All At Max
Designing, Building, and Certifying the RJ85 Next Generation Air Tanker
by Rob Schulz

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This book offers a behind-the-scenes account of the design, development, build, and certification of a next-generation airtanker (water bomber), an aircraft designed to assist wildfire-fighting efforts, particularly in Canada, the United States, and Australia. The behind-the-scenes perspective comes from the author, Rob Schulz, who served as the project manager on the mammoth project at Conair. He describes the project’s phases and timelines — and ups and downs — both to document the history of the project and to serve as a learning tool for other project managers. Although he is a career project manager, Schulz writes about this project from the perspective of a project manager who is managing an aerospace program for the first time. Because he has only a quiver full of project-management tools and techniques that may prove useful to this sort of project, Schulz recalls his struggles to anticipate risk, to become familiar with a new subject matter, and to motivate a team of hard-working, but eventually burnt-out engineers. The book describes chronologically the development of the design and the many manufacturing challenges and difficulties encountered up to the certification of the final aircraft. All At Max is a valuable asset to current and aspiring project managers. While reminiscing about this specific airtanker project, Schulz weaves in useful tips and lessons to help readers apply his experiences at Conair and turn them into educational advice for any sort of project that readers may have to manage. All readers are sure to be inspired by the effort of the people involved in the program and will gain an appreciation for the challenges to bring aerospace resources to bear on ever-increasing wildfire seasons.

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Learn How the "Junk-yard Dogs" of aerospace design, manufacture and certify a Next Generation Large Air Tanker

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Rob Schulz is a project management professional (PMP, 2002) and a first-time author. He has served as project manager, specializing in information technology (IT) within the forest and wood products industries. Schulz was the project manager of the airtanker project recounted in this book, and he has chosen to share his first-hand experience with all aspects of the program described in the book. The project changed his outlook on work, life, and his relationship with people, and he was truly inspired by the determination of the human spirit to surmount a seemingly endless barrage of challenges, problems, and setbacks. Schulz currently lives in Abbotsford, British Columbia.

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Contributors

Author

Rob Schulz

Photographer

Jeff Bough Photography

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FriesenPress Editions

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