Moving on and Moving Up! Congratulations!

Dan Martens, Manager of Multi Engine Operations, PFC 

Spring has sprung and the turnover’s begun, as is the case every year in aviation. Each year around this time, air operators prepare for their busy time by hiring pilots to fill seats at the front of their planes. It’s like clockwork, as soon as the days get longer and clocks spring forward, pilots move. Some move from the right seat to the left, leaving a copilots chair for one that has much more responsibility. Others move from the seat of a small aircraft to the seat of a larger one, and of course, ‘small aircraft’ is a relative term. The latter is what six lucky BCIT graduates and current PFC instructors, have accomplished during the spring of 2012, three moving on and three moving up. All six are deserving of the move, in the case of the 3 moving on, (David Gibson, Jason Shaw, Sam Sanders) they paid their dues, did their time and worked their butts off over the last number of years. For the three moving up, (Stuart Mittlestead, Kate McDougal, Kristjan Aug) a new challenge waits them as they flex their instructing muscle in our multi engine instrument program. And I must manage the transition from the old to the new so I don’t lose the experience gained with the senior instructors.

Next year it will happen again, I will grow to respect and admire the instructors I manage just before they pack their bags and move into a new world. Energy will shine from the new team members who move up and that energy will benefit careers, not only their own careers, but the careers of students and young instructors. Eventually those students become instructors, instructors move up and become leaders, leaders that move on. As is the cycle of aviation, every spring instructors move up and move on… all I can do is sit back and say “Good bye and Good luck”.

Make us proud guys…

by Dan Martens