval aviation branch. They discussed the history of their navy, and how it became what it is today. Below are a few pictures of the ceremony.

Also check out this stunning plane located on the base!

After such an amazing trip, and getting to meet some of our great friends, all good things must come to an end…

How To Deal With Unresponsive People

In the non-stop aviation world there’s nothing more frustrating and annoying than an unresponsive supply chain partner. From major airlines to small 2 aircraft fleets, from small aircraft maintenance MROs, to international lessors, it’s a topic I hear about often.

Maybe it’s a colleague, another department, a supplier, or even an OEM. Unresponsiveness is rude. Unresponsiveness bottlenecks decisions. Unresponsiveness wastes time and money. And the biggest of all, unresponsiveness causes you stress.

It happens all the time. Just over a month ago we procured a part for stock replenishment. The repairable part arrived in terrible condition. The new vendor we were testing has been unresponsive. He never replies to emails, his receptionist sends us to voicemail, and he doesn’t pick up his cell phone. He just doesn’t care. The sad part is he's the owner.

I used to be a tyrant with our supply chain partners. Yelling and screaming when they screwed up and if they had the nerve to ignore me, I would be quick to give them my opinion. One time I told a GSE OEM I would be invoicing them a consultancy fee since I was coaching them on how to do their job. Yet today, I’ve taken a much different approach. An approach I’ll share with you below.

Now, I just sit back and laugh. In this hyper connected world (which poses other problems reserved for a future post) many people are becoming less connected to their aviation responsibilities.

But here’s how we can stop the unresponsive epidemic:

No excuses for sales

Let me just start off with a quick disclaimer. If you’re in sales and have an established client who needs you, being unresponsive is absolutely ridiculous.

No matter how mad they made you, no matter what’s going on at work or at home, you smile and reply as soon as you can. There is no other option.

If you cannot smile and reply, you just don’t care and you shouldn’t be in sales. It’s as simple as that.

Dissect the reasons they may not be responding

Someone may not respond for many reasons when she...

• feels unsafe.
• isn’t aware of any thoughts or feelings.
• literally doesn’t know what to say or do.
• is distracted or overwhelmed by something and can’t tell you.

The  fourth reason is the most understandable. Someone literally is pulled from the phone and email and can’t tell you they’re in the middle of something. This is avoided if they have support that can still answer some questions for you or at least tell you she’s out.

In order to truly get to the bottom of someones unresponsiveness, dissect why they may not be replying. Do they not care? Are they really busy? Is this the first time they’ve been unresponsive?

The best measure if someone just doesn’t care is if it’s a recurring theme. If it’s something they always do, then being unresponsive is in their nature and you won’t change that.

Communication works both ways

The next step is to evaluate how you’ve communicated. If you’re unresponsive then don’t expect others to be responsive when you want them to be. Effective communication works only when there are two parties present.

Refine and update your communication skills. When 2 or more parties are in a dialogue that follows effective communication, so many good things can happen.

If you ignore then prepare to be ignored as well.

Create a “WOW” experience with everyone

At Skylink, it's one of our core values to create “WOW” experiences. Everyone must do this when communicating. Whether you’re in sales, operations, accounting, it doesn't matter. Be present for the other person, help resolve issues expediently, go over and beyond, rinse and repeat.

Most people would rather use the excuse they’re too busy than to help someone.

Create a list of responsive people

The next step is to create a list of partners and people who are hyper responsive. On the supply chain side we call this our preferred vendors list but this can be in any department.

Create a list of people who are willing to be there for you day in and day out. You can connect with their work phone, mobile, text, email, and the hundreds of other apps that have us all connected nowadays. They create “WOW” experiences for you.

Put these people on your speed dial and remember, responsiveness works both ways.

Fire the unresponsive

The next and easiest step is to fire the unresponsive.

Like my story in the beginning, this company was fired from any relationship with Skylink. When it comes to being responsive, you don’t get very many chances. The people who never reply and show they really don't care, fire them.

Agree to quit putting yourself through the pain of working with people who don’t care. Agree to firing these people from all communications with you and put your energy into people who care.

Dealing with unresponsive people is common. It’s annoying and frustrating. How you decide to work with these people will be the sole determinant on how much stress is created in your aviation world. You decide, choose wisely and fire the unresponsive.

P.S. If you know of someone who suffers from an unresponsive supply chain partner, share this article with them.

P.P.S. Here at Skylink, we create “WOW” experiences backed by industry leading solutions for the hectic aircraft maintenance world. Fill out the form below and lets start talking about how we can serve you.

Aviation News: Emirates In Orlando, Orient Thai's Safe Landing, TSA Screening List

In the news: Emirates arriving In Orlando!

Just last week we got some wonderful news that our Orlando International family is growing!

Emirates will begin flying a daily route from Orlando International Airport non stop to Dubai starting on September 1, 2015.

Frank kruppenbacher stated that this move will have about 100 million dollar economic impact on Central Florida.

The president of Emirates Sir Tim Clark had this to say in a recent press release, “Orlando is one of the world’s premier leisure and conference destinations, a dynamic business centre and a destination which Emirates has long wished to serve,” Additionally, “As a growing region, we believe that our service will facilitate further growth for both Orlando as well as central Florida by connecting the city with our global network of 145 destinations across 80 countries; and give customers from Orlando the choice of flying Emirates whilst experiencing our award-winning in flight product and service.”

For obvious reasons this is huge news for us, and we hope you are as excited as we are!

Original post by Richard Bilbao

Additional news: Orient Thai's flight makes emergency landing

We were worried for a moment, but happy to hear that our friends at Orient Thai are all safe.  A flight en route to Chengdu from Phuket had to make an emergency landing after the plane rapidly lost altitude. Oxygen masks were deployed, but the plane landed safely and there were no major injuries.

Original post by Chris Kitching

More news: TSA’s list of suspicious behavior comes out

As It turns out being randomly selected isn't always so random. They do in fact have a list of “suspicious activities” to look out for, all of which are attached to a point system. Get yourself too many points, and you could land  in a screening room. But this is a good thing that our TSA security is watching out for us, just don't be to fidgety or  be whistling next time you’re going through security!

Orginal post by Josh Hicks

How Aviation Affects Your Home Life & How To Manage It

Commercial aviation! An industry that never sleeps and when it doesn't sleep, neither do you. It’s a constant sleep with one eye open moment.

AOGs, failed components, vendor issues, you name it, you deal with it. It’s an ever revolving cycle of important and urgent.

The constant demand of aviation inevitably trickles into your personal life. Your life at home. Your life on the weekend. 24 hours, 365 days a year.

Yet we LOVE this industry. We are able to hug a loved one living 6,000mi away in under 24 hours. Such a marvel that's unachievable without amazing, hard working people to support it.

As amazing as this feat is, it’s stressful trying to keep up with the high, 24/7 demands. A stress that inevitably affects your life at home. Or maybe you're even asking, what life at home?

That leads me to a perfect story. In Q1 we had several airline partners that got stationed in another country to oversee their aircraft C checks. One in Jordan, the other in China. These projects took them away from home, for 45 - 60 days. During this time, we stayed available 24/7 to help support them. Even our VP had to deal with certain activities late on weekends and during his business travels abroad, not to mention the daily late night calls. Everybody involved worked 24/7 with the pressure felt every day. But who more than our partners who got pulled from their families and stationed in another country for months.

But that’s what it takes and that’s why we love it.

The world of commercial aviation is growing. It won’t stop. Well, until we can teleport to another country or a drone picks us up and drops us off. But for now, airlines are the key to global transcendence.

Aviation affects your home life and always will

Since you work in aviation you bring your work home. No need to guess, I know it. Your cell phone is tied to your hip and the calls and emails never stop.

The 5 top things I hear from my airline peers on how aviation affects their lives are:

1. AOGs keep them awake at night. Losing sleep or being woke up in the middle of the night is common.
2. Unpredictability keeps them on edge.
3. International support makes them have to manage different time zones.
4. Constant pressure of prices, lead times, and quality.
5. They often feel they have to babysit support partners.

You love this industry and so do I. Managing your home life and aviation is possible. You’ll never stop the collisions of work and home, but you definitely can manage the stress that goes along with it.

Manage your home life

One of the biggest triggers on why aviation affects your home life is how you manage stress. The second trigger is that you’re relying on the wrong people to support you. The third trigger is the strategies you currently use are not supporting you efficiently enough.

Stress isn’t a bad thing. It keeps you on your toes and agile. It’s the chronic stress that you bring home that affects your life the most. It reduces your energy, hurts your brain's performance, and makes you miserable. Nothing to brag about. We’ve talked about stress in detail before. The first step you need to take is by getting your stress under control. It’ll help you make better decisions and give you the energy you need to perform in this never idle industry.

Who do you surround yourself with? Are your partners after your money or there to create valuable solutions? Answering these questions is important. The people you rely on the most  may not be the best for your situation. They could even add more stress and chaos to your life than you need. Sit back in your chair and think about the people you work with daily. Colleagues, suppliers, and MROs. Is there people who create more stress for you than others? Their job is to help create solutions. If you find they create more problems, figure out a way to replace them and surround yourself with people who create “wow” experiences.

The strategy trigger is the most difficult one as it relies on big change. A good example is from one of our airline partners. They fly at high altitude and approach landing over a mountain. This puts constant demand on their aircraft so AOGs are frequent. Their past strategy was buying AOG components as needed.  They relied on their leasing partner to provide the spares, yet 2 countries away they only took their money and provided no solution to reduce their AOGs. This didn’t help anyone's stress levels. A better solution we proposed was through our pooling strategy. We would guarantee stock for AOG, no-go components 24/7. They no longer had to “wait” for AOG support. They also didn’t have to tie up cash into supporting their own costly inventory. A simple win/win that nearly eliminated the primary stresses because a trusted partner  understood them and the value they needed. Look into your own strategy and think of the problems you currently have. Can they be resolved another way? Can you rely on a trusted partner to help you achieve this?

These are all very important questions to answer.

Aviation will continue to affect your home life, but it’s how you manage the two that will create the happiness you so well deserve.

Reduce your stress, surround yourself with good people, and take on value based solutions.

P.S. We understand the value you deserve which is why we are on a mission to create “WOW” experiences. The programs we offer here are to make your life easier. Fill out the form below and one of our top notch team members will be in touch immediately.

Airlines Need More Cash & Here’s How To Get It

Airlines and aircraft MROs are under the constant pressure of needing more cash.

Cash is the lifeblood for all organizations. Without it you’re heavily leveraged against debt, liquidity is non-existent, and the cash flow isn't able to sustain the core objectives of the organization.

It’s a lot of pressure. This is the trouble many airlines are up against.

I was speaking to an airline CEO a few weeks back and we began talking about his financial situation. They weren't driving enough gross profit and were highly leveraged against debtors. They couldn’t even take on a new strategy to get them out of the trouble they were in. The future of this airline is highly questionable and now they’re in discussion of being bought out by a much larger airline…to “save” them.

This CEO and the ones before him forgot cash flow is king.

Generating more cash and sustaining the core objectives is an imperative strategy to take full advantage of.

It’s really a no brainer. A must. A do or die mindset.

Too much cash is tied up in inventory

Right now, as my fingers twiddle away on this keyboard there’s a high value being placed on an airlines return on capital. You know, the accounting and finance calculations that put you to sleep during your undergrad.

Well now it’s time to wake up.

This particular formula tells you how well your airline generates cash flow relative to the capital invested. Important.

As an airline stocks parts, they reduce their capital liquidity and lengthen their cash flow cycle. Having inventory, both expendables and rotables, isn’t the best strategic decision for most airlines.

There’s too much time and money being tied up on the shelf. This stocking mindset has a negative impact on the return on capital. Your cash flow cycle lengthens and you become negatively leveraged against your inventory.

It’s risky, much like hedging fuel, but unless you want to open your own refinery like Delta, fuel risks are essential. Stocking risks are plain silly.

There's thousands of reasons why you should avoid excess inventory. Hear it from me, the less you have, the more cash you’ll have if the right strategy is in place.

Outsource your inventory needs

It’s very common to hear in the news about airlines outsourcing. Do you think the stewardess cooks the food or the pilot washes the windows? Not likely. The same is true for aircraft components…well it should be at least.

JetBlue outsources everything.

When you’re paying 20% a year for the value of your aircraft components in holding costs, you quickly feel the impact that inventory sucks cash.

There are many ways to go about this, but first think about your objectives. What issues are you trying to resolve? When deciding on a new strategy it’s always best to look for ways to reduce issues. You can then maximize efficiency later. It could be that you have millions of dollars tied up in inventory for your hub in Dubai, or that you spend too much money on high price, high usage components, and need more support with safety stock. Whatever it is, think hard.

When looking at your inventory and aircraft component needs you want to know which parts to stock (pooling and on-demand programs), where they're to be stocked, and how much to stock, including safety stock. Each component both rotable and consumable is classified by the following:

• Low price, short response time, high usage
• Low price, short response time, low usage
• Low price, long response time, high usage
• Low price, long response time, low usage
• High price, short response time, high usage
• High price, short response time, low usage
• High price, long response time, high usage
• High price, long response time, low usage

Don’t pay too much attention to price as that will naturally take care of itself if you outsource both your rotable and expendable consumption. You want to focus most of your efforts covering high usage and long response time items. These items will cause you the biggest problems if you don't have a proper strategy in place. They’ll also cost you the most money. I know, it’s weird how that works.

The best place to start is by reviewing the 300 - 600 rotables that are high usage, no-go items for your aircraft. If you have multiple aircrafts then you just do a simple math calculation and times those parts by the amount of aircrafts you have (of the same kind of course). This gives you a blueprint of what items cause you the most stress and what items consume much of your cash for inventory needs.

The same goes for expendables and consumables. Create a list of your high usage items. Although these are often times low priced, if you have a large fleet, the cost of the items can be in the millions. Reducing the time on shelf will ensure better cash flow management and eliminate wasteful activities.

The final decision for you to make is to outsource your rotable and expendable needs. If you hold $1,000,000 worth of inventory you’re likely paying $200,000 a year in holding costs to support your inventory. If you eliminated your inventory entirely you would have an additional $200,000 to support other important activities for your operation. A better cash management strategy I would say.

Save your money and outsource, it’s as simple as that.

P.S. We have a rotable Pooling program as well as an expendable On-Demand and Just In Time program to cover all of your cash management needs. Click the links to learn more or fill out the form below.

Never Buy A High Usage Aircraft Expendable Again

What if you never bought another aircraft expendable or consumable again?

How much time and money would that free up for you? In a world of high stress and reactive decisions, dealing with aircraft expendables is a tedious task. From all the line items and quality assurance specifications, it gets overwhelming fast. You spend a lot of time stressing over these items when you should be worrying about your most important objectives for the day.

Dealing with these pesky little aircraft parts takes time for most airlines and MROs. It get’s even worse when you have a long list of these to procure. From the coordination and delivery, time and money slips through the cracks.

In our fast paced aviation world, you’re so used to working under a reactive state, but being proactive is much more efficient.

But guess what? It’s normal and I’ve seen hundreds of airlines and MROs fix this problem. This gives them more time and money to focus on their core objectives.

Consume aircraft expendables the proactive way

The definition of proactive is “…creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened.” For your expendables it’s having what you need, when you need it, right before you have to consume it.

When the maintenance and engineering team tells the procurement department that they need 50 lines of washers, hi-loks, tape, wire, and switches, many of the times this list is procured in a rush with the best options being overlooked.

A lot of times I see airlines and MROs procure all 50 lines from 30+ different sources. This is a huge mistake in supply chain efficiency. They just doubled their freight expenditure, not to mention all of the additional processing tasks they’ll have to do.

One way to reduce this is to have a partner that’s an expert in working long list requirements. Another way is to think proactive. What can you do to beat the chaos? What can you do to pre-plan and have expendables shipped to you with the least amount of time on your shelves? How can you organize your supply chain so you have what you want, when you want it, and where you want it?

A Just In Time and On-Demand aircraft expendable and consumable solution is about streamlining your operation.

This solution isn’t for everybody. If you’re a small airline and MRO who doesn’t see the same high usage expendables on a regular basis, then building your high usage expendable and consumable list for forecasting is a waste of your time. You won’t have enough volume yet to experience the benefits, but working with a key partner for your long lists will still give you tons of benefits.

On the other side, if you are a large airline and MRO who procures the same high usage material, the best option would be to automate delivery. Just think about the benefits of not having to cut POs, overstock or worry about shipping from multiple areas. The savings is huge.

The strategic framework this is built on is to reduce stress, be more efficient, and be proactive in your decisions.

P.S. We have an amazing Just In Time and On-demand program for our airline and MRO partners. Check it out by clicking here.