Featured Speaker: FAA Chief Blakey

NBAA's 56th Annual Meeting & Convention formally began Tuesday with an Opening General Session that celebrated the 100th anniversary of powered flight. Darrell Collins, chief historian at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk, recounted the aviation pioneers’ early efforts. Also, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan joined aviation pioneer Harry Combs and the National Aviation Hall of Fame’s Mike Jackson in underscoring the industry's efforts to celebrate aviation’s heritage by presenting the first annual Combs Award to photographer Dan Patterson.

The Opening General Session in Orlando (FL) also featured major presentations by FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey and John Mica, the Florida Congressman who is chairman of the Aviation Subcommittee of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.

NBAA President Shelley A. Longmuir began the session by noting that the challenge for the next 100 Years of Flight "is to advance aviation – in all its forms – so that it more fully and completely serves the needs and best interests of humanity. NBAA has a big role to play in that effort,” she said. "Business aviation is a critical factor in our national, integrated transportation system. We are an undeniable contributor to economic growth. As our economy continues to improve, demand for business aviation will only increase.

The Association "must continue to advance the safety, security, efficiency and acceptance of business aviation," Longmuir continued. She pledged to advance and strengthen NBAA Member services (especially those related to safety and security) and to continue to collaborate and cooperate with Federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration on programs such as the Transportation Security Administration Access Certificate (TSAAC).

Longmuir told the assembly NBAA is expanding its seminar offerings, adding security training sessions and launching, in partnership with the FAA, a series of new seminars on FAR Part 91 Subpart K regulations regarding fractional aircraft ownership programs. In addition, the Association is working to raise the bar in flight department management through its new Certified Aviation Manager (CAM) Program.

"With your help and your active involvement," Longmuir told the audience, "I intend to build on the Association's existing advantages, to strengthen this organization so that its message is more clearly understood and so that the obstacles to our progress are removed or minimized. I also intend to reframe and re-invigorate the Association's basic value proposition so that current and potential Members see us as a true industry leader," she concluded.

FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey discussed the importance of continuing to work for passage of the FAA reauthorization bill, which has been held up because of the "unfortunate mischaracterizations of contract towers and the great services they provide." Refuting allegations by the air traffic controllers’ union that safety is being "sold to the lowest bidder," Blakey said that the contract tower program has certified safety benefits and is a "far cry from privatization."

Blakey also described in detail the FAA’s new strategic five-year plan and a variety of other agency initiatives:

• Increasing airspace system capacity through "new technology, procedures and pavement"
• Improving aviation's safety record, especially in Alaska
• Working with the new European Aviation Safety Agency to ensure standardization of safety rules
• Converting the FAA into a performance-based organization through implementation of sound business practices

Congressman John Mica (R-FL), who said the FAA "needs vast reorganization," expressed confidence that Blakey and her people "can get the job done." Weighing in on the FAA reauthorization controversy, Mica decried the "shameless" efforts of controllers to derail the FAA reauthorization bill and predicted that the legislation will pass.

However, Mica spent most of his time focusing on business aviation's paramount current concern – the impact of aviation security regulations. Stating that "there is nothing more important than security," Mica said, "We need [security] systems based on risk and commonsense. We don’t need 16-foot-high fences around every general aviation airport." Admitting that he was partly responsible for creating the TSA, he promised, "Before I leave office I will make it work right," which prompted applause from the audience. Attendees also responded enthusiastically to Mica's assertion that “there is no reason why we can’t fly business aircraft into Reagan National Airport."

FMI: www.nbaa.org/conventions/2003