SAMPE & ASM Seattle Chapters - Joint January Meeting

Our January meeting is co-hosted with the American Society of Materials (ASM).

Our speaker will be BJ Wennhold who is currently a 787 First Officer flying for American Airlines. He has 16,000+ flight hours and almost 30 years of experience including flight instruction, aircraft relocation, airframe refurbishment/testing, commuter flying, and commercial flying. He is type rated on the BA3200 (J32), BA4100 (J41), EMB145, A319/320/321, B767/757, and B787.

BJ began his career as a flight instructor on the C172 and BE76 at Embry Riddle in 1996. He then flew for Trans States Airlines for 7 years, where he became a Check Airman on the J41 and EMB145. Next, he began flying the A319/320/321 for America West, which later merged with US Airways. During the financial crisis, he was furloughed from US Airways and took on flying assignments with North Star Aviation to relocate J41s globally. Next, BJ accepted a contract with ANA to fly the B767 in Japan. He flew the B767 for 7 years as both Captain and First Officer. He returned from furlough to American Airlines in 2017. At American, he was recently awarded the AA Excellence Award and received Chief Pilot recognition for individualized outstanding performance for 2024. This recognition for going above and beyond in the areas of Excellence, Resilience, Empathy, and Professionalism has only been given to one other pilot in the last 7 years. BJ continues to be sought after to join the training department with American.

BJ majored in Aeronautical Science and minored in both Aviation Safety and Aircraft Accident Investigation from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. He was also a founding member of the Learning and Improvement Team (LIT) at American Airlines, part of the Safety Management System. Its mission was to develop a methodology of data collection through direct observation of flight crews, framed around the concepts of Safety II, a recent revolution in the Crew Resource Management field. This work has led to improvements in areas such as checklist usage, company materials, training, and human resources with a focus on best practices of each.

• SAMPE members & Students with RSVP: Free
• Non-members or no RSVP: $30 at entry

Please come join us for this dinner and technical presentation and learn about this exciting topic!

Host or Publisher SAMPE Seattle Chapter