A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Business Aviation Services Editor

Curt Epstein

Continuing its practice of using aviation industry experts to help create focused online instructional programs, global business aviation safety training provider TrainingPort.net (Booth No. C10836) yesterday announced it has reached several agreements to expand its flight department management training offerings. 
Founded in 2005, the company is a source for customized industry training on more than 60 topics, developed in conjunction with subject matter experts and delivered via 15-minute lessons focusing on regulatory and currency requirements. According to TrainingPort.net founder and president Scott Macpherson, finding initial training is easy but locating comprehensive and up-to-date recurrent training is not. So he developed the company to address that issue, which he discovered while a member of a corporate flight department.
The company has joined forces with ServiceElements International to produce comprehensive online lessons on organizational resource management (ORM), which is closely related to crew resource management and maintenance resource management. It is designed to help optimize a flight operation’s existing resources and improve the value of services for aircraft operations. Starting in January, ORM training will be available as part of the company’s subscription program or as a stand-alone training module.
The company has also announced the results of a partnership with Crew Resource Management LLC, which has resulted in the debut of two programs. A maintenance resource management program was developed in anticipation of industry needs and the increasing focus by government regulators on human factors training. The program includes hot-button topics recommended by agencies such as the FAA, Transport Canada and EASA, including workload management, professionalism and communication. A single pilot resource management (SRM) course, which was created for fixed- and rotary-wing business aviation pilots, includes sections on risk and workload management as well as automation. It was developed by Robert Wright, a CRM team member and president of Wright Aviation Solutions. “In my years with the FAA, and as an aviation consultant, it is clear that scores of light business aircraft accidents could have been prevented had adequate risk management assessment and mitigation been exercised,” said Wright. “We have created a thorough and extensive risk management curriculum with the light business aircraft pilot in mind.
In response to the dearth of in-depth radar training available to the business aviation community, TrainingPort.net has released a stand-alone online airborne weather radar program in cooperation with Radar Training International (RTI). The program’s features make the experience as close to hands-on as possible and, as part of a subscription package, the training provider offers an introductory program that reviews the basics of airborne weather radar.
Finally, the company has formed a strategic alliance with Swiss-based aviation consulting company AeroEx, which will act as TrainingPort.net’s European sales representative. AeroEx will also support business aircraft operators with EASA regulation compliance, particularly with regard to the upcoming rules on Part 135 third-country operators (TCO), which are expected to be published early next year, starting a six-month application window for TCO authorizations. “The purpose of working together is to support European business aircraft operators, providing a complete, customized service,” said TrainingPort.net’s Scott Macpherson, “This alliance links AeroEx’s regional EASA rulemaking and technical expertise with TrainingPort.net’s up-to-date online training content and system and business aviation experience.”

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