Avemco Blog

Loving the Numbers

Jonathan "JJ" Greenway, President

May 2012
Coming on board with Avemco earlier this year has been the highlight of my professional aviation career. As a longtime admirer of the company, every day has been a new experience as I delve into the inner workings of the aviation insurance business and acquaint myself with the day-to-day business of insuring pilots and their planes.

One of my first staff meetings was with Mike Kerwin, Avemco's Vice President of Analytics. I tried not to act surprised at the PowerPoint slide with more numbers on it than I'd EVER seen on a PowerPoint slide. To alleviate my unease Mike said "Don't fall in love with any one number." At first I thought he was kidding, but as he patiently led me into the corporate jungle of important data and reports Avemco analyzes, I gained a better understanding of the process and how it impacts the business and our products.

Ok, I got all that!

After my first few weeks on the job, with my head full of what I was trying to absorb, I did what any self-respecting pilot would do, I took to the air to relieve the stress. I still keep my CFI certificate active and provide flight instruction to a small circle of longtime friends here at the Frederick (Maryland) Municipal Airport. I was giving instruction to a fellow "old guy" who was learning "glass" for the first time. Although he is a highly experienced aviator, this was his first flight without the familiar "steam gauges" that he had come to know and love in decades of flying. I could see him struggle as he tried to assimilate all the information. The best advice I could give him was the advice given to me by Mike Kerwin. "Don't fall in love with any one number!" The glass screens presented vastly more information than he was used to seeing in the cockpit and, like anyone new to advanced technology, he tended to focus on one or two pieces of information. One of the fantastic things about new avionics technology is that critical information is often presented in multiple formats so you can customize your view. As we worked on landings, I could see that he had difficulty incorporating the "tape" representation of airspeed into his scan. Same with the VSI and altitude displays. We spent a few hours at cruise altitude on a cross country flight just so he could familiarize himself with where to look for what he needed. More than any other phase of flight training, transitioning to glass cockpits is the time when the phrase "get the big picture" matters most. I fly with some teenage students who can far outmaneuver me when it comes to new cockpit technology. But that's not what it's all about. It's still an airplane and it still demands to be flown with good airmanship, regardless of what type of technology is installed in the panel.

My transitioning student assimilated the change pretty well (for an old guy!) and is happily and safely plying the skies with the latest and greatest in avionics technology. But every time I see him, he reminds me that he's "keeping the big picture in mind."

Flying is about numbers: proper Vspeeds, rate of climb, minimum safe altitude, maximum useful load, and so forth, all of which are important. Maybe you don't like numbers but they demand our attention as pilots. In nearly every pilot related airplane accident I see, somebody, somewhere failed to pay attention to the numbers. True, that's our business, but we'd love to see a reduction in these types of losses! We've grown close to our customers and consider them to be part of our extended aviation family. And we'd like them be around to do business with us in the future!