It feels like I’m always writing about how bad I am with keeping up writing! I’ll put writing more on my Goals for 2016 page, I promise!

I’ve been in my new job for almost 5 months now and passed my comp check about 2.5 months. I may be corny in saying this, but I still learn something new everyday. It’s important to always be learning and growing, especially in aviation. There shouldn’t be a day at work or a flight where you aren’t trying to push yourself to learn something new.

Sadly, Jake has been flying with a lot of older pilots lately and describes to me what happens when a pilot gives up learning new things. Technology moves so quickly now so it’s quite easy to not pay attention and get behind. I mean with social media I’m awful – I still have no idea why Snap Chat is a thing or how to use it. But with flying and airlines it’s different. Every week they release new learning memos that we have to stay current on to know technology or important items about destinations we serve or aircraft differences.

Pilots have crew resource management (CRM) and they say dispatchers have the same thing (they rename it dispatcher resource management – DRM). The main point is, if you’re unsure of something, ask your co-workers. Being on the bottom of the seniority list means I have one of the crappier schedules, which also means newer people work with me as well. Since we’re all pretty new, lots of DRM happens and we solve the issue. I love my co-workers and we challenge each other to think about things the other may have overlooked or not thought about yet. Then there are pilots who call who may have a question because they’re thinking in a different way then we are. All great for a learning environment!

Official training comes to an end, but training and learning should never truly stop. Whether it’s from reading a book, asking your peers or mentors, or just Googling something to find the answer (and then making sure you find an official source in the Google search so you can back it up if questioned).

We’ve learned more about Oceanic NOTAMs since we go to Hawaii now. I learned a lot more about ICAO flight strips. It’s fun and I enjoy what I learn every day at work and I never want to stop learning and growing.