On the Horizon for Safety 1st Continued from page 27 “We’re heading toward a much more flexible, comprehensive and feature-rich solution for our members that is going to allow each business to utilize the training in the way that works best for their users,” France said. “As always, advancing safety throughout the industry is the end goal.” Vic Gregg, Director of Safety Standards & Audit at Universal Weather & Aviation, Inc. (and NATA Safety Committee Vice Chairman), said he believes tweaking Safety 1st to better meet international needs will result in a stronger domestic product in the bargain. “At Universal, we’re now using Safety 1st “I JUST CAN’T STRESS ENOUGH HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO REALIZE THAT IT IS NOT THE U.S. FBO MARKET WHEN YOU GET OUTSIDE THESE BORDERS AND YOU WANT TO BE RECOGNIZED AS A RELIABLE AND QUALITY SOURCE FOR TRAINING BY THE AIRPORT AUTHORITIES, THE CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITIES, AND THE VARIOUS NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS. YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH THEM A LOT MORE, IN A REGULATORY SENSE, THAN YOU EVER DO IN THE U.S. IT’S REALLY A DIFFERENT WORLD OUT THERE.” Vic Gregg, Director of Safety Standards & Audit, Universal Weather & Aviation, Inc. 28 training in over 20 coun- tries, including regions in Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Asia-Pacific,” Gregg said. “We think, obviously, that the Safety 1st training products are in the best place we’ve ever seen them and certainly the best product on the market. It’s really an extraordinary program, and it allows small, large, or mid-size operators to take someone from the street to supervised work on the line to unsu- pervised roles in about six months. It’s really that good! It’s fantastic! With that being said, there are some major differences in the ground handling world between the U.S. and Canada and the rest of the world. Some of it is terminology and seman- tics that are easy to fix, some of it is language and translation barriers that can also be easily fixed, with the right people and resources, and some of it is that there really are some signifi- cant differences in rules and regula- tions around the world, and even in what an FBO is and isn’t allowed to do in different countries. As one example, the NATA Safety 1st PLST is heavy on fueling, fueling equipment, fuel quality control, fuel farms... and in most cases, internationally, fueling is something that the FBO is absolutely not allowed to do, at all. Mexico and Ireland are the only two of our international locations where we even have a fuel truck, because outside of the U.S.—almost without exception—you’re at the mercy of the fueler that has the blessed authority on the airport. So having a training package that is broken up into smaller modules, where you can decide to skip some or all of that portion of the training when it isn’t applicable, becomes absolutely key in the international world. What we want, and what other international cus- tomers will want, is to be able to draw clear lines in our training records to the matching items on the IS-BAH checklists, and on the external auditor’s checklists, to be able to say, with authority, ‘Yep, we’ve got everything covered.’ Smaller domestic FBOs want the same thing, by the way: if you can meet the IS-BAH standards and stand up to their auditors, you’re going to be above and beyond anything else that is ever being asked of you here in the U.S.” Gregg said it’s a lesson Universal learned the hard way, when it began expanding into international markets. “Twenty years ago, we thought it would get easier once we got outside of the U.S. and away from all the regulations here, but it hasn’t gotten easier: it’s gotten more complicated, with more layers of regulation than we ever would think possible here in the U.S.,” Gregg said. “I just can’t stress enough how important it is to realize that it is not the U.S. FBO market when you get outside these borders and you want to be recog- nized as a reliable and quality source for training by the airport authorities, the civil aviation authorities, and the various national governments. Aviation Business Journal | 1st Quarter 2017
