Thank you Jack (Pelton) and hello AirVenture! It’s great to see everyone. You know I’ve been in aviation for more than four decades, but this is my first time here at AirVenture.
And let me tell you, I’ve never seen anything like this. What a tribute to aviation! It’s also a tribute to the family whose name is synonymous with AirVenture—the Pobereznys. I was saddened to hear that Tom passed away on Monday and I would like to offer my—and the FAAs—condolences to his family and the entire EAA family.
Tom was not only an amazing pilot—he was a builder who lifted experimental aviation into the mainstream and AirVenture into an international phenomena.
Last week at the Farnborough Air Show, I saw the best of the best the world has to offer in commercial aviation, space, and military aerospace.
And now at Oshkosh, I’m seeing the world’s greatest General Aviation show—the show that Tom Poberezny built. It is a fitting legacy.
It’s easy to see why hundreds of thousands of pilots and enthusiasts come back to Wittman Regional Airport year after year, many of them from very long distances.
I read that one pilot this year flew here in his homebuilt Zenith Cruzer from Texas. His direct route was anything but—he headed west, then north, then east, zigzagging across the country and touching down in each of the lower 48 states before arriving here at Wittman. That’s what I call motivated!
Actually it’s a lot more than motivation—it’s pure inspiration and passion, and I see it everywhere here, including in the bright eyes of all the kids.
Because of AirVenture, I’m betting that many of them are considering a career in aerospace. It wasn’t until I was an adult, in a completely different career track in the Army that the sound of distant whop-whop of a Huey one day rekindled my childhood dreams of flying. It set me on a path to the sky and I’ve never looked back.
Imagine what the elegant roar of a Merlin-powered P-51, the thunder of an F-22 Raptor, or the whir of an eVTOL prototype, might do for a young person here at AirVenture?
I like to think that right now, out there on the field is the next Burt Rutan, Bessie Coleman, Zara Rutherford or Amelia Earhart. If something is going to spark a kid’s passion to be an aerospace icon, or to just choose an awesome career—this would be the place.
I want to thank Jack and the EAA team, and everyone else I’ve met along the way, for treating the FAA crew and me like family here.
We truly appreciate that, particularly since we’re always looking to build and strengthen our relationships with everyone in this general aviation community—and that’s why it’s so important for me and my senior leadership team to be here. Next year, we may even bring tents…
Of course our safety experts are here too in the FAA Safety Center, located next to the control tower. And as usual, we have close to 100 air traffic controllers, ATC supervisors and ops managers here, doing a phenomenal job to keep the world’s busiest airport safe and efficient.
If you flew here, you know they are very good at their jobs. I want to thank them for their contribution to AirVenture!
The other reason I’m honored to be here is because I get to present the annual General Aviation awards to three people who exemplify and amplify everything that’s good about this community.
We talk about positive Safety Culture a lot in our industry, more and more in fact. For our winners, it’s not talk—it’s the creed they live by every day. Their example is a powerful tool for positive change.
I very much appreciate the work that they, the EAA, and all of the other GA advocacy groups are doing to promote safety, in part by encouraging a positive safety culture.
It’s extremely important, particularly in today’s world where desirable safety attitudes and behaviors can sometimes be swayed by the peer power of social media.
While it’s sometimes hard to tell from the outside if a pilot or organization has a positive safety culture, it’s pretty easy to spot when they don’t. In fact, we see it in cringe-worthy social media videos and posts just about every day.
As you know, the FAA sometimes takes action when social media influencers go too far, and many times, we take a lot of heat in the process.
But that’s ok, because at the end of the day, our job and our commitment to the American people is this: to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world. Period.
We are extremely fortunate to be in a period when commercial aviation is safer than ever and GA is making incremental gains every year. But that does not mean we can – or should –declare victory.
Every day we have to challenge ourselves to find even more ways to reduce and eliminate the risk inherent in aviation, because we all know too well that it has little tolerance for mistakes.
Rather than responding to incidents, we are getting better at predicting them through the careful analysis of data. But we need to do more of this—especially in General Aviation—and we need to get better at it. Being preventative is no longer enough; we must become predictive.
I like to think that the GA community sees us as a partner in the journey to make this community safer, more secure, and ready for the future. The safer we are, the more freedom we have to fly.
We truly are here to help. And we’re lucky, because there are so many extraordinary people and organizations out there who are helping us in our safety mission. In particular I’m thinking about our collaborative FAA Safety Teams, Runway Safety Teams, and the General Aviation Joint Safety Committee, which we call the GAJSC.
As the result of a lot of hard work by government and industry, we’re making progress in reducing fatal accidents in general aviation.
Our target since 2008 has been to reduce the fatal accident rate by 1% per year, and we’re on track again this year to meet or exceed that reduction.
But as you know, it’s when you think you’re safe that you’re the most vulnerable. This is no time to take a breather. In fact, it’s the right time to work even harder.
That’s why I’m glad there are so many dedicated people in the GA family rolling up their sleeves for safety.
Like Mike Everhart. They call Mike the “piston guy” at Stevens Aerospace in Greenville, South Carolina, where he keeps the Beech Barons in top shape.
He specializes in King Airs as well. Mike has seen his share of poor maintenance that could lead to component failures—in fact he’s put together a webinar with photos he’s taken over the years showing problems he’s found. It’s proof that owning an aircraft and maintaining it are two very different propositions.
Mike puts his Safety Culture money where his mouth is—he has a standing offer to go flying with any client after he works on their plane. Sometimes they take him up on it—and he’s happy to go. He also pays it forward, mentoring young maintenance techs and sharing his wisdom with pilots and mechanics alike.
He is a national resource, and it’s my pleasure to present Mike with the Aviation Maintenance Technician of the Year Award.
Unfortunately Mike couldn’t make it here in person today, so I’m going to give his award to our next guest of honor after I say a few words….
….And it’s hard to say just a few words about Dr. Amy Hoover from Ellensburg, Washington. That’s particularly true when the topic is backcountry flying. Amy, quite literally, “wrote the book” on backcountry flying with her friend and mentor Dick Williams.
It’s called Mountain, Canyon, and Backcountry Flying. When not flying in the Idaho back country, Professor Hoover is teaching aviation and safety courses at the Central Washington University.
It’s a good bet that if more pilots took her advice, we’d have fewer accidents. She asks her students and clients to establish and stick to a personal minimums checklist, and to follow a very wise and simple rule: “If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it”.
Amy is paying it forward by building a safety culture foundation in her students, and working to protect the freedom to fly in the back country. It’s a privilege that is in jeopardy when people, often newcomers, don’t follow the rules. She hopes that by educating pilots, the community can avoid the FAA having to clamp down.
For these reasons and so many more, I’m honored to present the CFI of the Year Award to Amy Hoover!
Amy thank you for all you do. Please come up so I can shake your hand.
Now I don’t know about everyone else here, but I like to take it easy on Saturday mornings. Go for a bike ride, listen to some jazz….enjoy my coffee.
Laura Herrmann, a pilot, FAA Safety Team Lead Rep and nurse anesthesiologist from St. Bonifacius, Minnesota, enjoys her Saturday morning coffee a bit differently—with WINGS. Not the kind you eat with buffalo sauce—I’m talking about the FAA’s WINGS pilot proficiency program.
On Saturday mornings, Laura runs a live webinar called Coffee and Wings, with aviation enthusiasts joining from all over the country….and from around the world.
Pilots and maintenance technicians joining in can get WINGS credits while having coffee and expanding their minds and capabilities. Everyone comes away with a better appreciation for general aviation and safety.
Laura is all about Safety Culture, and for her, building a positive safety culture starts with building community—whether live or virtual. She’s also all about tech transfer—taking our hard earned aviation wisdom and sharing it with the medical field.
For example she’s teaching nurse anesthesiologists to use an IFR-like instrument scan to monitor their equipment and patients. She also teaches nurses to do the equivalent of “chair flying” to burn in thought and muscle processes.
For Laura, knowledge not shared is knowledge lost—and we’re thankful to have her knowledge in aviation. Laura, thank you for all that you do.
You are certainly a perfect recipient for the FAA Safety Team Representative of the Year. Please come up to receive your award.
Let’s have one more round of applause for our 2022 GA Award winners, and a thank you to Sandya and the General Aviation Awards committee and their sponsors for all they do to highlight these great folks.
Ok in a minute I’m going to join Jack for a bit of a fireside chat, and hopefully he’ll keep the temperature down….
But first, I want to pay tribute to another very special person here. You’ll recognize her from the VCR tapes and DVDs that are sure to be in your flight training library, and nowadays on the King Schools app. She is the quintessential spokeswoman for Safety Culture, and along with her husband, she has dedicated her life to helping pilots fly safer through video training materials.
I am honored to present a Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award to Martha King, in celebration of 50-plus years of safe flying. Martha, thank you for all you do. Please come up.
Ok, before I leave I also want to put in a plug for our hardworking FAA family here at the show.
I mentioned earlier that we are indeed here to help. Over in the FAA Safety Center, you can stop by and talk to our legal eagles, our civil aviation registry team, our flight physical and medical research folks, hazardous materials experts, our GAJSC team and our weather researchers.
On the forums side of the FAA Safety Center you can also sit in air conditioning and learn while listening to one of many presentations by general aviation subject matter experts.
Stop by and see them.
Alright, thank you for listening and thank you for inviting me to AirVenture. After Jack and I talk, I’ll be happy to take your questions.