Business & Commercial Aviation - Scheduling in the Very Small Flight Department
Jan 14, 2009 :: Resources may be limited, but the workload is no different from the burden confronting larger departments./Let's coin a definition right here: A very small flight department is one that operates from one to three aircraft with as many as five personnel. Arbitrary? Sure it is, and you're certainly invited to keep reading if you have a couple more aircraft and people. The point is that in a very small setting resources are limited yet the workload is no different from the burden confronting larger organizations. And in this case, pilots are expected to manage the department and also fly the company's trips. Sometimes it's hard to focus on one without distractions from the other. Says Don Baldwin, president and CEO of Baldwin Aviation, "The two things that they're shortest of are people and time" -- or, taken together, man-hours. Baldwin should know. His consulting company has specialized in assisting small flight departments in a range of management areas that all center on operational safety. One of his worries is that trying to run a flight department can distract a pilot from managing an individual flight, which takes total focus. Baldwin sees that as a safety issue, pure and simple..........[click below for the entire article]
