Special Report: AEA 2001

What's going on in the avionics industry? What are some of the challenges manufacturers, vendors, sales organizations and technicians are facing in 2001? The best place to get answers to these questions and more was the 2001 edition of the Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA) Trade Show and Convention, which was held in Dallas, Texas, on April 26-28. AVweb's Ann Devers was there and filed this report.

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Surviving In A Tough Economy

Most of the avionics technicians attending the Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA) Trade Show and Convention in Dallas, Texas, April 26-28, 2001, could make more money outside the aviation industry. Why, then, have they chosen avionics maintenance as a career? Most say that there has to be a love and passion for aviation first — then your future seems predestined. As an association, the AEA exists to help these dedicated individuals and companies succeed in a complicated and challenging environment.

Of course, a good avionics technician is a treasure. Most of the time, pilots don’t appreciate a good technician until they’ve experienced a problem, or been forced to use someone else. Perhaps if more pilots and aircraft owners took the time to acquaint themselves with their avionics technician as well as they may be with their A&P mechanic, there would be more educated purchases and fewer problems with choosing and installing the avionics customers really want and can use. That’s but one of the things that this year’s AEA convention was "all about."

An Association Clearly Focused On Its Members

Paula Derks, AEA’s president, opened the 2001 edition of the AEA convention by addressing the attendees and commended them for taking the time and making the effort to be in Dallas for the event. A record of over 1,400 attended this year’s convention, which also set a new record for exhibitors: 115. With that much interest and participation, it was perhaps inevitable that displays overflowed from the convention floor to occupy space in the adjacent hallways. AEA’s staff and member-company volunteers managed it all, plus the time- and resource-consuming task of arranging the workshops, educational sessions and technical seminars that filled the program.

Ms. Derks noted that the membership has grown to 1,100 company memberships and emphasized that with all their advances and changes, the organization’s philosophy that member service is paramount will remain the same. AEA’s expansion in 2000 included a major presence at various industry events to heighten the industry’s awareness of avionics technicians, their association and their issues. Such events included EAA’s AirVenture, the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association (AOPA) annual Fly-In and Trade Show, the National Business Aircraft Association (NBAA) convention, plus the Helicopter Association International (HAI) and Women in Aviation International (WAI) trade shows.

AEA conducted a seminar, "How To Talk Avionics To Your Avionics Shop," at the 2000 edition of EAA AirVenture, and at AOPA’s Fly-In in Frederick, Md. The seminars were moderated by volunteer members, including Gary Picou, of PS Engineering, who represented the manufacturer’s viewpoints; Al Ingle of Capital Avionics, representing the shop owner; Dr. Ian Fries, a writer for Aviation Consumer and private pilot who took on the role of the consumer/pilot; and Paul Novacek, a NASA contractor who spoke on human factors and effective communication between a technician and pilot. In conjunction with these seminars, AEA distributed a "Troubleshooting Guide For Pilots" to aid pilots with in-flight troubleshooting and reporting their squawks to technicians. Pilot feedback stated that both the seminar and guide were very needed and useful.

Domestic And International Regulatory Issues

For those who may not be familiar with AEA, here’s a quick primer on their member services:

  • In addition to "traditional" services, AEA is continually researching new and pending regulations, as well as answering members questions on a daily basis. AEA has been actively involved in the changed products rule initiatives, FAA’s recently announced field approval process improvement initiative, the plain language rule, FAA’s memo policy concerning altimeter testing and class ratings, and the proposed rulemaking issued by the U.S. Occupational and Health Administration on ergonomics. It was on this latter proposal that AEA’s involvement helped to successfully defeat this proposal, which would have been an economic disaster for avionics shops throughout the country.
  • Proud of its work with the FAA to streamline field approvals, AEA can offer members the approved data modification packages at reduced rates. Over 300 aircraft and helicopter DER packages are available.
  • AEA continues to assist Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to improve GPS approval policies. AEA is working with CASA in the hope that the agency will adopt the GPS navigation equipment installation and operational approval procedures, which would help streamline approvals of GPS in Australia by using U.S.-generated data that can be employed by other authorities with minor editing to their regulations.
  • In Canada, John Carr of Northern Airborne Technology will serve as AEA’s representative on the Harmonization of the Certification Process for Aeronautical Products and Parts Working Group. With assistance from Barry Aylward, AEA’s Regional Vice President, Canadian members should see some interesting reports from this working group.
  • AEA is always in attendance at the FAA/JAA Harmonization meetings in Europe. AEA’s Legislative Representative, Jason Dickstein, has established a dialogue with Claude Probst, Air Transport Directorate of the European Commission, with the goal of staying abreast of the latest relevant developments.

Convention Keynote Address, Robert Francis

Robert (Bob) Francis, immediate-past vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, was involved in a number of high-visibility accident investigations during his too-short tenure. These tragedies included the crashes of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island, New York, in July 1996 and ValuJet Flight 592 in the Florida Everglades in May 1996. Francis also chaired a number of safety board public hearings including one on Part 145 aviation maintenance practices and oversight. Currently Mr. Francis is executive vice president of Farragut International, a consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.

Based on his experience at the NTSB, Francis began his remarks by asking that each attendee get to know their NTSB representative. Consult with them on questions they may have before any involvement in an accident. He went further to say that there are too few accidents to give significant gains for safety issues. The most helpful data sources come from everyday operations, according to Francis. Similarly, he believe that the most serious problems in Part 121 operations are "differences of opinion."

The FAA, airlines, and pilot unions should communicate and find a way to set up tools to interpret the volumes of information coming from these daily operations. This information should be made available before and after any incident, according to Francis. By contrast, the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) reporting data, which doesn’t receive enough information due to individuals worried about prosecution, is not the answer. Acknowledging the FAA’s enforcement duty, Francis said he believed it appropriate to trade immunity from enforcement in exchange for the volumes of data that could be collected. In essence, Francis said that he believes it is better to know why an incident occurred and learn how to change procedures to prevent it the next time than it is to initiate an enforcement action and risk losing the information. According to Francis, operational data has great potential to tell the FAA and operators what to change in order to drive down the accident rate.

By contrast, the NTSB cannot comment on the FAA’s regulatory authority. The role of the NTSB is not as a critic of FAA regulation enforcement unless it is detrimental to safety. The operational data is important since the NTSB and the FAA never seem to have the same interpretation after an accident. With more data there would be more chance for a consensus.

When asked about video-recording devices in the cockpit, Francis commented that the Air Line Pilots Association was not in favor of cameras in the cockpit because of privacy concerns. With the improvements in flight data recorders, these devices may fill the gap highlighted by accidents such as EgyptAir 990. Issues of data storage and costs, which might be better spent somewhere else, has made improving FDRs a priority.

Mr. Francis concluded with, "On the whole, our airline system is enormously safe. To imply one system is better than another is absurd. However, with public scrutiny the bottom line comes back to the Part 121 operator to make the system safer."

And The New Kid On The Block Is…

As AEA Regulatory and Technical Affairs consultant Terry Pearsall leaves AEA to pursue adventures in the corporate world, Ric Peri comes on board to assume this position. With over 30 years of aircraft maintenance experience, Peri is experienced in a wide range of aviation technical issues, including aircraft maintenance, repair and alteration. His broad background includes experience in occupational health and safety plus environmental management issues affecting aviation businesses and the development and management of aviation logistics programs for aircraft maintenance, repair and alteration organizations. Peri comes to the AEA from the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) where he served as the manager of technical services representing the interests of NATA member companies on a wide range of aviation technical issues. Peri’s previous positions include adjunct faculty at the University of Southern California and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Technical Advisor to the Professional Aviation Maintenance Association (PAMA); and industrial systems manager for the United States Coast Guard Aviation Division. During an interview during AEA’s 2001 Convention, Ric gave AVweb his insights on a number of questions.


AVweb: What do you see as the makeup and personality of the Aircraft Electronics Association?

Peri: Sixty-six percent of the organization are small businesses with fewer than five employees. The organization was founded to represent those small aviation shops. [The AEA] has been able to retain that entrepreneurial spirit while it developed goods and services for its corporate membership.

AVweb: What are your goals for the membership?

Peri: AEA members are engaged in the aviation industry as individual companies and manufacturers. In order to represent these various endeavors you have to communicate and motivate members to be involved. AEA has a communications system that works to communicate the issues to its members. My job is to show how government works and assist members in directing their government in what they expect it to do for them.

AVweb: And how do you expect to accomplish this goal?

Peri: We have already begun. We essentially have over the last three weeks enhanced communications with regular updates, combining attributes of other organizations’ communications, matching that with electronic communications of this organization, and have created a better mouse trap. AEA produces the premium monthly avionics magazine, Avionics News, that has increased in size and scope to bring members more valuable avionics technologies information. We are using the magazine as a resource for the view from Washington, D.C., and to highlight the presentation of regulatory issues.

AEA is also engaged in a couple of projects to improve the consumers utilization of avionics equipment and outreach to improve relations between operators and maintenance facilities.

AVweb: What are the benefits of having a Washington, D.C., office and a headquarters office in Independence, Missouri?

Peri: The benefits of having an organization’s government affairs representative in Washington, D.C., gives the representative the ability to effectively intervene on behalf of the organization’s members and keep them updated on regulations and legislation. Having the headquarters in the Midwest gives an internal spirit that seems to get lost sometimes inside the beltway.


For more information…

New avionics and other products previewed at the 2001 AEA Convention and Trade Show are available online.

Also of interest is AEA’s Web site.

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