Photographed by : Khalifa Alamri & Hassan Ali
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Our Colleague Mohammad A. Abdallah from Component Management - Repair Process made it to Everest Base Camp, which is no walk in the park. The Engineering Newsletter team sat down with Mohammad to ask him a few questions on the experience. Well Done Mohammad! 1. What started your passion for climbing? Climbing is an activity which requires a lot of patience and endurance. One of the reasons that made me start was that I wanted to push myself to see how far I could go, I first experienced this when I summited Mount Kilimanjaro at 5895m, enjoying the nature and the breath taking views from the top. 2. What goes into preparing for such a climb? A lot of stamina and patience! To reach Everest Base Camp, you have to cross 125 kilometres on foot that’s around 11 days of continuous hiking, carrying a backpack weighing 10 kilograms, hiking up and down hills for at least 5 hours each day. Physically you have to be fit, I prepared myself with daily runs on the beach here in Dubai, coupled with playing football twice a week. However the main factor is to have a strong will and the absolute desire to achieve what you came for. 3. What are the risks involved in attempting something like this? Altitude can kill people, so care must be taken to acclimatize properly. I spent two nights in Namche Bazar at 3440m, the next day we moved up to spend one more night in Lobuche at 4900m, here I faced a really bad headache, nausea and weakness due to the lack of oxygen and if prolonged, it could lead to altitude sickness. I saw a couple of people heading back with altitude sickness and that was very scary to see.
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By: Mohammad A. Abdallah Component Repair Asst.
4. What motivates you when you find yourself in a tight spot? To accomplish my goal and conquer my fear by reaching the Summit motivates me the most and to come back home safely and tell my family, friends and colleagues of my experience. Another is to see the greatness of our planet, especially a sunrise at 5500m over the roof of the world is just spectacular. 5. Anything interesting happens on your climb? On the way to Everest Base Camp I heard lots of rock falls because of the melting ice which is due to the effects of global climate change. I never saw any rock falls just heard the loud rumbles which was very scary. Waking up at night and not being able to breath well because of the lack of oxygen was also very scary; however waking up to a morning in the Himalayas with a hot cup of ginger tea would take all my fears away. 6. How long did your trip take? The Trip took me 11 days crossing 125 kilometres on foot. 7. What’s next? I am not sure yet about my next plan but it has to be higher than the last two, so probably something higher than 5500 meters. I am open to suggestions!
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By: Lokesh Singh Senior Planning Manager
Back in 2013, Engineering Planning thought about developing a structured training program to cover all aspects of the Maintenance Programme which would enhance the competency of the staff. Regulation clearly defines the requirements for front line [Maintenance and Shop] training, while for support services it provides some guidelines but not specifics, which leaves the airline to decide whether to develop a structured training program or adopt the practice of experienced personnel training the less experienced whilst on the job. Engineering Planning developed a customized training program in collaboration with a 3rd party training provider [SOFEMA], and so far successfully delivered 5 courses. The training course is divided into two elements, the 1st element covers the basic topics for beginners or less experienced personnel whilst the 2nd element covers the more advance topics for experienced personnel. The Maintenance Programme training has been delivered to various personnel involved in the maintenance planning department, with the possibility of extending it to different Engineering departments in the future. This year the DGCAA also showed an interest and attended the course in Sept 2016. The Maintenance Programme training course is normally scheduled once per year and covers group workshops & discussions along with lectures. Course delegates are assessed and on successful completion they are awarded with a certificate from SOFEMA. On another note, with Emirates employing a multiple national workforce from around the world. We also worked to design a 1 day Simple Technical English course [for Aviation] which was delivered for the first time in Sept 2016. The Simple Technical English course, was designed based on the ASD-STE 100 standard. The STE course is expected to create more awareness and understanding helping technical authors involved in the writing of technical documents. Based on the initial success of this course and feedback from the attendees, we will continue to develop it further and extend the course to larger audiences.
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Engineering has recently welcomed a new HR team and with it some changes in the way HR works. HR is now broken into 3 new key areas: • HR Shared Services. • HR Operations. • HR Business Partnership. HR Shared Services Shared Services has five different teams within it and they are here to support all employees with various HR experiences. The HR Administration team manages a variety of processes for all group employees including Outstations. They actively support the HR Business Partners (HRBP’s) with their queries and report requests. As a manager they can help you with security investigations, group, medical cases and attendance data management. As an employee they can help you with personnel and dependant updates, answering helpdesk queries and much more. You can contact them directly with queries at: AskHRSS@emirates.com. They also manage the internal promotions, upgrade and transfers. You can contact them at: HRSSPromProcessteam@emirates.com. The On boarding team look after the joining experience for all new permanent and temporary colleagues. The Emirates Platinum Card team negotiates discounts with a variety of lifestyle partners to provide the best possible discounts and benefits for its members. You can contact them directly with queries at: ekcard@emirates.com. The Local Affairs team provides support for all visa and government affairs services. They support ad-hoc emergency services to assist employees with police, CID and UAE court cases. You can contact them at: HRSS-LocalAffairs@emirates.com This team is also managing the End-Of-Service (EOS) process. You can contact them at: EOSTeam@emirates.com Additionally they manage the Employee Services Centre.
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You can go here for any queries or support with HR, Payroll, Staff Travel, Visa Services, Govt. Medical and DHA Blood Test and UAE ID services. The Education Benefits team are here to help with queries on education reimbursements, deductions and child eligibility. You can contact them at: EducationBenefitsAdministration@emirates. com HR Operations Team The HR ops team offers face to face support for disciplinary, capability, probation, appeals and grievances. If you request their support, they can provide advice and guidance to help you make decisions. To request support, please email HROperations@emirates.com. The HR Ops team may also work with HRBP’s on department specific projects and initiatives such as workshops, employee engagement and performance management. HR Business Partnership Our HR Business Partners aim to collaborate and support the business on people related activities that are critical to the performance and success of our organisation. To stay ahead of our competitors and anticipate our future business needs, we need to focus on the skills, capability and technology for tomorrow by developing and investing in our people. To support the vision we are pleased to welcome your new team, Wandusjka Jennison (Van for short), Theresa Duffin and Abdulaziz Al Mehza.
The team come with a wealth of HR experience and a combined service with the Emirates Group of 35+ years.
By: Wandusjka Jennison Senior HR Business Partner
Wandusjka joined 9 years ago as a temp in HR supporting engineering, she subsequently moved to permanent role in HR to support Flight Operations. She then worked in National Recruitment and Development to support Emiritisation for the group. Most recently she was on the corporate project for performance management called MyBC. Wan is a mother to two very cheeky boys age 6 and 2 who keep her on her toes outside of work. She has a Masters in strategic HR management is in the process of becoming a professional certified coach. Wan is excited about re-joining Engineering and loves to learn about all things techy, so stop her in the corridors and teach her something new. Theresa is originally from Ireland and comes with a wealth of HR experience. She has been with the group on and off for 25 years. She has interviewed over 5,000 crew in her roles in both pilot and cabin recruitment before joining the HR team.
Wandusjka Jennison Senior HR Business Partner
During her time in HRBP she has worked across almost all areas of the business, most recently she was HR Manager supporting the Service Delivery teams. Theresa is new to the world of engineering so is still learning the language, so please remember that when speaking “Engineerish� Theresa is delighted to have the opportunity to support Engineering and looks forward to being fluent soon. Abdulaziz has been with HR Engineering HR for 2 years and has already proved to be a valuable member of the HR team, supporting the operational teams. He is currently on military service and will return in the New Year bringing with him some new skills.
Theresa Duffin HR Business Partner
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By: Kerry Gibson Outstation Manager What does it take to make a New Station Start-up happen seamlessly and effortlessly? I once heard it said that, each time an aircraft completes an ON-TIME Transit of a Station; it is nothing short of a well-planned miracle… I certainly believe in that sentiment and now the same could be said for a Station Opening! Well sit back and let your imagination run wild but be sure to get a pen and paper because you are going to have to make a LIST… a really long list… because the slate is clean and you will begin with – nothing but ambition. The inventory of tasks that need to be accomplished is so long that anyone would be crushed under the weight of it - if every item was actually written down on paper. A Station Opening requires weeks of contact preparation and actually starts months in advance with a Station Survey conducted by Flight Operations Support and of course with the selection and hiring of our professional group of Airport Services and SKYCargo Teams. Once the New Station Staff have been trained and are in place, they begin the daunting task of individually tackling each of the multitudes of intricate detail that need to be completed prior to start-up. These are the tiny elements that we all simply take for granted in a station that is mature. Each staff member must understand not only their own role but they must be clear on what the expectations are for everyone else, as well. Total cross-over of responsibilities and duties… Complicating all of this is gaining an understanding of the contracted Ground Handling Agency (GHA) and ensuring that they evolve with our expectations and standards.
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The GHA does everything that dNata does so perfectly for Emirates in Dubai but this GHA doesn’t know anything about the Emirates way is until we break it down for them. Start another list… Then closer to the big day, arriving from Dubai, an extensive range of expertise and talent is launched by a vast group of nurturing staff from many varied sections which translates to the further growth and development of an already rapidly flourishing local Team and the GHA. They are almost ready to rise to the challenge of joining the Network in a spectacular NEW beginning…. From the Engineering side, the process also begins several months in advance. It was determined that a Technical Handling Agent (THA) would be preferred instead of having an EK Manned station. So, after a lengthy and detailed evaluation process, Mr. Alastair Beckwith, M-ROE choose the small but deeply committed group of staff at Thai Airways to provide Maintenance & Engineering Support Services in Yangon (RGN). As part of this procedure the THA must apply for and be granted a UAE GCAA Station Approval which permits them to care for our B777 aircraft. This necessitated that Engineering Documents and Procedures Training be presented by myself to a group of 12 Thai Airways Engineers in Bangkok about a month before the scheduled station opening date.
When I arrived in Yangon on the afternoon of 2 AUGUST 2016, most of what I have mentioned until this point had already happened…. Now I was waist-deep in the mayhem of microscopic organization and details that gripped the station during the final stages of preparation for tomorrow. However, there was one important lesson I still needed to learn and it was a mistake I only made once…. DON’T GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT AN UMBRELLA AND IT IS BETTER TO WEAR SANDALS! It rained a lot during my stay and it came down in buckets with sometimes dangerous lightning and thunder as well! Then the BIG DAY finally arrived and on 3 AUGUST 2016: EK388, A6-EPP the Newest B777-300ER Aircraft in the Fleet (with just 47 hours on the airframe since New) proudly brought in the first Yangon destined passengers. The Flight arrived from Dubai glistening under a briefly present mid-day sun then turned off the Runway at Taxiway Bravo to be received by a glorious Water Canon Salute courtesy of the Yangon Airport Fire Brigade. The first Transit went well, with only a few minor problems and then with a combined sigh of relief & success we enjoyed a brief moment of satisfaction as the continuation of EK388 departed to Hanoi, Vietnam… Then, in the blink of an eye the whole world changed… 2 hours as the news of EK521 began filtering in. Suddenly the moment was overshadowed by what initially appeared to be a tragedy but Thanks to our amazing Cabin Crew we are left with the blessing that 300 souls were safely returned to the arms of their Loved ones. Those traumatic and difficult moments will remain etched in our memories for a Life time but did not diminish our collective accomplishment on 3 AUGUST 2016. In the challenging hours and days ahead as the network recovered and the impact was felt by so many customers & staff, I watched as every member of the Yangon Team grew stronger and more confident with each passing moment. They are a young tough Team of wonderfully professional and profoundly humble people and they did an amazing job pulling together, making the Newest Station in the network work like a well-oiled clock in the aftermath of one of our darkest days.
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By: Paul Davies Planning Manager Maintenance Planning recently celebrated the return of the football season by hosting a 5-a-side indoor championship in Al Nahda. 5 teams participated with a regulation that required at least one female player in every team. Players were auctioned to the 5 team managers with a squad of 6 players registered per team. After a few evening practice sessions were arranged to get everyone used to the rules, the pitch and their teammates it finally came round to tournament day. There was a superb turn out for the Saturday morning event with players, team owners and spectators turning up to enjoy the action. Children were entertained between matches and then drafted in as supporters as the games progressed. The first game to kick off was an explosive encounter between the Avengers and MP United with goals flying in for both teams. The scores were level after the first 7 minute half and the teams took a quick rest before battle commenced once more. A few more goals flew in as the UAE national pairing of Bilal and Ghaith thumped home from close and long range to end the game with MP United winning 4 goals to 3. The second game saw the Panthers and the Rockets face off in a nervy encounter with missed chances following some very good build up play with both defences holding strong at half time. It took a scrambled effort by Sameer taking the position of impromptu striker to break the deadlock and score the only goal of the match to hand victory to the Panthers. MP United were in action again against a spritely looking Yella Fellas squad and some fantastic movement both on and off the ball from both sides created an enthralling spectacle for the crowds watching the match. We watched as Jingle and Kurian danced around the ball full of energy but to no avail as MP united scored a brace of long range goals to end the match 2 – 1 winners. The Avengers and the Panthers were back in action again straight afterwards in a game that was totally dominated by the fluid passing and movement of the Panthers who were the tournament underdogs before the competition kicked off, and despite suffering an injury to their star Spanish striker Andrea, they utilised one of the team owners Sudeshna to fill the Spaniard’s powerful kicking boots, and her contribution was no less effective with some great runs down the wing and into the opposition box. Panthers totally controlled the game and walked off the pitch 4 – 0 winners with superb link up play from Mansoor and Fares.
The action now moved onto two pitches with games playing simultaneously with the Rockets playing Yella Fellas on one pitch and MP United against the Panthers on the other pitch. With the Panthers having just finished one match the short turn time to play again was a worry for the team and Sameer had also picked up an injury that took him out of the game but they soon got into their stride cutting out the strike threat shown by MP United in their earlier games and again the Panthers strolled home 4 – 0 winners after a cheeky off the wall side foot clipped shot through the legs of the keeper sealed the win in style. On Pitch One the Rockets defence of Pramod and Minidu were overwhelmed by the Yella Fellas with the team fluidity and the strength of Yogesh putting in a win at 3 goals to nil. Panthers were straight back on again against the Yella Fellas and the third game in a row took its toll as a well worked first goal followed by a last minute uncharacteristic fumbled catch by the cat like Panthers goalkeeper saw the Panthers suffer their only defeat and indeed the only goals scored against them when the Yella Fellas walked off 2 – 0 victors with good work from Nasser and Elsa. The final 2 games saw Avengers drawing 1 – 1 with Yella Fellas and some superb goalkeeping by Lokesh to keep them in the game with Fatema kicking boldly and Thouseef skipping over tackles deftly whilst on the other pitch Rockets defeating MP United by 2 goals to 1 despite the ‘kung fu’ headband being sported by Inder in another close but hard fought game. So with much sweating and holding of sore muscles the competition drew to a close with a star studded awards ceremony and presentation of winners medals by Mr. Dolf Beltz, VP - EP & ESS firstly to the runners up, Yella Fellas with a very respectable 7 points and a goal difference of +2 and then to the victorious Panthers with 9 points and a goal difference of +7. Lunch snacks and water were provided and despite some spicy samosa the feast went without incident. The competition was testament to the team spirit within maintenance planning reflected in both the number of people that turned up to play and watch and also the commitment shown on the turf.
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QA does more than just audit however. The list below will give you an idea of what activities we are involved in:
The best place to start when explaining why we have a QA department in Engineering are the regulations. We currently hold numerous approvals covering the Maintenance, Continuing Airworthiness Management, Design and Training activities within EK Engineering. Each of the regulations covering these approvals requires that the organization has an independent quality audit function. The reason behind the independent audit function is to remove any possibility of a conflict of interest where the outcome of an audit could be negatively influenced by the management team responsible for the continued operation of the business. QA have a dedicated team of auditors whose main role is to conduct compliance audits of all aspects of the organisation’s activities against the relevant regulations. When the audit identifies a non-conformance a finding is raised to the relevant manager of the area concerned to ensure that the issue is thoroughly investigated and measures are put in place to prevent re occurrence in the future. Just to give you an idea of what this entails, we conducted over 300 audits last year, with 40 of those conducted at overseas locations. One of the most frequent misconceptions within aviation is that QA are responsible for compliance. This is simply not true. All of us are all ultimately responsible for ensuring compliance and safety within our own areas of activity, however the people who, in the eyes of the regulation, are responsible and accountable for compliance within Engineering are the various nominated managers and post holders. These are the senior managers within EK Engineering. Full details of who they are and their responsibilities are detailed within the various Exposition manuals, available on the Engineering portal/ QA data.
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Safety: The department is also responsible for the management and control of the Engineering Safety Reporting (ESR) system, known as ‘SiD’. We currently receive approximately 450 ESRs reports a month. The challenge for the team is to review and understand the content of the report, then to allocate a risk rating dependent on the nature and severity of the reported event. This ensures that the higher risk events are brought to the attention of the responsible senior managers and that a thorough investigation is carried out to ensure that the causal factors are understood and workable and pragmatic measures have been put in place to prevent the event re occurring in the future. Workplace Health and Safety has always been important in Emirates and even more so recently. We are currently in the process of recruiting a Workplace Health & Safety Manager whose job will be to strengthen the current management, monitoring and improvement of Health and Safety across all areas of the engineering organization. Authorisations: QA also issue all company certifying staff authorisations. Some 2000 authorisations are currently active at this time. The department receives approximately 450 new applications each month, so it is quite an undertaking to keep up with the demand. We are constantly trying to improve and automate our systems where possible to ensure the authorization process is as efficient and robust as possible. Procedures: The QA department is the custodian of the engineering procedures manual (EPM). Procedures are extremely important to a large organisation like Emirates so it is essential that procedures are workable and reflect what actually goes on within a department. The EPM procedures are owned and created by various sections in Engineering. The QA role is to review a new or amended procedure to ensure that the content is in line with current regulations and to ensure that all stakeholders have reviewed and accepted the procedure. The procedure is then loaded onto the Q-Pulse system and made available to the engineering community via the ‘QA Data’ tab on the Engineering Portal.
Again it is everyone’s responsibility to check that procedures are workable and reflect the actual process. If you do identify a procedure that is incorrect then please bring it to the attention of the procedure owner or QA via a Q-Pulse Change Request. Aircraft certification: Due to the expansion plans for the airline, Emirates have a large number of new aircraft joining the fleet every year; however we also have a significant number of aircraft leaving the fleet. All of these activities require the application and issue of a number of airworthiness related certificates for the aircraft such as: the Certificate of Airworthiness, Registration Certificate, Noise Certificate, Airworthiness Review Certificate and when necessary an Export Certificate of Airworthiness. The QA team manages the application process for these activities and liaises closely with the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Asset Management and EK Legal in order to meet company deadlines. Airworthiness Reviews: For an aircraft to be legally to fly it must have been issued with a valid Airworthiness Review Certificate (the certificate is valid for 1 year). The Airworthiness Review team is responsible for conducting the airworthiness review and for ensuring that all certificates remain valid. That equates to over 240 reviews a year. For every new aircraft delivered from Seattle or Hamburg the Airworthiness Review team must conduct an onsite survey of the aircraft records and certificates to ensure they are accurate and compliant, followed by a physical survey of the aircraft to ensure airworthiness. Also for every aircraft leaving the Emirates Fleet a further ARC review must be carried out. As you can imagine the ARC team are an extremely busy department. I hope this has given you a flavour of what ‘QA’ does on a day to day basis. In essence we are here to support the business. However I like to think we also act as the eyes, ears and “conscience” of the engineering management team. Lastly, I just want to say that in order to improve compliance and safety we need your support and more importantly your feedback. If you notice something isn’t quite right, unsafe or in need of improvement then please raise an ESR report. All reports are investigated and if necessary corrective and preventative measures will be implemented. By: Richard Simpson VPEQA
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