NBAA has announced that several officials with the FAA and Department of Transportation (DOT) will participate in a “Meet the Regulators” session during NBAA’s 58th Annual Meeting & Convention taking place in Orlando, FL, from November 9 to 11.

Nicholas Sabatini, FAA's associate administrator for aviation safety, and Jim Ballough, the FAA's director of flight standards services, will participate in the session on Wednesday, November 9, 2005, beginning at 3:30 p.m. in Room S320A of the Orlando Orange County Convention Center. Dayton Lehman, DOT deputy assistant general counsel for aviation enforcement and proceedings, also will participate.

The session will cover a variety of topics including:

• Recent progress on Safety Management Systems
• The work of the newly formed Turbine Aircraft Operations Subcommittee of the General Aviation Joint Steering Committee
• The FAA's recent notice affecting aircraft wet leasing
• The upcoming 2005-2006 cold-weather season
• Charter management agreements

The session gives Attendees the opportunity to learn about recent regulatory changes and what other regulations may be on the horizon directly from the policymakers responsible for their development and oversight.

Nicholas A. Sabatini

Nicholas A. Sabatini became associate administrator for aviation safety of the FAA, effective October 15, 2001. Sabatini is responsible for the certification, production approval and continued airworthiness of aircraft, and the certification of pilots, mechanics and others in safety-related positions. He is also responsible for certification of all operational and maintenance enterprises in domestic civil aviation; development of regulations; civil flight operations; and the certification and safety oversight of some 7,300 U.S. commercial airlines and air operators. Sabatini oversees a work force of approximately 6,300 employees in the FAA's Washington headquarters, nine regional offices and more than 125 field offices throughout the world.

At the time of his appointment, Sabatini was director of the FAA's Flight Standards Service. From 1990 until May 2001, he was manager of the Flight Standards Division for the FAA's Eastern Region. From 1979 to 1990, he served in a variety of aviation operations and management positions in the agency's Eastern Region, as a principal operations inspector, aviation safety inspector, manager of the Flight Standards Division Operations Branch and assistant manager of the Flight Standards Division. Sabatini also served in the U.S. Army from 1956 to 1958.

Sabatini holds an airline transport pilot certificate and the following ratings: Airplane multi-engine land, rotorcraft-helicopter, DC-9, CE-500, BH206, EMB110, commercial privileges, airplane single-engine land, as well as flight and ground instructor certificates. He attended the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the Kellogg School, Northwestern University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Jim Ballough

Jim Ballough joined the FAA in August 1986 and was appointed as the director, flight standards service in December 2001. His organization of 4,800 employees is responsible for promoting the safety of flight for civil aircraft by setting regulations and standards for air carriers, air agencies, general aviation, airmen and designees. Flight Standards also is responsible for the certification, inspection, surveillance, investigation and enforcement of the Federal Aviation Regulations. In addition, the organization manages the aircraft and airmen official registry system.

Before his appointment as director, Ballough served as the acting manager, continuous maintenance division, at the FAA Washington headquarters. Prior to coming to headquarters, Ballough served in Flight Standards Eastern Region positions including the regional division manager, assistant division manager and technical branch manager.

Prior to his joining the FAA, Ballough held a variety of airworthiness positions with a major air carrier. He also served in the United States Army with an honorable discharge in 1973.

Ballough holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and has studied at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, Florida Atlantic University and the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics.

Dayton Lehman

As the DOT’s deputy assistant general counsel for aviation enforcement and proceedings, Dayton Lehman supervises a staff of nearly 40 attorneys, transportation industry analysts and support staff. The Enforcement Office monitors compliance with and investigates violations of DOT’s aviation economic requirements, including those concerning consumer protection, civil rights and unauthorized operations involving U.S. and foreign carriers, and provides the legal review for the licensing of new airlines. In addition to the Enforcement Office’s compliance work, its Aviation Consumer Protection Division (ACPD) receives and processes all consumer complaints by air travelers, which have numbered between 5,000 and 23,000 complaints per year.

With the Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings, Lehman served as a member of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Fractional Ownership Aviation Rulemaking Committee, which made recommendations that resulted in the FAA adopting its new Part 91 Subpart K rule governing fractional ownership operations which was issued in 2003. Lehman has been the Department’s legal representative in its discussions with the European Union countries, Canada and Mexico regarding U.S. fractional ownership and other managed aircraft operations involving those countries. He served on the Steering Committee of the FAA’s Part 135/125 Aviation Rulemaking Committee that examined those regulations. Lehman also has a lead role in developing the Department’s economic regulatory policies regarding the managed aircraft and air charter broker industries.

Lehman is a graduate of the National Law Center at George Washington University in Washington, DC. Dayton began his career with the Civil Aeronautics Board and has over 31 years experience with the federal government, virtually all of it involving aviation enforcement and licensing.

FMI: www.nbaa.org