L3Harris’s Rigorous Safety Measures

In North America, L3Harris Technologies has commercial training academies in Jacksonville and Sanford, Florida. Robert Luthy, General Manager of L3Harris Commercial Training Services, noted while the schools remain open, his team has been in regular contact with federal and state governments and are taking preventative measures to ensure the health and safety of employees, including enabling employees to work remotely where possible.

Mirroring one trend of other ATOs, L3Harris added learning technology enablers to its program during the Covid-19 pandemic. “For example, we are not conducting classroom teaching, but are now using distance learning for the ground school portion of pilot training,” Luthy said and pointed out, in addition to commercial training, the company’s military training academies located in Pueblo, Colorado and Fort Rucker, Alabama, remain open and operationa, as does the L3Harris Arlington Training Center in Arlington, Texas. “Each location has implemented additional safety measures,” the industry executive added.

Similar to most other user cases when ATOs increase their investments in learning technologies, L3Harris has “found that online meetings have been highly effective and will consider changes to our process that would allow aspects of distance learning to continue as part of our normal operations.”

Luthy also placed into context how his ATO’s instructional experiences during the COVID-19 epoch might change L3Harris's pilot training programs in the future. He first emphasized that creating a clean, safe work environment in a heightened COVID-19 threat environment, incorporating all Centers for Disease Control guidance, takes work. To point, he added, “We have looked hard at our practices and implemented considerable changes which include: daily checks and screening of employees and students before entering the facility; spacing in many areas of the flight academies where close contact had been common; more liberal work-from-home policies for certain employees to reduce density; and electrostatic and daily cleaning of the aircraft and simulators and other measures.” These intensive efforts have proven successful, he concluded: “Everyone has become more aware of the environment to ensure our techniques and practices remain focused on deterring the spread of COVID-19.”

See also Chuck Weirauch’s interview with Robert Luthy from CAT magazine, issue 1/2020.

Part of CAT Magazine's Restarting The Engines series.