The Houston chapter of SAWE and the Offshore Industry Committee invite you to attend HOW 2020. The Houston Offshore Workshop will focus on maturing working drafts of two SAWE Recommended Practices on Weight Reporting and In-Service Weight Control, Mass Properties Engineering Handbook chapter for the Offshore and the critical concepts needed to be a Certified Offshore Mass Properties Engineer by SAWE. The event will be held at Fluor conference facilities at their corporate offices in Sugar Land (20 miles Southwest of Houston), Texas, in March. We invite all Weight or Mass Properties Engineers, Students, Exhibitors, Class Societies, Government regulators to attend the meeting. The meeting fees will just cover meals and will be free to University students, since we appreciate the time you will spend supporting our development efforts. We welcome volunteers to help with the technical content and planning the work shop. Contact a Houston chapter officer or the Offshore Industry Committee chair. Further details will follow on the SAWE.org webpage and through this Blog system.
Category: Uncategorized
Group Office: File Locking and Version Control
Group Office has proven itself to be immensely useful to me, for chapter activities, for document development and as a source of some of the more obscure or perhaps just time pertinent material. (If you’re running a conference you’ll really appreciate it !) One thing not commonly shown is how to have a configuration controlled document, edited sequentially by a group of people. There is a locking feature used to maintain control while you are editing the document. Along with the file version viewing capability, document editions are maintained as properties of the single document name to keep your group office space nice and tidy. See: Group Office Landing Page and scroll down to “File Locking and Version Control”
Successful Conference Planning Meeting in Hamburg
The European Chapter host committee has selected an excellent venue for SAWE’s 79th International Conference. We’re very excited to share the charm, ambiance, and hospitality of the Privathotel Lindtner at the conference next May. It’s a beautiful facility, has great meeting room accommodations, and the food is amazing.
The Executive Committee was represented on site by President-John Hargrave, Executive Director-Bill Boze, and Senior VP-Errol Oguzhan. In addition VP Technical-Robert Zimmerman, VP Internet-Greg Ray, Executive VP-Clint Stephenson, and Financial Chairman-Fred Brown supported via Zoom Telecom.
This meeting was held Saturday, Sep 28th at the conference hotel site. It was a full day of event planning, facilities tour, schedule coordination, and budget planning. It was hard work, but the result is a fantastic SAWE Conference experience for you next May. Make your plans now to attend and follow the announcements on SAWE.org for more details.
On Monday Bill, Errol, and John were invited by Kim Mittler to address the Airbus mass properties group about SAWE. The meeting was a great opportunity to meet additional mass properties engineers and to discuss benefits and activities of SAWE membership.
SAWE using ZOOM for online meetings. And you can too!
As some might have become aware, SAWE is now using a conferencing app called Zoom. We’re encouraging everyone to use this for SAWE meetings over Join.me or any other service. SAWE has purchased a pro license with 2 host accounts that will allow unlimited time and up to 100 people in an online meeting. Bill Boze is the main admin for this and can assign host role as needed.
However you don’t need to depend on Bill to schedule meetings or ask to host a meeting. There is a free version open to everyone with all the same features as the pro license, except the meeting length is limited to 40 minutes. The work around for this is to plan back to back meetings if you expect to need more time. If you want to hold a 1 on 1 meeting to screen share something, there is no time limit. If you have a need to host a recurring meeting for SAWE business, contact Bill to get something scheduled.
Go to zoom.com to try it out and sign up for an account. We did some testing before making the switch from Join.me and found that Zoom will work behind most company firewalls. There is a downloadable Zoom app for computer and mobile devices that will provide the best full-featured experience. If you can’t get the app installed the web based version should also work without issues.
I’m attaching some notes that Bill compiled on using Zoom. Some of these notes apply only to the advance features on the Pro license but still good to look thru. Give this tool a try and leave any feedback you might have in the comments.
SAWE Academic Liaisons
At the last Society of Allied Weight Engineers Board of Directors meeting, Dr. Donna S. Gerren, our VP SAWE Academic Affairs, proposed SAWE establish Faculty Liaisons with university and college professors. The rationale for doing so were:
• We are still very weak in our position to gain a foothold with the college community. The reasons are many but the first and foremost is that our discipline is not recognized at the college level. This must be addressed. We continually touch on it but in reality, have made little progress.
• Creating a Liaison position may be the first step in getting some help from within the colleges to assist in moving forward toward the creation of curriculum that can be introduced as an elective course in Mass Properties.
• We need specific short- and long-term goals laid out to convince a college professor to spend a little more of the precious free time at hand in assisting SAWE. WE need to convince a candidate the endeavor is worth the effort.
Therefore, as approved by the Board of Directors, SAWE will focus this year and beyond on developing and sustaining our relationships with Academia. In order to do so, we need the active participation from you, our local SAWE chapters.
SAWE requests:
Each Chapter provide a name and corresponding email address of a chapter member that would act as a representative of the SAWE to the University Academic Liaison in order to support the interface between Industry and Academia.
Dr. Gerren and SAWE Academic Committee is in the process of contacting and soliciting focal points within Universities to secure Faculty Liaisons. Once these liaisons are established, nearby SAWE chapters will communicate through their respective Faculty Liaison with e-mail announcements, flyers, or any other form of communication events happening within their nearby local SAWE Chapter. The SAWE Academic Committee will be responsible for informing Faculty Liaisons of SAWE activities including SAWE regional and international events, including training opportunities and eventually Mass Properties Certification opportunities.
Please consider becoming a chapter representative of the SAWE with the University Academic Liaison. If interested, please coordinate position availability with your chapter leadership and provide your contact information to Dr. Gerren at Donna.Gerren@colorado.edu.
As Dr. Gerren stated to the Board of Directors, “We must get universities involved”.
Sincerely,
Clint Stephenson
SAWE Executive Vice President
executivevp@sawe.org
1.832.647.5599
Standards Public Review
RP A-7, Management and Control for Military Aircraft, is in the public draft review stage and is posted in the Standards Public Review page. This document provides the means for establishing a system of mass properties management and control during the development, follow-on development, and throughout the life cycle of military aircraft programs. The Review period for RP A-7 ends November 7, 2019.
RP M-4, Supplier Weight Control for the Marine Industry, is also in the public draft review stage and is posted to the Standards Public Review page. This Recommended Practice (RP) is intended for use by vessel Designers/Builders and the marine supplier community. For the Designer/Builder, it outlines an effective methodology for involving marine industry suppliers in the shipyard’s comprehensive weight control plan. For the supplier of shipboard equipment, it provides a framework of what the shipyard needs in terms of mass properties input to effectively manage the overall mass properties of the vessel. It is hoped that this RP will help establish the foundation for a productive vessel Designer/Builder – marine supplier working relationship. The review period for RP M-4 ends October 26, 2019.
Impromptu Conference Finance and Training Meeting
While Errol was in town for other work, an impromptu meeting at O’Conner Brewing in Norfolk, VA was held to discuss Conference Finance and Training. Executive Director, Senior VP and Conference Budget Coordinator attending.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to local chapters while you are in town on work! Whether you meet up with one person or just happen to be in town for a chapter event, this is a great opportunity to network! It is always great getting to be with SAWE members outside of the International Conference as well.
SAWE Provides AWBS Training at Sierra Nevada Corporation at Moody AFB
The Society of Allied Weight Engineers instructor, Harold Smoot, travelled to Sierra Nevada Corporation’s facility at Moody Air Force Base (Valdosta, Georgia) to provide Automated Weight and Balance System (AWBS) training to a group of Sierra Nevada Corp students. The students were presented with all the new features of Version 10 of the US Air Force’s Automated Weight and Balance Software in a hands-on training class. The class began with a discussion of the terms and developmental history of AWBS, minimum system requirements, and software installation followed by a complete overview of the software features to support weight control programs for military aircraft.
For those individuals or organizations interested in attending or arranging for an on-site training class, see http://sawe.org/training/awbs for a complete course description and utilize our contact page to learn more http://sawe.org/contact.
SAWE Scholarship Recipient Follow up
SAWE’s scholarship awards are making a difference in the successful career development of member’s children and grandchildren. We don’t often get this type of follow up feedback from scholarship recipients. It’s rewarding to know more about the career paths of the students.
Sean Greiner, an SAWE Scholarship recipient, recently sent SAWE the following message:
“I
wanted to extend my sincere appreciation for supporting me throughout my
undergraduate career at Clemson University. I recently graduated in May and am
continuing on in my education as I seek a medical degree from the Medical
University of South Carolina. Words cannot express the difference that your
scholarship has made in my education.
Because of your financial support, I was able to devote significant time to experiments
in a DNA repair lab at Clemson. The work that I have done, in concert with many
other lab members, will be published in scientific journals in the coming years
and we hope will significantly add to our knowledge about DNA repair pathways
and metastatic melanoma.
Thank you again for your support.
Sincerely,
Sean Greiner”
John Hargrave, President, replied:
Sean, SAWE would like to congratulate you for your recent graduation from Clemson. We appreciate your thoughtfulness in sharing news of your accomplishments and future plans with us. It’s great to know more about you as an SAWE scholarship recipient and the direction of your career path.
We wish you the best in all of your future endeavors. SAWE membership is very proud of you and we’re honored to have participated in your career development.
SAWE working to produce Recommended Practices for Airline Passenger and Bag Weights
SAWE is partnering with the Society of Aircraft Performance and Operations Engineers (SAPOE) to generate a recommended practices (RP) document that will produce standards for the development of standard average weights to be used in passenger carrier operations.
The FAA has recently released Advisory Circular 120-27F Weight and Balance Control. Revision F deviates most significantly from previous versions of AC120-27 in that standard weights for passengers and bags are no longer specified. The AC provides guidance to the operators stating that passenger and bag weights should be calculated based on (1) use of Center for Disease Control National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (for body weights) and (2) use of surveys (for body weights where NHANES data are not appropriate and for all bag weights).
The reluctance of the FAA to publish results in AC 120-27 allows for a possibility for inconsistent application of statistical methods. The major problem with the AC is that it will lead to varying and inconsistent practices and assumptions among different carriers, as a result of the desire to have each operator responsible for development of its own standard weights. Analysis of the CDC NHANES data for body weights and design, execution and analysis of bag surveys are highly technical tasks requiring personnel with specific skill sets. Variability due to inappropriate application of methods and even due to pursuing an opportunity to obtain a competitive advantage will result in nonsensical standard weights. For example, the same passenger and their bags will be assumed to have different weights on each airline they fly.
To address these concerns, SAPOE created a “Tiger Team” in January 2017. The Tiger Team’s primary focus is to develop standards to be used in (1) analysis of CDC NHANES body weights, and (2) construction of checked and carry-on baggage surveys. Engineers from Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, Allegiant, Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, American Airlines, NetJets, American Aeronautics, Boeing and Airbus have been involved as Tiger Team members. The Tiger Team has been meeting regularly with the following planned activity:
• Publication of an industry standard weight for passengers and bags
• Development of the industry standard weights to be accomplished using agreed-upon methods
• CDC NHANES data analysis will be published for body weights (unclothed) – a fresh NHANES survey is due to be published this fall
• Carry-on and checked bag weights will be surveyed by participating operators.
• Data will be shared and SAPOE members will have access to results
• Standard average weights and best practices documentation (user guidance) will be published by SAPOE (format to be determined)
• Work with FAA to revise weight & balance program Op Specs (A096/A097/A098/A099) to accommodate the necessary changes
• Work with SAWE to create a Recommended Practices standards document
If you are interested in working on this project – data collecting, data analysis or development of the RP, please contact Mike Byham at michael.byham@aa.com.
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