SAWE Virtual Training Opportunities – Save the Dates!!

SAWE is offering several important Training courses opportunities between Now and the End of 2020.  These are online courses, similar to the Tech Fair and Training.  Training instructors will come to you via Zoom.


Courses will be offered in 4 Hour Sessions on the following Friday / Saturday weekends:

October 23 and 24

November 13 and 14

December 11 and 12


Courses will be offered as either Four Hour Classes or Eight Hour Classes (two Four Hour Sessions on consecutive days) on the above dates.  Class Time will be 7:00 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time / 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM Eastern Time / 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM Central European Time.  Note that AWBS is in 2-5 hour sessions.  
The Course Schedule is still being finalized, but we can confirm that the following courses will be offered:

AWBS (Automated Weight and Balance System): Instructor, Harold Smoot – 10 Hour Class over Two Days of 5 hours per session

Developing Basic Parametric Methods: Instructor Andy Walker – 8 Hour Class over Two Days of 4 hours per session

Ship Inclining Experiment: Instructor, Bill Fox – 8 Hour Class over Two Days of 4 hours per session

Marine Vehicle Weight Estimating Methodology: David Hansch – 8 Hour Class over Two Days of 4 hours per session

Structural Weight Optimization for Mass Properties Engineers: Raj Bishnoi – 8 Hour Class over Two Days of 4 hours per session

Fundamental Concepts of SAWE RP7 and RP8 for Military Aircraft: Paul Kachurak – 8 Hour Class over Two Days of 4 hours per session

Introduction to Marine Weight Engineering for Non-Naval Architects: Dominic Cimino – 4 Hour Class in a 1 day session

Aircraft Fuel System Calibration and Verification: Rod Van Dyke – 4 Hour Class in a 1 day session

For full description of each course visit: https://www.sawe.org/conference_training

Please Watch the SAWE Blog, www.sawe.org/blog, and your SAWE emails for further details and pricing as they are confirmed.

Respectfully submitted,
Dan Rowley

SAWE Vice President, Training

Save The Date – SAWE Virtual Forum Coming

What single aspect of a platform’s total mass can wreak havoc on the best-laid plans of a successful weight control program? What can we, as mass properties engineers do to prevent an impending catastrophe? And how can you personally influence the outcome?

On some programs, 60% or more of a platform’s mass is derived from vendor supplied articles. The Society of Allied Weight Engineers is holding a one-hour Virtual Forum on Vendor Weight Control on Friday, September 25th at 8 AM PDT (11 AM EDT, 5PM CEST) to discuss this ongoing challenge. Join us for this forum as we share our mutual experiences and opinions on how best to ensure that vendor supplied components do not scuttle your program.

Join Forum Leader Vidas “Whidy” Kiskunas, Forum Host Robert Zimmerman, and the SAWE Leadership in this first 2020-2021 SAWE Virtual Forum via Zoom (link to be provided later) and let your voice be heard. Be involved in solving a problematic aspect of mass properties engineering that impacts not only our ability to control weight, but our relationships with our management and customers.

Florida Space Coast Regional Cancelled

Recently, SAWE leadership met with Florida Space Coast Conference Chair, Pat Brown, to discuss the upcoming Regional Conference and Planning Meeting in October 2020. With an abundance of caution amid the ongoing Corona Virus pandemic and with cases and overall numbers in Florida not abating, we have decided to cancel the SAWE Regional Conference scheduled for 15-18 October.

The Planning Meeting will be moved one day to provide better scheduling with the local committee. A virtual Planning Meeting will be conducted on Friday, 16 October 2020. Agenda will be distributed to International Officers and local Committee shortly.

Virtual technical sessions will be discussed in the upcoming weeks. Virtual training will be considered for those courses that lend themselves best to that environment and aligned with the needs of the Florida Space Coast Chapter.

Update from the President

Your SAWE has been very busy and I’d like to share about several topics that I hope will excite and encourage your participation.  SAWE continues to be actively engaged in all aspects of our mission to provide technical support, industry guidance, training, and knowledge exchange.  If you’re not already involved, you need to get involved.  It will enhance your career and open new opportunities for learning, leadership, and development.

Developing The “New Normal” for SAWE

What is the new normal for SAWE?  Since I became a member in 1981, SAWE has had a model for international conferences, regional conferences, training, chapter meetings, and Board of Director’s meetings that has worked pretty well and hasn’t changed very much.  However, this year we were forced to make changes and hold events virtually.  While we were initially very nervous, apprehensive, and skeptical – it has worked well.  The TECH Fair and Training event experience provided a significant learning opportunity for enhanced capabilities and outreach.

Therefore we are considering new models for our activities.  Some of these will be temporary for the pandemic.  And some of them show promise for the long term.  These new models, based on online attendance, make it easier and more affordable to participate.

Energizing SAWE with Virtual Events

  • Standards and Practices workshops

Our industry committees will be meeting online several times during the year.  Typical agenda items are: developing new Recommended Practices (RP’s), review and update of existing RP’s, forum discussion of technical issues, and other industry guidance topics.  VP Standards and Practices, Doug Fisher, continues to facilitate progress on these vital committees’ work.

  • Technical Forums

This will be a new a new activity consisting of several online forum discussions.  VP Technical, Robert Zimmerman, needs your input for topics to discuss.  These forums will be about 1 hour long and scheduled throughout the rest of the year (thru May).  Your participation is required to make these forums a success.  So submit topics to Robert and look forward to the exchange of ideas with colleagues from across SAWE.

  • Training Courses

We will be offering several online training courses throughout the remainder of the year.  This worked well during the TECH Fair and want to ensure additional opportunities for training in the mass properties community.   Our instructors have adapted very well to this virtual environment and it is much easier for students to attend.  Not every course lends itself to the virtual version, but most of them are adaptable.  Be on the lookout for these opportunities and VP Training, Dan Rowley, schedules these training courses.

  • Certification Development workshops

We will hold a couple of online workshops for SAWE members to get an update on the status of the Certification Program development and to provide their feedback.  As our Certification Development committee progresses, we want to ensure that everyone gets a chance for input.  And we want to ensure that the program is well understood by mass properties certification candidates, companies that will sponsor employees to get certified, and the customer community anticipating qualification credentials.  These workshops will be facilitated by Certification chair, Andy Schuster.

  • Academic Advisor and Liaison development discussions

SAWE’s VP Academic Affairs, Dr. Donna Gerren, has implemented a program to increase student involvement in SAWE by creating direct links between chapters (Academic Liaisons) and universities (Academic Advisors).  There will be regular online meetings to discuss activities, opportunities, and brainstorm ideas as this innovative concept takes flight.

  • Happy Hours, a series

One of the opportunities at a conference is the informal Happy Hour.  Many relationships and even some useful work have been built during enjoyable conversation.  Happy hours were requested during the TECH Fair and we had several.  We found out that online happy hours work!  So we will be scheduling some regular happy hours for everyone to link in and visit.  It’s a great way to catch up with each other as well as meet some new folks.  Also, we learn more about each other’s background, hobbies, etc.  The Zoom tool has a feature called breakout rooms, so if a few folks want to talk aside from the big group, it’s possible.

Although “it’s always 5 o’clock somewhere”, we’ll schedule happy hours that are convenient for a few key time zones.

  • Shared Chapter Meetings

Chapter meetings are very important to SAWE membership.  This is where leadership and involvement in the organization usually begins.  Locally it is a great way to keep up with colleagues in your area and work on projects together.

The concept of shared chapter meetings mixes an online presentation to several chapters with separate chapter meetings in breakout rooms.  Since chapters cannot physically meet together, this is a great way to combine the program as well as have your separate meeting.

TECH Fair and Training: post conference report

Attendance:

Registration for the TECH Fair was about 120.  Attendance in each session ranged from 70-100.  Workshop attendance was higher than usual with the Military Aircraft session as high as 60.  Training enrollment was very good with AWBS topping the list at 47.  The Marine Estimation course was cancelled, however, due to only one person enrolled.  (we’ll be offering it again soon and try to get adequate enrollment for this very valuable course).

Finances:

Each year SAWE’s International conference provides a substantial revenue stream for our yearly budget.  The TECH Fair and Training event raised much needed revenue toward replacing the cancelled Hamburg conference.  Independently the financial results were very good.  But with expenses of the cancelled conference, it fell a bit short.

General feedback:

Response from registrants of the TECH Fair and Training event has been overall very positive.  Folks liked the partial day schedule so that they were able to integrate it into their work day.  In addition, training budget was much more efficient and many companies were able to “send” their whole mass properties group.  Of course time wise, without need for travel, this virtual conference saved a lot of money and time.

Impact on the future:

This event was conducted out of necessity and was a significant challenge for the planning team to emulate the events and results of an in person conference with a virtual conference.  It was totally experimental.  The results are that we discovered opportunities and capabilities that can be very beneficial.  Especially as we define the “new normal”.

TECH Fair and Training planning committee team:

I want to thank the small team of dedicated SAWE members for pulling together the first SAWE virtual conference in such a short time and such a professional manner.  This effort was executed in about 2 months with no prior experience.  Every aspect of our regular conference was included (except handshakes).

President’s Priorities for 2020-2021 as presented at the Board of Director’s meeting May 23rd

  • Grow SAWE membership and participation
  • Successful SAWE TECH Fair and Training (virtual conference)
  • Training program continue to develop new courses and instructors
  • Cocoa Beach Conference, ensure it is a success
  • Academic Liaison Initiative – nurture and develop
  • Continue communication and workshopping activities
  • Mass Properties Engineer Certification – mature program development
  • Hamburg Conference contract cancellation – follow up
  • Develop additional ANSI accredited Recommended Practices

Best regards to all,

John Hargrave

SAWE President

Inclusion in Standards Development

The Women in Standards (WIS) organization is working to recognize and improve under representation of persons and groups in Standards Development. They have recently published the results of surveying Standards Developing Organizations (SDO’s) on this topic and SAWE was one of the participating organizations. See our response and encouragement in this area and obtain a copy of the survey results on the WIS website. here

SAWE Mass Properties Engineer’s Handbook Update

Over the past couple of years, the Southeast Region Chapter has been working to reformat the Handbook with the primary goal of improving the legibility of all text and figures. This post will give everyone an idea of our approach and current status as well as a look to the future.

Goals for this revision:

  • Use a consistent set of fonts and layout based on the SAWE Standards and Practices format.
  • Provide clarity to variables in equations.
  • Improve scanned images where possible.
  • Address some limited updates to the data (e.g. aircraft fuels, oils, etc.).
  • Reorganize some sections for better flow of information (e.g. Mass Properties Measurements section).
  • Add reference numbers for formulae, figures, and tables where possible.
Sample of the New Mass Properties Engineer’s Handbook

Current Status:

  • 15 of 20 sections delivered to the Technical Committee, and 2 sections in final edit.
  • 73% of approximately 400 draft pages completed with 54% delivered to the Technical Committee.
  • The Marine and Mathematics sections have been saved till last, and we are looking for help.

I would like to thank my team for all of the hard work and time they have volunteered to this effort. We hope to finish this revision in the very near future.

Future Vision:
Once we get this version complete I would like to propose that we revamp the Handbook to be more of a quick reference by moving most of the verbose text to newly created textbooks. We would keep general, cross-industry properties and equations in the front of the book, followed by sections for each industry (i.e. Commercial Aircraft, Ground Vehicles, Marine, Military Aircraft, Missile and Space, and Offshore). For instance the Commercial Aircraft section might include:

  • Definitions of Weight terms.
  • List of FAA and other countries guidelines on mass properties.
  • Standard weights for payload/passengers (by country/airline?).
  • Rules of thumb for departure weights.
  • Typical inventory items to account for during aircraft weighing (shortages/surpluses).
  • Tip-back prevention methods.
  • Engine weights for common engine types.
  • ?

Feel free to comment on this idea, and provide suggestions of quick reference items that would be useful in each of the industry sections. This blog forum is a great way of gathering and discussing any ideas that are out there on this topic, so please let me know what you think.

Thanks!

SAWE Tech Fair is almost here!

I’m very excited about the upcoming SAWE TECH Fair and Training. It’s only a week away! It’s the first time we’ve been able to offer an event with such affordable pricing and easy attendance. I’m hoping that if you haven’t signed up already, you will within this coming week. For details and registration go to sawe.org.

The TECH Fair has most all of the elements of our conferences without actually traveling to be together. We have special speakers, technical presentations, a forum discussion, vendor presentations, 5 training courses, 6 industry committee workshops, presentations of special awards, announcement of scholarship winners, and more. But the essential element is YOU! So please be sure to join us.

I want to thank the TECH Fair and Training planning committee for pulling this unprecedented event together so quickly and efficiently. Engineers are known for getting the job done, whatever it takes. And this is yet another example how talented, resilient, and resourceful our organization can be. The goal of the TECH Fair and Training is meet SAWE’s mission of providing technical exchange to the mass properties community. Please join us in completing
this goal with your attendance and participation.


Thanks – see you at the TECH Fair!
John Hargrave
SAWE President

SAWE TECH Fair and Training: Question and Answer Session

Mass Properties Community,
I hope you’ve already heard the news, but if you haven’t, SAWE is holding a TECH Fair and Training Conference online starting June 22 that will run for 3 weeks!
Checkout SAWE.org/techfair for general information and registration.

We’ve designed the schedule to accommodate both US and European time zones. Also, we’ve spread the activities such that attendees can both attend the conference part of the day and take care of work the rest of the day.

This is a great opportunity to experience an SAWE International Conference without traveling, without extended time away from work, and at very affordable costs. The entire Technical Sessions, Forum discussion, Standards and Practices joint sessions, and Industry Committee Workshops (the first 2 weeks) are available at one low price of $199.
Five training courses are offered at all time low prices:
• AWBS $350
• Designing the Aircraft of the Future $600
• Structural Weight Optimization for Mass Properties Engineers $300
• Developing Basic Parametric Models $300
• Marine Vehicle Weight Estimating $300

This virtual conference is a first for SAWE. We’ll be using the Zoom tools to connect us all.
I want to invite everyone to join me in a pre-conference Zoom meeting to discuss details of the conference and answer any questions you may have.

Please join me and the TECH Fair and Training team this Wednesday, June 3rd, at 7am Pacific by using the link below. We’re looking forward to your participation.

SAWE Tech Fair and Training Q&A Zoom Meeting

John Hargrave
SAWE President


Download an Outlook Calendar meeting file (.ics) to add the SAWE Tech Fair and Training Q&A Zoom Meeting to your calendar:

Finder’s Fee for chapters recruiting a Corporate Partner or Company Member

APPROVED at the SAWE Board of Directors meeting on Saturday May 23, 2020 was the following proposal: “It is being proposed that the SAWE Inc offer a 25% one time “Finder’s Fee” to a chapter for enlisting a company to join/rejoin the SAWE as a Corporate Partner or Company Member for the first time or after at least a 3 year lapse. 25% coincides with the chapter portion of yearly individual membership dues. Web research has shown “Finder’s Fees” charged up to 35%. The 25% Finder’s Fee will be paid based on the first year dues of at least a 2 year stint as a CPCM at the same membership level or greater for years beyond the first year. The Finder’s Fee would be paid after the 2nd year dues are received. The recruitment of a new company to the SAWE membership will bolster both the local chapter and SAWE as a whole through increased participation toward the goals of the Mass Properties Engineering profession. A “Finder’s Fee” will incentivize chapters to increase efforts to gain new CPCMs as it will allow the chapter more capability to plan and host events such as a regional workshop / conference.”