“Hurtle” may be a bit of an exaggeration – the trucks on nearby I-81 are going faster. But even though I have thousands of hours of flight time, this is my first time back at the controls in 20 years, and I can hardly keep up as I rotate, the runway lets go of the wheels, and the aircraft starts to accelerate in earnest.
Back in the Pilot Seat
“More right rudder,” intones my instructor in the right seat, barely looking up from his phone. Once upon a time, I had also been a flight instructor, and also said those words automatically to my students, because the immutable laws of physics mean that single-engine aircraft yaw to the left, and when power is applied, the pilot must counteract that with right rudder. And students rarely, if ever, apply enough.Up in the air, I’m dazzled by the new technology dropped into this old aircraft. There are still “steam gauges” - analog, vacuum driven instruments for navigation and spatial orientation, but there’s also “glass” – electronic multi-function displays (MFDs) that combine navigation, weather, pitch, airspeed, and other data in one ergonomic package. I had ended my flying career as a captain in the CRJ 200, so glass wasn’t unfamiliar to me.
But glass in a 172, combined with the shift from paper charts to electronic flight bags (EFBs, aka specialized iPad software), are revolutionizing general aviation, making it safer and more fun. Instead of marking up a paper map and manually tuning bearings on ground-based cockpit navigation receivers, or navigating complicated taxi clearances at O’Hare with just a tattered rice paper chart in my lap, I can follow my progress on a moving map on my iPad, with weather and turbulence data overlayed, and even see the position of other air traffic.
Still, during that first lesson back, as we climb and head to the practice area for some basic airmanship practice, my instructor encourages me to fly as people have flown for over a century – by looking outside, by proprioception, by having a light but commanding touch on the controls, and by having solid aeronautical decision making, backed up by my years of experience.
New Career Horizons
When I returned to ScholarOne (now part of Silverchair) earlier this summer, I was struck by the parallels of my recent return to the skies.After more than nine years away, it still seems very familiar – there are so many friendly faces that I’m happy to see, and ScholarOne Manuscripts still looks and works much like it did in my early days after joining ScholarOne in 2007. The processes that the implementation team uses are now tried and true versions of the processes I used as part of that team when ScholarOne was rapidly onboarding new journals. The foundational technology that allows us 99.98% uptime has been solidified over the years. The people who have been here for a decade or more have unparalleled trust in and respect for their customers and colleagues earned through the years.
Just as new technologies are making general aviation’s $100 hamburger safer and more fun, ScholarOne (now as part of Silverchair) is ramping up its adoption of new technology to make manuscript processing easier and more efficient. We’ve already launched the pilot of ScholarOne Gateway, with changes to the Editor experience under development. Silverchair is leveraging AI internally in nearly every job function, and the Silverchair AI lab will take an experimental approach to co-create the right AI solutions for ScholarOne partners through the ScholarOne AI Playground.
All of these improvements are combining to make advances in ScholarOne Manuscripts akin to pilots trading their heavy, bulky chart cases for iPads. It’s lightening the load for our end users and making it easier and more fun to do their jobs, while still respecting and preserving the parts that work, and work very well.
Clear Skies Ahead
ScholarOne’s extensive experience in scholarly publishing, along with the genuine and deep personal relationships with colleagues and clients, are as fundamental to the way ScholarOne and its products operate as the stick and rudder aviation basics are to modern airmanship. As we embrace much needed new technology, we’re still using our stick and rudder skills to make sure we’re on the right course.Want to stay up-to-date with Silverchair news and insights? Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss an update.