Avionics News May 2013 - 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

Vegas View
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his month’s column was written immediately following
the 56th annual AEA International Convention & Trade
Show in Las Vegas. Were you there? As advertised,
“The AEA Convention is the only wholesale avionics show
representing nearly 90 percent of the international governmentcertified avionics shops.” How could you not be there?
Every year, I am amazed at the level of business conducted
at this event. Being fairly junior with the
association (I just celebrated my
12th anniversary), I don’t have
the benefit of knowing “how it
was” in the old days. But I do
have the benefit of comparison
to the industry’s other conventions and trade shows. Most
of the other events are “retail”
events – or end-user events – for
business aircraft, airports, helicopters, owners and, of course, the legacy fly-ins in Wisconsin and Florida. Oh
sure, there are some local maintenanceonly events scattered throughout the country, but nothing of the
size and scale the AEA Convention provides its members.
But this column isn’t an advertisement. Rather, I want to follow up on the more than 90 hours of training provided in those
four short days in March. The AEA’s Fast Traks training sessions on Monday, March 25, were divided into three categories:
general aviation, business aviation and repair station operations.
The agenda ranged from aging aircraft wiring to certifying
new avionics; from export compliance to getting paid for your
services; and, of course, training on every product available.
Sprinkled in also was safety management systems coordinator
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training; required training for any member company wishing
to participate in the AEA’s smart, manageable and intuitively
simple solution to SMS for the avionics industry.
If the country has the chickens, the city has the delivery trucks
and the eastern suburbs have the commuter trains, then the AEA
Convention has the Regulatory Rise and Shine sessions. For
those who have previously attended an AEA Convention, you
know each day begins with a regulatory session. This
year was a bit of an exception. Not only did
we start one day with a Rise and Shine
and another day with a three-hour
leadership forum, we added an additional morning of Rise and Shine
to address the concerns regarding
EASA’s proposed safety management systems amendment to its
basic regulations.
In December 2012, I attended an
EASA briefing on the proposal. The
words on the presentation slides were
mild and easy to digest; the presentations
that accompanied the slides from a parade of “subject matter
experts” were not always so gentle. And the initial responses
from various national aviation authorities confirmed our greatest fear: the international focus on SMS has already set the
direction and tone that many NAAs will take. As reported
from one AEA member, while discussing the proposal with
their NAA, their surveyor suggested that a small business will
almost certainly have to hire an additional “safety manager” to
effectively implement the European SMS proposal.
This proposal affects both Part M and Part 145 of the basic
regulations and is based on earlier SMS programs for air opera-

Avionics News May 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News May 2013