By Matt Isley
First published in Flight Levels Online, Fall 2014 issue
In this world of instant electronic communication, face-to-face personal interaction — actually looking at and talking to a person or people you can reach out and touch — is more important than ever. I have three examples.
Four years ago Twin Commander Aircraft moved its people, offices, warehouse, parts inventory, and documentation from Arlington, Washington, to Creedmoor, North Carolina. What did not move was the FAA office responsible for oversight of Twin Commander’s parts production and certification activities.
For four years we’ve continued to work with the FAA’s Seattle Aircraft Certification Office. Good folks, but it’s not exactly convenient to have the regulators on one side of the country and the regulated on the other. So we have relied mostly on instant electronic communication, which is efficient but not always effective.
That has changed. Earlier this year oversight of Twin Commander officially moved to the FAA’s Atlanta ACO. It’s about 350 miles from Creedmoor to Atlanta — not exactly convenient for a hastily called afternoon meeting, but certainly closer than the 2,400 miles separating us from the Seattle ACO. Last September we had our first face-to-face meeting with the people at the Atlanta ACO, and the most important work that took place was the creation of personal relationships between professionals.
People who have met, shook hands, and talked are likely to have a more productive working relationship over time than people who have only talked on the phone and exchanged emails. We’ll be doing a lot of telephone conferencing and emailing with the Atlanta ACO, but the important thing is we’ve met, we’ve shook hands, and we’ve talked, and we will do so again.
The second example of the value of face-to-face, sit-down-and-talk communication is the upcoming National Business Aviation Association Annual Convention and Exhibition at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. It’s the largest business aviation show in the world, with endless aisles of product and service booths in the convention center and scores of new and used aircraft on static display at Showalter Flying Service at Orlando Executive Airport.
If it’s involved in business aviation, it will be at the NBAA convention, and so should you. There is no better venue for seeing all the available products, learning about the latest developments, and talking to the people whose professional lives are devoted to business aviation.
Twin Commander Aircraft and several of our service center partners will be there, in Booth 4485 on the convention center floor. Please stop by to meet, shake hands, and talk with us.
Finally, there’s the Twin Commander University. Online schooling, electronic forums, and social media all have their place. They are efficient tools that busy, involved people can use to educate themselves and communicate with others who share common interests. But nothing tops the opportunity to meet, shake hands with, and talk to more than a hundred Commander owners and operators and the people and companies that support the fleet with relevant products and services.
After a weekend of informative seminars, interesting exhibits, and entertaining social activities, you’ll graduate with a much deeper appreciation for everything that this company, our service center partners, and the airplane stand for. Plan on coming to the next Twin Commander University April 23-25, 2015 in Savannah for some good old-fashioned face-to-face jaw-boning, learning, and fun.
