Projects

Over the past several weeks I have been given several projects to complete. The first of which included editing and uploading articles for the new company website. Currently Desert Jet uses two different sites to promote the business. One includes their professional site www.desertjet.com, where you can find out information about the business and www.palmspringsjetcharter.com which hosts articles written by employees of the company. My job was to take the articles from the previous site and move them to the new one. I also edited and uploaded 20 plus articles written by employees of the company to add to the new website. Article topics included Aircraft Spotlight, which talked about different planes and their amenities. Other Topics included things such as Do You Speak Aviation? 10 Things You Should Know About a Charter Operator, and Air Charter Safety Ratings- What Do They Really Mean? Denise has high hopes for her new website. The reason for the redesign is to make the page more user-friendly with articles that would interest her clients. She hopes the new site will be up by the end of the summer.

Another task I was assigned was to help update employee personnel files. I have been working side by side with accountant Kay Creed to accomplish this task. Before Kay arrived at the company, record keeping was minimal. She has requested my assistance to help organize and create an employee personnel file. In excel we have created a Daily Attendance Sheet, which records sick, personal, and vacation days as well as created an Employee Quick Reference Sheet, which includes things such as Hire Date, Wage Increases, Contact & Emergency Contact Information, as well what types of Insurance Coverage the employee has opted for. We then went through the old files, got rid of the information we didn't need, and then organized all the information in a file folder.

My next assignment includes conducting a Safety Audit for the company. Every so often a member of the company is given the opportunity to perform a safety audit. They are given a sheet with guidance and numerous questions to help them complete the audit. Your job as an auditor is to gather information and determine how effectively the certain area is dealt with. An example might be to examine the practice for Pilot Duty Day. You are to rate it at on a 5-1 Scale, if you give it a 5 you are saying it is above and beyond expectations, 4 is with industry standards, and so on. If you rate it at a 3 or below, you are required to report a finding and it is discussed at the next safety meeting where the issue is addressed and dealt with. So a 5 might be that everyone is involved in Pilot Duty Day, meaning the Charter Specialist is concerned and monitoring it as well as the Chief Pilot and the Pilots. A 3 might be that the Pilots are required to monitor it on their own, while little attention is being paid to it by any other member of the operation. This has been a great way for me to gain a greater understanding of the business. In order for me to successfully complete the audit I am having to ask numerous questions to determine if the practice is being dealt with in an acceptable manner. It has in a round about way taught me a lot about the business.

I have really enjoyed learning about the charter industry. It is definitely not how I expected it to be, but in a good way. I truly love all the excitement that comes with working in such a fast paced environment. I could definitely see myself working in this type of operation in the future.