Wichita Aero Club Luncheon

Thank you for that warm welcome, Jack [Pelton, EAA Board Chairman]– I’m always happy to see a fellow California native. Jack was an important member of the FAA Management Advisory Council a few years back, and he’s a valuable partner to us now that he’s at the Experimental Aircraft Association.

Last week, one of the most diverse collections of World War II aircraft ever assembled flew over Washington, D.C., to commemorate the 70^th anniversary of the Allied victory in Europe. Thousands of people lined the National Mall and crowded onto balconies and rooftops across the city to see these historic planes take flight. It was a special moment to witness, deeply rooted in a love for aviation and its rich history.

Being back in the “Air Capital of the World,” I’m once again reminded of that history. So much of it happened here in Wichita. Let me give you an example.

Seventy years ago, a B-29 bomber rolled off the assembly line at the Wichita Boeing plant. It was called “Doc” – part of a squadron of eight airplanes named after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. After serving in the Korean War, Doc was decommissioned and sent to the Mojave Desert in California. There it stayed for more than 40 years, baking in the sun and occasionally being used for military target practice.

Doc got a reprieve in 2000, when a group of historians rescued it and shipped it back home to Wichita. They dreamed of restoring the old B-29 to its former glory – and eventually getting it back in the air.

Hundreds of volunteers came out to work on Doc – including people who had built the plane in 1944. They painted and installed new skin panels. They replaced every piece of wire and cable. They put in new engines and a modern avionics system.

Thanks to these efforts, Doc is on track to fly again this summer – for the first time since the Korean War.

This is a story that embodies the spirit of Wichita. Aviation pioneers like Clyde Cessna and Bill Lear made their marks here. Planes that fly across the world were built here, by generations of Wichita families.

As much as aviation is a part of Wichita’s past, it’s also an important part of its future. In a factory adjacent to the one where Doc was built 70 years ago, Spirit Aerosystems is using the latest in robotics technology to create fuselage and cockpits for the 787 Dreamliner out of black carbon composite tape – the most advanced aircraft manufacturing technique in existence today.

This type of innovation is essential to keeping up with our evolving industry – not only here in Wichita, but also at the FAA.

Today, I’m going to tell you about how our agency is working to create America’s 21^st century aviation system. Then, I look forward to answering your questions and hearing about the successes and challenges you’re experiencing here in Wichita.

As you know, the FAA is focused on putting the Next Generation Air Transportation System in place. NextGen is using innovative technologies and procedures to make flying safer, greener, and more efficient – and it’s already delivering benefits across the country.

One of the most important developments we’re working on is the shift from radar-based aircraft tracking to satellite-based tracking.

The FAA installed the baseline ground infrastructure for the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast system last year. This is exciting technology – especially for the general aviation community.

ADS-B helps controllers determine your aircraft’s location with far greater accuracy. If you operate in remote areas where radar coverage is limited, ADS-B will make flying safer. It helps us take the “search” out of search-and-rescue if you run into trouble – a potentially life-saving benefit.

ADS-B also brings free weather and traffic updates from coast to coast directly to the cockpit. This means you’re getting the most up-to-date information on hazardous weather, temporary flight restrictions, and notices to airmen when you need it most.

The full benefits of ADS-B require 100 percent equipage for aircraft flying in controlled air space. The FAA has set a January 1, 2020, deadline to equip for ADS-B Out in controlled airspace. Many of you have asked about that deadline, and if it might be extended. The answer is no – the date is set – so I want to strongly encourage you to make plans to get equipped as soon as possible. You don’t want to end up grounded in the early months of 2020 because of a parts or installation delay.

I want to thank the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, and all of the other industry groups who have encouraged owners to get equipped and helped raise awareness about the 2020 deadline. This support has been invaluable.

The FAA is collaborating closely with these organizations through our Equip 2020 working group. We’re seeking to smooth the transition to ADS-B by identifying and resolving the barriers delaying operators from getting equipped.

I know cost has been a major concern. I’m pleased to report that a number of avionics manufacturers are stepping up to produce equipment that complies with the ADS-B Out mandate. This increased competition has driven costs down considerably. Some units are now available for less than $2,000.

Since our ADS-B Call to Action last October, more than 8,000 general aviation aircraft have equipped – a really promising start. We want to see those equipage rates continue to rise.

So if you haven’t researched getting ADS-B equipment for a while, now is a great time to take a second look.

ADS-B is just one example of how we’re modernizing our national airspace system.

This spring, we delivered on another important foundational element of NextGen. En Route Automation Modernization, or ERAM, is one of the largest technology changeovers in the history of the FAA. ERAM is a faster computer platform that replaces our legacy system, which had its roots in the 1960s. It gives us a much bigger, richer picture of our nation’s air traffic – and allows controllers to better manage flights from gate to gate.

Eisenhower National is the key site for another program we are using to improve air traffic control displays called STARS FUSION. This upgraded software is making it easier for controllers to do their jobs, creating a clearer and more accurate display that pulls in data from multiple radar and ADS-B sites. As more aircraft in the region equip with ADS-B, the full benefits of these upgrades will be experienced.

The FAA isn’t only using new technologies to prepare for the future. We’re also evolving in the way we think and approach our processes – especially when it comes to certification.

When we first started certifying aircraft, it was a pretty simple process. We laid out airworthiness standards for small airplanes, and manufacturers met them. Over the years, this process became much more complicated.

Wichita’s history proves that the aviation industry tends to attract innovative thinkers. As they created new and better aircraft designs, the certification process struggled to keep up.

We knew we needed to find a better way to increase safety, certify more efficiently, and help bring more products to market. We quickly realized that the answer was to change our mindset. Instead of being prescriptive, we needed to be performance-based.

Instead of requiring certain design elements on specific technologies, we knew we needed to define the safety outcomes we wanted to achieve. This approach recognizes that there’s more than one way to deliver on safety – and it provides room for flexibility and innovation in the marketplace.

The FAA is in the process of codifying this change into a rewrite of Part 23 of our aviation regulations. Congress recognized this was a priority when it required a Part 23 rulemaking in the Small Airplane Revitalization Act of 2013, and I’ve asked my team to shorten timeframes wherever possible so we can get this rule done quickly.

It’s a big undertaking. The new rule will touch many different aspects of aviation, so we have to make sure it’s fair, can be enforced, and doesn’t have an adverse impact on safety or airworthiness.

I know you’re eager for this rule to get done – but it’s imperative that we do it right. Your businesses are counting on it, and the competitiveness of the entire U.S. aviation industry is counting on it.

Your contributions as part of the ASTM International Committee and the Aviation Rulemaking Committee on this subject have already been invaluable. The feedback we received from industry and international stakeholders has helped shape the rulemaking we’re currently drafting. We plan to publish it for public comment by the end of this year. We’ll also continue to collaborate as industry develops compliance measures that will meet our new performance-based standards.

In addition to re-thinking our certification process for aircraft, the FAA is also re-thinking our requirements for general aviation pilots.

I know one of the most important issues on everyone’s mind here today is the third-class medical certificate. The FAA is working to define how a person can fly without a third-class medical certificate while maintaining the highest level of safety.

We want to make this a lasting policy change that encourages more people to get their pilot certificates and invest in general aviation aircraft. We also have to acknowledge that a change to medical requirements could introduce risks into the system that we need to understand and mitigate.

Please know: we’re working diligently to get a proposal out so all interested stakeholders have an opportunity to weigh in.

All of these actions we’re taking are born out of a larger shift toward embracing risk-based decision-making. Aviation has long been on the forefront of this kind of thinking in transportation, and it’s unquestionably the future of our industry.

As a result, the FAA is embedding risk management into every level of our business. I even made it one of the agency’s four Strategic Initiatives when I became Administrator – because I knew it was essential to helping us achieve our mission of providing the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world.

Twenty years ago, the FAA operated under the philosophy that 100 percent compliance with safety regulations equaled 100 percent safety. This, however, didn’t go far enough. Not all safety issues are regulated – and several incidents in the 1990s led us to rethink this approach.

We knew that, as aviation became safer, we’d have less accident data to guide our efforts. We needed to focus on identifying areas of risk – and mitigating them before an incident occurred.

Here’s how it works: We collect safety data from air traffic controllers, airway technicians, pilots, other aviation professionals, and a variety of other sources. We then analyze this data to identify potential high-risk areas and target our resources to address them.

Using data and analysis to guide the way we make decisions is common sense – and the aviation industry has been an essential partner in our efforts. We’ve been working together for years to introduce more risk assessments into our decision-making processes.

Thanks to our collaboration with airlines, manufacturers, labor, and others under the Commercial Aviation Safety Team, we reduced the risk of fatal commercial accidents by 83 percent between 1998 and 2008 – a stunning success. Since 2008, we’ve continued to build on that accomplishment.

An important factor contributing to our ongoing improvement is the widespread adoption of Safety Management Systems, which have produced safer, more efficient outcomes for small and large carriers alike.

The FAA recently finalized a rule requiring most U.S. commercial carriers to have Safety Management Systems in place by 2018. It codifies the risk-based decision-making process that we’ve developed cooperatively with industry over the last decade-and-a half. It also puts us in line with internationally-recognized best safety practices.

I’ve laid out a few of the ways that the FAA is preparing our national airspace system for the future. In order for us to continue making progress on these initiatives, we need the proper resources.

The current FAA reauthorization expires on September 30^th. We’re committed to working closely with Congress to pass a long-term bill. While we don’t know what that bill will exactly look like yet, we do know that it has to embrace a few key principles.

First, reauthorization must help us maintain our exceptional safety record by providing more opportunities to use risk-based decision-making.

Second, we must continue the modernization of our air traffic control system with stable funding for our core operations and NextGen investments.

Third, reauthorization should secure appropriate funding for our nation’s airports. The new Eisenhower National terminal that’s about to open is a fantastic example of the kind of project we need to support.

Finally, we must maintain and strengthen America’s global leadership on aviation.  In addition to shaping and harmonizing international aviation standards, this means strengthening the U.S. aviation industry in a competitive global marketplace.

The aviation products we make in America – right here in Wichita – are essential to the health of our national economy. Seeing your planes crisscross the globe are a sign that U.S. innovation is alive and well.

I hope we can count on you to help us call on Congress to take up a long-term reauthorization bill as soon as possible.

Before I wrap up, let me leave you with this. I often think about how lucky I am to be leading the FAA. It’s an organization that’s always done important work in an industry that was born out of American zeal and ingenuity. We are in the midst of a historic time in aviation – and the decisions we make now will define aviation for decades to come.

Look no further than Doc. Thanks to the dedication of the aviation community here, that old B-29 that spent four decades in the desert will soon take flight again. If that’s not a sign of what we can do when we work together, I don’t know what is.

Thank you for the opportunity to join you here in Wichita today. I look forward to answering your questions.

B4UFLY App Release Press Conference

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today.

Unmanned aircraft systems have become extremely popular in recent years. With that popularity has come growing concerns – about the safety of these aircraft, and their effect on our nation’s airspace. For example, you wouldn’t have to look far to find a recent headline about an airline pilot seeing an unmanned aircraft while flying.

Technology has made it so that almost anyone can operate an unmanned vehicle without any prior aviation experience. At the same time, technology also provides us with an opportunity – to give these users the tools and knowledge they need to operate safely before they fly.

I’m pleased to announce today that the FAA is unveiling a new smartphone app called “B4UFLY.” It’s a simple, easy-to-use app that answers a very basic safety question: is it safe and legal to fly my unmanned aircraft at a particular location?

Longtime members of the unmanned aircraft community may already know the answer to that question. Someone who got their first unmanned aircraft as a gift under the Christmas tree probably doesn’t.

That’s a knowledge gap we need to fill. The United States has the most complicated airspace in the world. We need to make sure hobbyists and modelers know where it’s okay to fly and where it isn’t okay to fly – because there can be very real consequences if you don’t. The incident on the White House lawn earlier this year is a good example.

We plan to make B4UFLY available to approximately 1,000 beta testers using Apple devices this summer, and we’ll be working on an Android app in the future.

The B4UFLY app is the latest action the FAA has taken to encourage the responsible use of unmanned aircraft. In December, we partnered with the Academy of Model Aeronautics, the Small UAV Coalition, and our friends here at AUVSI to launch the “Know Before You Fly” campaign. This was an important first step in educating operators about the rules of the sky.

The B4UFLY app takes a lot of that information and puts it right in your pocket – available to use anytime, anywhere. It only takes a few taps to find out if you’re cleared to fly. While other resources like this exist, we believe B4UFLY will have the most user-friendly interface with the most up-to-date information.

To tell you more about this, I’m going to turn things over to Jim Williams, the manager of the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft Integration Office. He’ll walk you through some of the key features of the B4UFLY app.

Thank you.

UAS Pathfinder Program Announcement Press Conference

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today.

The unmanned aircraft industry is changing faster than any segment of the aviation industry. So many bright minds are focused on advancing this technology. People are finding new ways to use these devices on almost a daily basis. The energy here at AUVSI is proof of that.

Today, I’m pleased to announce a new project that will help the FAA harness some of this energy.

We’re calling it the Pathfinder Program. We’re partnering with three leading U.S. companies who have committed extensive resources to perform research that will help us determine if and how we can safely expand unmanned aircraft operations in the United States. These companies reached out to the FAA to work with us on exploring three key types of unmanned operations.

CNN will be researching how visual line-of-sight operations might be used for newsgathering in urban areas.

PrecisionHawk, a manufacturer, will be surveying crops in rural areas using unmanned aircraft flying outside of the pilot’s direct vision.

BNSF Railroad will explore the challenges of using these vehicles to inspect their rail infrastructure beyond visual line-of-sight in isolated areas.

We anticipate receiving valuable data from each of these trials that could result in FAA-approved operations in the next few years. They will also give insight into how unmanned aircraft can be used to transform the way certain industries do business – whether that means making sure trains run on time, checking on the health of crops, or reporting on a natural disaster.

Integrating unmanned aircraft into our airspace is a big job, and it’s one the FAA is determined to get right. Earlier this year, we took an important step forward by releasing a proposed rule that laid out a flexible framework for allowing the routine use of small unmanned aircraft. It included a number of common sense provisions, like not flying near airports, at night, or more than 500 feet off the ground. It also recommended requiring the operator to be able to see the unmanned vehicle at all times.

The FAA received more than 4,000 public comments on the proposal, and we’re working to address them before finalizing the rule.

This, however, takes time – so we’re actively looking for other ways to expand the use of unmanned aircraft in the meantime. We’re receiving valuable information from our six national test sites. We’re also accommodating requests for some commercial operations. The Pathfinder program is our latest step in the right direction – and I’m eager to see the results.

Now, I’d like to invite representatives from each of our Pathfinder partners to share a few words about how their organizations will be using unmanned aircraft during the program:

• David Vigilante, Senior Vice President, Legal for CNN
• Christopher Dean, CEO of PrecisionHawk
• Gary Grissum, Unmanned Aircraft Lead for BNSF Railroad

En Route Automation Modernization

As Prepared for Delivery

Thank you, Mr. Secretary, and thank you to everyone for joining us today.

En Route Automation Modernization, or ERAM, is one of the largest technology changeovers in the history of the FAA. We completed it last month and – I’m pleased to report – that it’s functioning smoothly in the 20 high altitude air traffic control centers across the continental United States right now.

ERAM is not just a faster computer system – it’s a network that replaces our legacy system, which had its roots in the 1960s. We are now able to handle air traffic in a much more collaborative way. We can see a much bigger and richer picture of our nation’s high altitude air traffic.

ERAM gives us a big boost in technological horsepower over the system it replaces. This computer system enables each controller to handle more aircraft over a larger area, resulting in increased safety, capacity and efficiency.

ERAM processes data from nearly three times the number of sensors as the old system. It can track and display nearly double the number of high altitude flights, and enable controllers to handle additional traffic more efficiently. It’s going to make all air traffic flow more smoothly across the country.

As the Secretary said, this means that controllers will now be able to better manage flights from gate to gate. With tools that are now available through ERAM, our air traffic computers can generate specific trajectories and speeds that will allow controllers to make the most efficient use of the airspace and cut down on congestion. Previously, controllers would have to estimate the best speed for an aircraft to travel in order to maintain proper separation. With the more precise picture that ERAM gives us, there’s a greater opportunity for more efficient spacing of aircraft and to use NextGen procedures that save fuel and cut down on emissions.

Eventually, in conjunction with other new technology, ERAM will allow controllers to push a button and send a written message to a pilot in advance, allowing them to change course and steer around storms and congestion, once again improving on time arrival and decreasing delays.

Our new system now links seamlessly with another technology that processes satellite-based GPS information. This system is called Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast, or ADS-B. Last year we finished the coast-to-coast installation of the ADS-B network.

With its GPS technology, ADS-B provides a more precise and efficient alternative to radar including in places where there was no radar coverage before. For example, using their new ERAM computers, controllers today are providing radar-like separation over the Gulf of Mexico and large parts of Alaska with ADS-B. By 2020, it will become the FAA’s primary means of tracking and separating aircraft.

With ERAM in place, the FAA has fulfilled an important commitment in modernizing the nation’s NextGen air traffic control system. We did not make this progress alone. We did so by creating a close collaboration between management, labor and industry.

I’d like to acknowledge the Chief Operating Officer of the FAA’s Air Traffic Control Organization, Teri Bristol, whose leadership on ERAM was fundamental. Also, I’d like to acknowledge our labor representative from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, Julio Henriques. Julio was instrumental in helping us implement ERAM and served as the NATCA lead representative. Finally, I would like to acknowledge our industry representative, Stephanie Hill, from Lockheed Martin. The teamwork between labor, management and industry is why ERAM is working today. Together, we are enhancing safety and increasing capacity in what is already the world’s safest aviation system.

I want to thank you again for joining us today, and I would like to turn it over to Julio for more insight into how we accomplished this major milestone.

Before the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee concerning “Flying Under the Radar: Securing Washington, D.C. Airspace”

Thank you, Chairman Chaffetz and Ranking Member Cummings, for the opportunity to appear before the Committee today.

I would like to address your questions about the recent gyrocopter incident by explaining the FAA’s role in airspace security and how we coordinate with other agencies.

First and foremost, the FAA’s mission is aircraft and airspace safety. We operate the nation’s air traffic control system to separate aircraft. Our primary focus is on getting aircraft safely to their destinations and managing the flow of thousands of aircraft and their passengers around the country every day.

In addition to the FAA’s safety mission, we also work very closely with the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security on a daily basis to support their aviation security missions, particularly here in the Capital Region. As part of that support, we provide them a raw air traffic radar feed so they have situational awareness of what is happening in our national airspace system.

To enable our controllers to safely control air traffic, the first thing we have to do is to distinguish the aircraft that are communicating with controllers from all of the other objects in the air that are not aircraft. These other objects that the radar detects could be things like vehicles on nearby roadways, flocks of birds, weather events, or occasional kites or balloons.

Air traffic controllers could not do their jobs if they had to work with an unfiltered radar feed. They would not be able to distinguish the aircraft they are charged with safely handling from the other elements on their radar scopes.

We require aircraft that fly in the airspace around Washington, D.C., and other large cities around the country, to use transponders that broadcast basic information such as the type of aircraft, speed, direction, and altitude. When the radar detects those aircraft, it picks up the transponder information and displays it on a controller’s radar screen. Controllers can then see all of the flights in a specific area, along with all of the identifying information for each aircraft.

Anything that doesn’t have a transponder shows up as an image resembling a simple small dot on the radar screen – and there are typically many of them across a controller’s radar screen.

To assist controllers in focusing on safely managing air traffic, we apply filters to the controllers’ radar to eliminate the vast majority of those small dots. Safely managing air traffic is a controller’s mission and they must be able to do that without distraction.

To support national and homeland security, the FAA shares a real-time, unfiltered radar feed with our partners in the Department of Defense and several other agencies. We do that so they have the same information we have – and, so they can apply the appropriate filters for their own mission to protect the airspace. We also embed technical air traffic staff at a number of North American Aerospace Defense Command facilities around the country to provide additional operational expertise and support.

On April 15, Mr. Hughes’ gyrocopter appeared on our radar as one of those small, unidentified elements, indistinguishable from all the other non-aircraft radar tracks. The National Capital Region Coordination Center called the FAA at 1:24 p.m. that afternoon, to alert us to the flight based on information they received from the Capitol Police.

After the incident, we conducted a forensic radar analysis and looked for an image that might match Mr. Hughes’ gyrocopter. We understood he had taken off from a small airport in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and we had an approximate time, so we looked at unfiltered radar data. A trained radar analyst identified a slow-moving image that traveled from Gettysburg toward the Capitol, and vanished from radar at about the time Mr. Hughes landed on the West Lawn. We now believe that unidentified radar element was Mr. Hughes’ gyrocopter. The dot appeared only intermittently throughout the flight.

When we got the call from the Capitol Police, we immediately notified our interagency partners on the Domestic Events Network, or DEN, a twenty-four hour, seven days a week communications line we operate to support a shared situational awareness among our interagency partners.

We initiated the DEN more than a decade ago to quickly share information about activity in the airspace with multiple agencies. The DEN now includes more than 130 federal and local agencies, as well as major FAA air traffic facilities around the country. The DEN has played a critical role in disseminating important operational information to other agencies as quickly as possible.

Each agency has a responsibility to announce an airspace incident on the DEN as soon as they know about it. Sharing information in real time is vital to ensure we’re all operating with the same basic facts and can respond according to our own specific mission requirements.

We are committed to our safety mission at the FAA, and we are dedicated to working closely with all of our airspace security partners to support protection of the airspace. We are assisting the Department of Homeland Security in its ongoing interagency review of this incident. This is in addition to our own internal review to ensure that FAA employees followed all the proper procedures and protocols during the event. If we need to make changes as a result of these efforts we will and I will keep the committee informed.

I would be happy to take your questions.

Before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, Subcommittee on Aviation Operations concerning Safety and General Aviation

Oral Testimony

Thank you, Senator Ayotte, Senator Cantwell and members of the Subcommittee, not just for your commitment to aviation safety, but for holding this series of hearings and focusing on an issue of national importance. Your guidance has had a tangible result—the United States of America enjoys the world’s safest and most efficient aviation system.

We have been working steadily for years to build on the trust you have exhibited in our efforts. Indeed, the United States is doing much more than “holding steady” at historically low accident rates. Aviation safety cannot rest on the status quo, regardless of how well things are going. By establishing strong safety partnerships, we are accelerating the state of aviation safety at a pace that is perhaps unrivaled in any industry.

The Airline Safety and FAA Extension Act of 2010 has certainly contributed to our progress. At your direction, we issued a final rule to prevent pilot fatigue, which became effective more than a year ago. This sent a very clear and direct message to industry that every airline must provide pilots sufficient time to get the rest needed for safe flight, and it underscored the point that every pilot has a personal responsibility to arrive at work fit for duty.

The Act triggered other rules as well. With some very limited exceptions, we required airlines pilots to have 1,500 hours of flight time. We also strengthened the requirements for taking the Airline Transport Pilot test, requiring applicants to have completed additional training in high altitude operations and adverse weather. We also published a final rule that advances the way pilots are trained and added a requirement for training in the prevention and recovery from full stalls and upset conditions. That rule made air carriers put remedial programs in place to track pilots with performance deficiencies. 

In a system as safe as ours—with an industry as safety-conscious as ours is—it’s an extraordinary challenge to find a game changer — an approach that really has the potential to raise the safety bar even further.  The requirement in the 2010 Act to publish a rule requiring safety management systems does this. Safety Management Systems are the next great frontier for aviation safety. Until now, technology has driven safety improvements—from radar to the jet engine to collision avoidance and now satellite navigation. SMS changes that landscape.

SMS is a comprehensive approach to managing safety throughout an organization. It requires an organization-wide safety policy. It has formal methods for identifying hazards, mitigating and controlling risk, and continually assessing safety performance. SMS stresses not only compliance with technical standards. It puts an increased emphasis on the overall safety performance of the organization.

SMS is not a slogan. It’s a formal, top-down, organization-wide approach that uses a continuous loop to control risks. SMS creates a safety culture — a culture that assures hazards are identified, that actions are taken, and that results are measured. And then the process repeats itself. In the business of aviation, safety cannot be an “add-on.” It must be built in through SMS. The airlines have learned that and we thank the Committee for its support.

Safety Management Systems have become the foundation for risk-based decision making. Resources will be finite—FAA must put our resources where they’re needed most. Risk-based decision making allows us to make aviation safer and smarter. Because commercial accidents are rare, we’re focusing on mitigating risk that could lead to accidents. Risk-based decision making lets us tackle the highest risks first, using our resources to improve safety where they will be most effective.

The linchpin for risk-based decision making is the safety data shared throughout the industry. Safety data can come from any of the dozens of public and proprietary databases, such as the air traffic control system, the airplane itself, or the people who are involved in the operation. These data are fed into the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing system. And it works: safety professionals recognize that there can be no secrets. It is a voluntary effort, and we and industry are working with data representing 99 percent of U.S. air carrier commercial operations.  

Before closing, I want to acknowledge our outstanding safety partnership with the general aviation community. GA pilots are known for their love of aviation, but they are equally committed to advancing safety. Their participation on the General Aviation Joint Steering Committee is of particular note. The Joint Steering Committee meets quarterly to review accident trends, establish areas for special emphasis and to share information. In the past year alone, this group developed 29 separate safety enhancements to address loss of control accidents, which are the most prevalent category facing this segment. The Joint Steering Committee also made it easier to install angle of attack indicators and allow pilots to better monitor stall margins. In short, they actively pursue ways to enhance safety, and that is what partnership is all about.  

This committee has given the FAA the authority to provide the level of safety we enjoy today. We look forward to working with you on the upcoming Reauthorization to build on America’s enviable aviation safety record. I would be pleased to answer any questions you might have at this time.

The Evolving Role of Training in Aviation Safety

Thanks, Chris Lehman. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for being here at this important gathering – billed as the “world’s largest gathering of aviation training professionals.” It’s great to see such a turnout. Training is such an important part of keeping our system safe. It’s such an important part of our joint mission of keeping aviation safe.

It’s my privilege to be here. This morning, I want to talk about:

• The evolving role of training in aviation safety.
• How the FAA evaluates risk, and how that view has evolved in recent years.
• How the industry itself is changing, and what challenges that presents.
• The importance of all of us working together to keep the system safe.

Let me start by talking about the FAA’s approach to safety, and how that’s evolved.

For most of our history, safety was a function of accident investigation. Safety was forensic. There would be an accident; we would study the causes; then we would implement changes to make sure that accident never happened that way again.

And that was a successful system. We have reduced commercial accidents in the U.S. to a very low rate. The last U.S. accident was the Colgan accident in Buffalo in 2009. While we have learned many things from that accident, and I’ll talk about those today, we had to develop other methods for finding and mitigating risk in the system. Fewer accidents led to a new approach.

Because there still is risk.

• We continue to experience a lot of growth and change in aviation.
• There’s more automation on the flight deck and in air traffic control systems.
• We are also integrating new types of aircraft in the system, like commercial spacecraft and unmanned aircraft.

While these changes are important and welcome, they are also complex from a safety standpoint. They introduce potential sources of safety risk. So how do we manage this risk? We have to spot the unsafe trends before they become accidents.

To do this, we have developed a risk-based decision making system.

Risk-based decision making focuses on finding risk before an accident occurs. We do this by collecting large amounts of safety data from many sources

• Air traffic controllers.
• Airway technicians.
• Commercial pilots.
• GA pilots
• Mechanics
• Dispatchers
• And other aviation professionals, and through other sources.  

We then use this data to conduct risk analysis to identify potentially high risk areas. Then we target our resources to address these higher risk areas.

• Collect the data,
• Analyze the data,
• Identify risks, and
• Mitigate the risks.

Working with all of you is a key to the success of this approach. We need your data, your experiences, and your ideas to make this work.

In fact, engaging with our stakeholders is key. We do that at conferences like this one, and sometimes through a more formal approach, like the rule making process.

In the area of training, we’re engaging stakeholders through the Air Carrier Training Aviation Rulemaking Committee, the ACT ARC, which we established one year ago. This effort represents a major commitment by both the FAA and industry to determine voluntary initiatives air carriers can take to improve pilot, flight attendant, and dispatcher training. 

I know many members of this ARC are in the audience today, and I thank you for your commitment and hard work on this. Already the ARC’s work is making a difference. It has recommended ways to improve pilot knowledge and skills to manage the flight path of the airplane. This is helping us to address the risk of pilot skill atrophy as the reliance on flight deck automation grows.

The committee has also made recommendations to improve helicopter air ambulance training, like setting minimum hours for initial and recurrent training, and developing guidance for line oriented flight training, or LOFT – a way to train the crew by simulating real-life scenarios involving accident scenes and danger zones.  

In addition, the committee is looking at ways to develop alternative education, training and experience pathways to qualify for an Airline Transport Pilot, or ATP certificate.

This work is ongoing, and we look forward to receiving additional safety recommendations. Some of these recommendations may become rules, but many of your companies will adopt safety procedures long before the rule becomes final. This early adoption is a result of industry engagement, and allows us to mitigate risk faster than the traditional rulemaking approach.

Risk-based decision making is not the only way we have safety enhancements.

I mentioned the 2009 Colgan accident. After that tragedy, Congress enacted the “Airline Safety and FAA Extension Act of 2010” to enhance flight safety. One provision in that law requires all first officers to have an ATP certificate so they have a stronger foundation of aeronautical knowledge and more experience before flying for an air carrier.

It takes 1,500 flight hours to obtain an ATP, and this has caused some to raise concerns about the pilot applicant pool. The FAA was given authority to make some adjustments to the law, and we issued a rule giving pilots credit for structured academic and military training, so they can meet the standard with fewer than 1,500 hours.

The FAA is open to discussing other ways to strengthen the pilot pipeline, but this will require cooperation from across the industry.

While the law passed by Congress in 2010 focused on pilot qualifications, the FAA recognized that we also had to make more targeted interventions to address other areas that the Colgan accident brought to light: including pilot fatigue and basic pilot skill proficiency.

We used fatigue science to help us update the flight and duty rules in a way that helps ensure a flight crew member arrives at work rested and ready to fly.

We also issued rules targeted at strengthening training for a pilot’s stick and rudder skills. After Colgan, it was understood that pilots should have more experience in recognizing the cues of an actual stall, and reinforce their ability to recover from that stall.

Specifically, the rules require that air carriers must now implement training programs by 2018 to address the recognition, prevention, and recovery from full stalls. Again, we believe these targeted training interventions will drive down these risk factors. 

Simulator Training

Another source of safety innovation is technology. Simulator and related technologies have improved dramatically in recent years. Training simulators are a key part of pilot training. We looked at what changes should be made to rules that apply to simulators. We saw that current rules for simulators required that pilots be trained and evaluated up to the stall warning, but not up to the full stall. So we’re proposing improvements to simulator models so they can be used to train pilots to recover from a full stall. 

We’re working to address another factor in the Colgan accident – icing conditions. We’re proposing to require that industry incorporate more accurate aerodynamic icing models. Our plan is to issue a final rule in 2016, so that industry has time to modify their simulators by March 2019, which is the deadline for the air carriers to implement full stall and upset recovery training programs.

These changes will enable us to mitigate many of the factors that contributed to the Colgan accident.   

Aviation Training Devices      

Technology advances also hold promise for general aviation. We are enacting new opportunities for use of aviation training devices, or ATD’s, to enhance GA safety.

ATD’s are an effective, safe, and affordable way to obtain pilot experience. The technology has come a long way. They’re more realistic and capable of simulating all kinds of weather conditions.

We’re in the process of issuing a rule that would increase the number of allowed credit hours in an FAA-approved ATD to count towards a pilot’s minimum 40 hours of instrument time required for the instrument rating. This change will relieve some of the burdens on GA pilots seeking to obtain aeronautical experience.   

Flight Attendant and Dispatcher Training Guidance

Similar safety advances are being made in flight attendant and dispatcher training. The FAA will be issuing some specific guidance to improve training in these areas.     Many of you are familiar with our Advance Qualification Program, or AQP. In pilot training, AQP provides a way for trainers to conduct a task analysis of the pilot’s duties. They can collect data on pilot performance, and then focus the training toward tasks that need more reinforcement. For instance, if the data shows that a pilot is highly proficient at performing ILS approaches, then training resources can be focused more toward other kinds of skill reinforcement.

The FAA will be issuing specific guidance on how to develop these kinds of data-driven training programs for flight attendants and dispatchers. We’ll do that through a revision to the AQP Advisory Circular later this year.   

Professionalism

Let me close by saying safety is our mission at the FAA, and certainly rules and policy guidance are essential to achieving our goal of providing the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world. An equally vital component is the professionalism we expect from pilots, cabin crew, dispatchers, mechanics and trainers. Your participation in this conference is a result of your professionalism.  

Everyone here has a unique set of expertise when it comes to flying. Let’s continue to bring this expertise together, so we can bring about even better, more targeted training solutions to ensure safety. The FAA looks forward to continuing our collaboration with industry. With your continued engagement, and your expertise, there’s no doubt we’ll be successful. 

Thank you.

Before the Senate Commerce Committee concerning FAA Reauthorization

Chairman Thune, Ranking Member Nelson and Members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to speak today about the reauthorization of the FAA.

It seems like not long ago, we were united with a shared sense of urgency to provide the necessary framework and structure to support our nation’s aviation system, as part of the FAA reauthorization of 2012. And now we are here again to continue that work. Government and industry have a shared responsibility to create the aviation system that will carry this nation well into the 21^st century.

The FAA has made major progress in transforming our airspace system through NextGen, and that progress continues as we speak.

I am very proud to announce that we achieved a major milestone last month by completing one of the largest automation changeovers in the history of the FAA. We have completed our new high altitude air traffic control system – known as ERAM. This system will accommodate the technologies of NextGen, giving the United States a more powerful air traffic system.

ERAM, or En Route Automation Modernization – is not just a faster computer system, it’s a network that replaces our legacy system, which had its roots in the 1960s. ERAM processes data from nearly three times the number of sensors as the legacy system. It can track and display more high altitude flights and enable controllers to handle additional traffic more efficiently.

This upgrade is complete now because we introduced a great deal of discipline and structure to the way we do business at the FAA. In 2012, we created a Program Management Organization to better manage the deployment of this and other technology. We also worked closely with our employees – those who will use the system – to gain insight and to make alterations ahead of time for a smooth transition. The fact that we turned ERAM around, and that it is now operating nationwide, is a testament to what the FAA can accomplish as an agency when it sets milestones and pulls together as a team to make fundamental changes.

ERAM links seamlessly with another complementary system that makes up the foundation of NextGen. This system is called Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast, or ADS-B. Last year we finished the coast-to-coast installation of the ADS-B network that will enable satellite-based air traffic control. ADS-B provides a more precise and efficient alternative to radar and will create a sea change in how we manage our nation’s air traffic.

With this highly flexible NextGen foundation in place, the FAA has fulfilled an important commitment. We are working with the industry and the general aviation community to help them meet their requirement to equip by 2020.

On a parallel track, through our collaboration with industry, we have identified key priorities in implementing NextGen air traffic procedures. We now have more satellite-based procedures in our skies than radar-based procedures. We created new NextGen routes above our busiest metropolitan areas, saving millions of dollars in fuel burn, shortening flight paths, decreasing carbon emissions and cutting down on delays.

We have accomplished all of this despite a very challenging fiscal backdrop. Prior to 2012, the FAA faced 23 short-term extensions for reauthorization, as well as a lapse in spending authority and a partial furlough. Two years ago, like other federal agencies, we slashed our budget under the sequester and furloughed employees. Later that year, we continued to operate our nation’s air traffic control system and regulate industry safety despite a complete shutdown of the federal government.

What the FAA needs in reauthorization is stability and predictable funding. We also need the flexibility to identify priorities and match our services and infrastructure with the needs of our users.

It bears emphasizing that the FAA is a 24-seven operation, singularly focused on safety. I think everyone has acknowledged that the funding piece has been challenging in the last five years. There is talk about restructuring the FAA as part of this reauthorization. I am all for having that discussion, but the discussion needs to be based on facts. We need to be sure that any governance changes would work to solve the challenges faced by the FAA.

Our aviation system is a valuable asset for the American public that contributes 12 million jobs and $1.5 trillion to our economy. We should use the upcoming reauthorization to provide the FAA with the tools necessary to meet the demands of the future. A lot is at stake, and we need to get this right.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the Committee today. I am happy to take any questions you may have.

Harmonized Integration”

Good morning and thank you, Nancy, for the kind introduction.

We are here this week to talk about the newest entrant into our airspace, the remotely piloted aircraft, as it is called in Montreal. Or unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, as we call it in the U.S. regulatory system. Or drones, as they are widely known in the general public.

But whatever we choose to call them, these aircraft are rapidly changing the face of aviation. They are being already deployed around the world in a variety of commercial activities, from agriculture, pipeline inspection, oil exploration, wildlife monitoring, movie making, photography, and construction. The list seems endless.

This is not a theoretical exercise: these aircraft exist now. And as with any new technology, it is impossible to predict what commercial uses may lie ahead. In fact, that is not our role. Our role is to build a regulatory structure that allows their introduction into the airspace in a fashion that is both safe and efficient. We need to ensure that we maintain the same levels of safety that we have achieved in the current system, while allowing this rapidly developing technology to flourish and integrate into the airspace.

This is the balance we must strike, and we are all approaching the task somewhat differently – from what we call these aircraft, to how we categorize them. But at the end of the day, we have to come up with a harmonized system, which is where ICAO plays such an important role.

This morning I would like to talk a bit about how the FAA is approaching the integration of UAS into our airspace, and then talk more about the importance of harmonization.

The U.S. Approach

In looking at the U.S. regulatory approach, we began with a comprehensive road map, which we published two years ago and which constitutes our plan to safely integrate unmanned aircraft. This roadmap addresses the policies, the regulations, the technologies, and the procedures that we will need to integrate unmanned aircraft on a routine basis.

In addition, the Department of Transportation released a Comprehensive Plan that details the multi-agency approach to the safe and timely integration of unmanned aircraft. That plan establishes goals to integrate both small and larger aircraft.

Effectively, the U.S. approach divides UAS into two categories: small UAS, meaning under 55 pounds, or 25 kilograms, which operate at low altitudes, and large UAS, which would operate in busier controlled airspace. We are also considering the possibility of a third category – devices that are less than two kilos.

Small UAS

In February we issued a proposed rule for regulations that would govern small UAS, and that rule is now available for public comment. The proposed rule is designed to create a flexible framework that balances our goal of accommodating innovation in the industry, while ensuring that we protect other aircraft by maintaining separation, and that we protect people and property on the ground.

I’d like to share some of the highlights of our proposed rule, which is similar to the framework that EASA has proposed for what it calls the low risk or “Open” category of unmanned aircraft.

The FAA’s proposed rule accommodates aircraft operating up to 500 feet above ground level, and restricts operations near airports and other restricted airspace unless air traffic control gives permission. This provides a buffer between manned and unmanned aircraft.

This proposal would allow operations during daylight hours, at speeds of up to 100 mph, and would require the operator to be able to see the unmanned aircraft at all times.

We propose that operators obtain a newly created operator’s certificate by passing a knowledge test focusing on the rules of the air, but they do not need to obtain a traditional pilot’s license. The operator would need to renew that certificate every two years by passing a written proficiency test.

These small unmanned aircraft pose the least amount of risk to our airspace and therefore, consistent with our risk-based approach, the proposed rule would allow these aircraft to operate without the need for an airworthiness certificate. A traditional certificate can take three to five years to obtain. An unmanned aircraft could very well be outdated by the time it obtained a certificate following the traditional approach. Therefore, we have proposed that no airworthiness certificate is needed. Rather, these aircraft must operate within the specified parameters to maintain safety.

In addition to mitigating risk, the rule opens the door to many potential benefits. The small unmanned aircraft may be used to conduct higher risk activities, such as inspecting utility towers, antennas, bridges, power lines and pipelines in hilly or mountainous terrain. Small unmanned aircraft could also support wildlife conservation, or be used to monitor crops. They can help with search and rescue, shoot scenes for films and television or take aerial photographs for real estate purposes. In many cases unmanned aircraft can do these tasks with less risk than manned aircraft that might have to fly in dangerous terrain or in bad weather. And, in some cases, an unmanned aircraft could conduct inspections more safely than a worker who might need to climb a tower, or repel down the side of a building.

The proposed rule is also relevant for what is not covered. The rule does not affect those who want to fly model aircraft as a hobby or for recreation. They already can do that – they simply need to fly according to our model aircraft guidelines.

As part of this rule, we are also asking the question of whether there should be an additional category and special rules for “micro unmanned aircraft” – those that weigh less than 4.4 pounds, or 2 kilograms. We will consider public comment on this issue.

Finally, the rule does not address privacy. Rather, President Obama last month issued a memorandum on privacy that will guide how the U.S. Federal Government uses unmanned aircraft in our domestic airspace. The presidential memorandum also outlines how the Administration will engage with industry to develop best practices to protect the privacy of the public.

Rulemaking of course takes time, but meanwhile we have moved forward with approving the first commercial use of unmanned aircraft in the Arctic. In both cases, the FAA issued a restricted type certificate for these unmanned aircraft, which means we deemed them airworthy for restricted operations.

• Our first commercial approval was in 2013 for Conoco-Phillips to use the InSitu Scan Eagle for marine mammal and ice surveys.
• And last summer we approved our first commercial use of an unmanned aircraft over land. British Petroleum began using the Puma AE to survey its pipelines, roads, and equipment at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, which is the largest oilfield in the United States.

More recently, we have provided exemptions for applications to operate small unmanned aircraft in the continental United States.

• We have granted almost 70 exemptions for tasks such as shooting video for movies, real estate photography, railroad inspections, insurance disaster claims and agriculture. We are increasing our efforts to authorize more commercial uses, and are also working to streamline this approval process.
• And last week, we issued an experimental airworthiness certificate to Amazon Logistics for an aircraft design they are working on for research and development and crew training.

Large UAS

With respect to large unmanned aircraft, different challenges remain as we look at the technology necessary to integrate those aircraft into our busier controlled airspace. There are operational and regulatory challenges that still must be met:

• Similar to the “see and avoid” obligation of pilots, how do we ensure adequate detect and avoid capabilities for unmanned aircraft?
• How do we mitigate risk and ensure recovery from a loss of link with the operator?
• What specific training programs and procedures will be necessary for pilots of large unmanned aircraft?

We have a large body of work ongoing with other government agencies and researchers to find solutions to these challenges. The FAA, NASA and industry are collaborating on research and have successfully demonstrated a proof of concept for an airborne detect and avoid system. This was a major milestone in the development of a collision avoidance system for unmanned aircraft.

We are also working with universities, states and airports across the country for research on unmanned aircraft. Last year, we opened six research test sites, in conjunction with approximately 150 members representing research institutes, private industry, and partners in the U.S., Canada, Norway and Iceland.

Harmonization

Like other jurisdictions, we are working to integrate these aircraft into our airspace in a way that maintains our level of safety and allows innovation to continue with this important new technology. And as we do that, it is important that we all work together to ensure that our efforts are harmonized.

The United States will continue to support ICAO and work together to create the safe integration of unmanned aircraft. As we all learn more about unmanned flight, we will be well served to share that knowledge and harmonize standards, as we have done for so long with manned aircraft.

The FAA is working with 25 other countries that are part of the Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems, which was founded in 2007. The United States co-chairs this organization, which is working toward a single set of technical, safety and operational requirements for the certification and safe integration of unmanned aircraft.

Also, the FAA is committed to ensuring that experts from several fields will support the new ICAO Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems Panel. This panel, which represents more than 30 member states and international organizations, will look at issues like airworthiness, operator certification, licensing of remote pilots and other operational issues. They will work through many of the same topics that we’re discussing at this symposium this week, and focus on creating standards and recommended practices for adoption by the ICAO Council in 2018.

This is the start of a years-long process for creating a worldwide framework for integration of unmanned aircraft. We support ICAO as the forum and process where we can achieve international harmonization.

ICAO Manual

Finally, I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate all who were involved with achieving a significant milestone in harmonization with the publication this month of ICAO’s Manual on Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems. A significant amount of work from many experts in many fields contributed to this manual. It includes input from operators, manufacturers, inspectors, pilots, accident investigators, air traffic representatives and many others.

The manual provides guidance on technical and operational issues applicable to the integration of UAS in non-segregated airspace and airports. This is an important achievement.

Conclusion

In closing, all of us are trying to harness the potential of this new technology. The applications are limitless, and our job is to ensure that innovation can happen, while at the same time, ensuring that we maintain a safe system. I look forward to hearing the ideas of my colleagues here today. I also look forward to working with all of you to create the kind of regulatory framework that will allow unmanned aircraft to reach their full potential and operate seamlessly around the world.

Thank you very much.

We’re listening to You

Thank you, Sarah [MacLeod]. I always look forward to meeting with ARSA for at least a couple of reasons. One, you do things that matter—even though the average passenger doesn’t even know you’re there. And two, you do things that make a real difference in the system—and trust me on this, every passenger reaps the benefits of the professionalism ARSA members display each and every day.

As you’re aware, the FAA is working hard at becoming more nimble, more responsive to our stakeholders as this industry evolves. The Administrator has put four top initiatives in place, and he’ll be talking more about this tomorrow. But there is one of those initiatives—risk-based-decision-making—that I’d like to drill into a bit today.

Any discussion of how we’re learning to adapt has got to involve risk-based decision-making. This approach allows us to put our resources in the places where we’ll get the biggest reduction in risk. You’ll hear the phrase risk-based decision making many, many times in the future. We want to make use of the safety data available, determine areas of greatest safety risk, and prioritize our safety efforts accordingly.

Through our Risk-Based Decision Making efforts, we’re putting measures in place to be able to share safety data among all the players. This includes people inside the different lines of business at the FAA, industry, and our international peers.

This will lead to a broader spectrum of available data and put us in the place to make smarter decisions, be more informed. The more you use it, the more you realize that using data is a good thing, a smart thing.

The bottom line here is that risk-based decision making portends to be a game changer. It will help change how we oversee carriers. Flight Standards will be able to do more delegation. Certificate holders will be able to take responsibility for safety management. This will be a new day for all of us.

Now, with that as a backdrop, let me drill down into the impact of risk-based decision-making on safety audits. I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the overabundance, the duplication of effort, that I’ve been seeing with audits.

There’s little disagreement that safety audits can be an important safety tool, but there’s also little disagreement that the pendulum has swung too far.

Carriers are utilizing more contract MRO facilities to take care of their maintenance needs. Traditionally, surveillance of MROs has been conducted by both part 121 and 145 FAA certificate management offices, resulting in multiple inspections at some MROs—almost weekly. Regrettably, we’re faced with a queue conducting the audits: regulatory agencies and air carriers, internal audits conducted by repair facilities within the United States and regulatory agencies and air carriers globally.

Let me bring it home with an example, and, unfortunately for some of you, this won’t be as hypothetical as you wish it were. Let’s say I own ACME repair station. I have an FAR 145 certificate. I do heavy maintenance for United, for Delta, for American, for JetBlue and for Southwest. I’m a busy guy who’s running a busy shop.

Here’s where things get really busy. The FAA FSDO that oversees my 145 certificate has a schedule for conducting audits of my facility to ensure I am compliant. No argument there. I want my operation to be flying right. But, in addition to this, the CMO for each of the airlines I listed before also comes in and does separate audits equally of their own. Equally rigorous. Equally comprehensive. In addition to the FAA audits, the MROs conduct a series of their own internal safety audits.

And now, here comes another layer. I also do work for foreign operators. And naturally, their CAAs also come in and do audits. Equally rigorous. Equally comprehensive. You can see where this is going. Everyone wants to follow the rules, and this is how they follow the rules. And keep in mind that virtually all of these audits look at the same things, consideration of the results of any other audits.

If you were ill, and you had a cardiologist, a general practitioner, a rheumatologist, a nephrologist and a podiatrist, and they all ordered the exact same blood test a few days apart, well, you get the idea.

That’s a compelling example, and still, I can’t emphasize enough that auditing is an essential method for assessing compliance with aviation safety standards. Audits are foundational when it comes to providing a level of confidence that regulations and processes are being adhered to.

Audits are a good, but you can have too much of a good thing. The number of audits that you’re being asked to handle is going up, with no risked-based data decision-making to support safety or efficiency. We can’t have that. Multiple audits are more than just redundant. At a time when we’re all trying to do more with less, redundant audits are an inefficient use of resources. There’s an argument going on, and I think it has merit about whether these redundant audits are productive, or if they even have the desired effect of enhancing safety through oversight.

That example illustrates the FAA’s move to a more risk-based approach to system safety. When fully implemented, the FAA will be able to make smarter, risk-based decisions to improve safety in the aviation system within the United States and internationally. My hope is that these redundant audits will be removed just like you get rid of excess branches from a tree. You see what you don’t need, what’s just getting in the way, and you cut it off.

We’re developing and harmonizing the process and procedures to conduct streamlined auditing of MROs nationally and globally. We continue to meet with ICAO and the aviation industry to jointly establish common regulatory acceptance of oversight standards between regulators for audits. This is improvement on a global scale.

I’d be remiss not to mention that we’re also focusing on a safety oversight model for MROs called Safety Assurance System—SAS. It’s evolved into a risk-based, data supported decision-making process. As such, we will focus on risk-based inspections supported by data, in lieu of random or calendar based inspections.

We continue to work with industry and trade associations like ARSA to streamline the process and enhance the oversight based on the supported data. The end-game here is to put an end to an auditing philosophy that is based on the principle that we do it this way because we’ve always done it this way. I think that’s how we got to the place we’re at.

In point of fact, the safety oversight model used by the FAA’s Flight Standards Service is evolving into a risk-based, data supported decision making process. You work on what’s important, which makes your work much more focused and much more efficient. Flight Standards now is focusing on risk-based inspections supported by data, in lieu of random or calendar based inspections. It’s like those stickers you get in your car that tell you to change your oil every three months. Everybody knows that the calendar isn’t the best measurement to use in situations like that.

So Flight Standards is putting an inspection concept in place that will result in a process of sharing inspection data and reducing the number of unnecessary or repetitive inspections. This will support risk-based decision making for part 145 repair stations and the aviation safety inspectors with oversight responsibility of MROs.

One thing is clear, and that is this isn’t going to happen on its own. In a nutshell, we need you. We need MRO participation in the sharing of audit data. And we have to define how to quantify cost savings the program concept will generate, and how best to gather the information required to document the savings. You will play a big role there.

Arguably, the most important move we can make with all of this information comes in the form of data sharing. The mantra here is that there can be no secrets in safety. Not disclosing safety information is just like hiding a “bridge out” sign. You might be saving someone else’s life just by disclosing an issue that’s popped up on your hangar floor.

We get a lot of input from ASAP, but much of it comes from the airlines. We have 46 airlines participating in ASIAS sharing their ASAP data, but only three MROs. I’d really like to know why. Maybe the airline techs see success from the pilot side, and the MRO technicians don’t always have the opportunity. But I firmly believe that there is a wealth of professionalism, experience and wisdom on the shop floors of ARSA members, and we need to tap into that. The best risk-based decisions are made with a full understanding of the risk. Without your data, we don’t have that.

I’ve covered a lot of ground, and raised a number of points. Steve Douglas, manager of AFS’s Aircraft Maintenance Division, will sit on the 9:30 Maintenance panel, and he will be speaking about this in much more detail. The takeaway for today is that we’ve heard what you’ve had to say about audits, and we’re doing something about it. We’re moving toward a risk-based decision-making model, but that model depends on data input. And we need your help on that. Given the professionalism for which this organization is known, I think the best is yet to come, and I’m confident that we’re going to make a big leap in safety when it does. Thank you.