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In March 2020, a group of us here at ARINCDirect were wondering what we could do to help customers navigate the brave new world of lockdowns we all found ourselves in. What we came up with was repurposing our release notes process as a newsletter. We named it “Jump Seat” because we had the idea that we’re riding along with you.
Our first three articles were directly related to pandemic and lockdown issues for aviation: the temporary relaxation of the NAT data-link mandate, relaxed medical certificate requirements, and best practices for cockpit and cabin sanitation. Weren’t those fun times?
It was a small team that started the newsletter, a few working from home, and a few masked up in the 24x7 operations offices. The COVID and lockdown situations started improving, and by July 2020 we were able to write about Europe’s reopening.
Of course, other things happened in 2020:
- We rolled out a new flight-planning engine (FLIGHTKEYS), so we wrote about it.
- The iPad plotting chart had become indispensable for oceanic crossings, so we wrote more about it.
The world settled down a little in 2021, 2022, and 2023 but we still found lots of things to tell you about. Now we’re nearly through 2024, and we’ve maintained a pace of about two articles a month. We try to maintain a balance between articles about changes/improvements in our service and articles about the business aviation landscape.
We’ve produced a few series:
- Sustainability in Aviation (6 articles so far, probably more to come).
- Support Team introductions. The capstone article described our “follow-the-sun” strategy for worldwide support.
- Best practices for personal and corporate/aviation cybersecurity.
Along the way, we’ve tried to inform you in advance about airspace modifications, rule changes, and the like. And on several occasions, we went deeper than release notes for a new feature.
Weather is very important to aviators. In mid-2020 we published an overview of the coming Atlantic hurricane season, not knowing that it would become an annual tradition. We sent similar articles in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. (And today we’re considering whether to add meteorological overviews at other times of the year.) We’re particularly proud that we were able to get the 2024 hurricane season preview in your hands before Beryl made CONUS landfall.
None of this could have happened without the ideas and encouragement that YOU, our readers, give us. We are grateful for your support.
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