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BUSINESS AVIATION 44 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY MRO like yours is faced with regarding the electronic systems in the aircraft cabin? WS: The first thing would be expecta- tion. It's really important to manage your customers' expectations. We already men- tioned the phrase office in the sky and how it is somewhat of a trap. We spend a great deal of time communicating the difference between internet streaming and internet connectivity. There may not be a guarantee that this information is getting to the end user. My point is, the person in the back writing the checks thinks that they have Internet like they do in the house and that may not be the case. Our next problem is when we get the afterhours call that our customers' Wi-Fi isn't working. This starts a series of questions, including: is the problem Wi-Fi, or the pipe off the airplane? Is the pipe off the airplane satellite based or ground based? Who is your service provider? Is it a performance issue or an expectation issue? Where is the airplane sitting? When is it flying next? Are you comfortable with your chief pilot helping us with troubleshooting this? Once we get a plan together we spend a great deal of time and money chasing broke airplanes all across the country try- ing to support our customers. I want to interject with a positive note here, you are asking for our struggles for the purpose of the article, but I would like to point out that we are talking about accessing inter- net at 40,000 feet, travelling 600 miles an hour … which is pretty awesome. AMT: In th e 2016 AMT Magazin e Readership Sur vey, the top two criti- cal issues identified were in this order; training on the complexity of aircraft today and recruitment and retention of employees. I'd like to hear what your view is of this and what best practices your company employs to address these two critical issues. WS: I agree that training is very com- plex and challenging for the schools and instructors to stay equal to or ahead of our requirements. As for West Star we send them to schools, seminars, conventions, and online courses as available to us as with the rest of the industry. As for recruit- ment we work with neighboring colleges and tech schools. At both the shop and enterprise levels we are always reviewing and evaluating how to better West Star Aviation for employee retention. AMT Magazine thanks Marty Rhine and West Star Aviation for sharing some of their insights into the avionics business. Contact us today: (888) 510-0389 www.jsiaircraftmaintenancestands.com Custom designed fall protection equipment to protect your most valuable investment. AviationPros.com/company/12235134