Location, International Air Transportation Association, Montreal
Department - Infrastructure Strategy
8.30am - Arrived at work.
8.45am - Meeting with Assistant Director (AD) to discuss format of technical papers to be submitted at the ICAO General Assembly.
9.15am - Started working on the papers. No time for coffee.
10am - Meeting with Senior Manager (SM) about data analysis for the iFLEX project, particularly the Atlanta-Johannesburg and Dubai-Sao Paulo routes.
10.10am - Working on assembly papers and flight plans for iFLEX.
10.30am - Conference call with Head of Department - Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois and graduate coordinator to discuss my future semesters.
10.50am - Finally, coffee time. Director (D) notifies me of a 1.30-3 meeting, which means that the papers must be ready by then.
11.00am - Started filing, categorizing the papers based on Assembly timetable, Agenda and Working Paper number.
11.15am - I was told by SM that the State Gate review is on Thurs. Lots of prep left.
11.30am - Started running additional flight plans alongside.
12.00pm - Conference call with 7 more executives in 7 different countries for iFLEX implementation.
1.30pm - No time for lunch. Got done with the call and headed over to the meeting with the D and AD.
3.00pm - Concluded and finalized the papers. Started reading two last-minute technical paper additions.
3.30pm - Got a snickers bar from the vending machine as lunch and some coffee. Went downstairs to post a document to India.
4.00pm - Met with D and AD to discuss last two papers. Decided they were useless.
4.30pm - Statistical analysis and construction of tables, graphs, which is easier than it sounds.
5.30pm - Started reviewing the iFLEX Guidance Material (GM) with the data, analysis, tables, graphs, etc for the State-Gate review on Thurs. I had to use two different versions and combine them into one after adding my inputs, which is not as easy as it sounds considering it is a 50 page document.
7.30pm - I was officially the last one on the floor working.
8.40pm - I decided to leave before I got burned out.
I would have continued working had I decided to have a cup of coffee. But I didn't want to overwork myself. The next day was going to be an important one too. Lots of final drafts of the GM to write. Overall, it was a very fulfilling, productive work-day.
I can relax on Thursday evening at the ICAO Assembly drinks and dinner party. I'm pretty lucky to be attending it considering the Assembly takes place only once in three years.
