Avionics News June 2012 - 14

In this monthly column, Ric Peri of the AEA’s Washington, D.C., office, informs members of the latest regulatory updates.

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P E R I A EA V I C E P R ES I D E N T O F G OV E R N M E N T & I N D U ST RY A F FA I RS

Taking Care of Our Own
recently attended a Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert. As you may know, many of their songs are filled with hope, faith and community. As I was standing in the open-air, standing-room-only concert, I found it ironic that while he patriotically sings “we take care of our own,” I was thinking about our AEA flag and how the membership “takes care of its own.” The theme of the 55th annual AEA International Convention and Trade Show resonated with me: “Take Pride. Take Ownership. Take Back Your (Our) Industry.” Each presentation during the convention either focused on the products developed to support the membership, or how the current political state is limiting the traditional support relied upon from government agencies. Regardless of the negativity, the state of the economy and the limiting resources of the various government agencies: We take care of our own.

and migrate them to industry standards. The overall goal of this initiative is to increase safety while decreasing the regulatory costs of aircraft and products design, certification and ownership. The FAA’s Flight Standards Avionics Branch manager, Tim Shaver, briefed on many of the challenges facing Headquarters’ Flight Standards and its challenge in providing viable and current data that is appropriate to new technology, yet dynamic enough to address the variability of installations. While we have relied on the paper tools of the FAA advisory circulars and orders for years, Shaver briefed us on the development of an interactive Web-based decision tool that will supplement the field approval guidance to allow every element, either complex or simple, to affect the determined outcome of major or minor. We are very excited to see this project come to fruition. On Thursday, April 5, the AEA brought together the leadership

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“Wherever This Flag is Flown, We Take Care of our Own.”
Bruce Springsteen

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As usual, the convention began with lots and lots of training, including regulatory training for the domestic U.S. (Federal Aviation Administration) as well as international operations (Transport Canada Civil Aviation); technical training on nearly every product line; and business training for a little tune-up. The early morning AEA Regulatory Rise and Shine session on Wednesday, April 4, brought representatives of the FAA’s Small Airplane Directorate to brief on the status of the Part 23 reorganization, a fabulous and creative exercise (which includes the AEA as a participant) that is taking a once-in-a-career look at Part 23. It is separating the safety standards from the design standards and reorganizing Part 23 to retain the safety standards, while assuring they are performance-based, and separating the design standards
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from nearly every major division of the FAA, as well as political insiders and leaders from our sister associations. The FAA’s deputy associate administrator for aviation safety, John Hickey, began the three-hour session with a very frank and open discussion about the FAA. We (AEA leadership) asked Hickey not to sugar-coat his presentation. Our staff has worked with Hickey for nearly his entire management career at the FAA, and he has always been a straight-shooter, so we expected nothing less. In order for us to “take care of our own,” we need to know what the radar looks like, without the rose-colored glasses often offered in other political speeches. Hickey didn’t deliver that, and we got a stark reality check. The FAA has been reauthorized, and the budget level on paper is much better than some of the dark-

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Avionics News June 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News June 2012