From the Operations Department, Aviation Division
By Bob Shafer, DVC-OA

Late in January, AUXAIR leaders will be gathering in St. Louis for N-Train. All of the District Staff Officers for Aviation are invited to attend the AV sessions or to send representatives from their Districts. Those who attend will participate in sessions which will cover the current state of the AUXAIR program, with special attention focused on the many changes which have been made in the past year or so. This is a terrific opportunity for all of the DSOs to share information and compare notes on their respective AV programs. There will be ample time to get to know a bit about AUXAIR in each District and to get to know each other.

Although there will be time for exchanging ideas and the occasional “war story”, most of our limited time will be devoted to a very full agenda. Let’s take a look at some of the items on that agenda. We’ll start off by reviewing the structure of the Aviation program. We’ll look at the National AV Division and its place in the National Operations Department. We’ll review the various National AV Staff positions, including a couple of changes over the past year.

Then we’ll look at the typical District AV organization. Although there are differences between districts, there are certain things which are supposed to be similar. For example, many Auxiliarists are unaware that AV is mandated to be a District run program; there is no AV staff officer position authorized at the Division or Flotilla level. We’ll review the reasons and regulations behind this structure and see how an effective AV organization is set up.

We’ll have a through review of the various regulations and guidance which govern the AUXAIR program, and there are many. Some are rather obscure, so we’ll cover all of those to make sure that everyone understands them.

Each of our Branches in the AV division, Aero-Medical, Capabilities, AV Management, Training, Homeland Security Operations, Recruitment, Special Projects, Standards and Safety, have items to report. We’ll hear a review of what has been going on throughout the AV Division over the past year.

There have been some rather significant changes to the AV program of late. We have some new Standards concerning such things as Risk Assessment and Check Flights for our pilots. We will take some time to go over these items in detail. They are important due to their direct impact on flight safety.

There have been changes in some of the regulations affecting AUXAIR, too. Between the Auxiliary Manual, the Operations Policy Manual, and various other rules and regulations, there are a lot of details to keep in mind. We’ll go over all of those in detail so that everyone is up to speed.

Finally, we’ll devote some time to a “DSO-AV Survival Guide”, discussing some of the common issues and questions with which all DSO-AVs grapple. How to choose crew, how to delegate, how to manage, how to lead, how to put on a Workshop and how to mix with our Active Duty colleagues are things which go beyond the black and white of rules and regulations, but which are important factors in the success of any AUXAIR program. We’ll try to provide some discussion, guidance and insight on these things and more. There will be ample opportunity for those attending to ask questions of the leadership and of the group.

We’re looking forward to a busy, but very worthwhile time at N-Train. See you in St. Louis!