NATA News

As the Director for Operations at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), General Harding managed a $1 billion intelligence collection program and almost 5,000 employees, including more than 200 attachés stationed abroad.   After serving for 33 years in the U.S. Army before retiring, General Harding formed his own security consultancy, Harding Security Associates, and continued to work with the DIA on a contractual basis. 

Recently, both the United States Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held nomination hearings for General Harding.  Questions arose during the hearings about the contract General Harding’s company secured to interrogate prisoners in Iraq for a few months in 2004, and that his firm collected more federal money than it was entitled to for providing interrogators in Iraq. General Harding told the Committee that none of the interrogators he provided to the Army engaged in harsh interrogation techniques and none had been cited for wrongdoing or prisoner abuse. He said that he repaid the federal government $1.8 million after the contract was terminated because he had provided severance packages to his interrogators, who were suddenly out of a job, although his company had no written policy to do so. 

The Obama Administration has not announced its third choice.  Due to the back-to-back failed nominations, the post is likely to remain unfilled for months to come.

Thanks to the support of NATA members in Florida, as well as the Florida Aviation Trades Association (FATA), Florida State Senator Carey Baker (R-Eustis) withdrew his amendment to Florida Senate Bill 1500 (SB 1500). The amendment sought to control the price of fuel at fixed base operators if they are the sole contractor at a public-use airport. In addition, it would have prohibited storage, landing or departure fees on aircraft located on public-use airport property for less than 90 minutes. However, the bill, SB 1500, was passed last week by the Florida Senate Transportation Committee. This bill gives commercial airlines a tax break if they buy their fuel in Tallahassee, an incentive to get more commercial flights to the capital city. State Senator Mike Bennett (R-Bradenton) sponsored the bill that is expected to save commercial airlines approximately $500,000 a year if they take advantage of it.

Last month, NATA provided its formal comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the proposed Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELG) for de-ice activities. The proposed ELG imposes a national standard for the control of wastewater runoff from de-icing activities at most primary commercial service airports. The proposed rules mandate a percentage of used de-ice fluid that must be collected and treated at affected airports.

In its comments, the association noted, "The issuance of (these standards) require airports to comply with specific facility, equipment and procedural mandates imposed by the EPA, an agency unfamiliar with and ill prepared to deal with the demanding nature of airport operations."

NATA's full comments to the EPA are available to members here.

Early discussions focused on identifying five topics that the working group would address. Those topics were:

• Universal Identification
• GA Incident Response
• TSA Policy on Security Grants
• Inter-agency communication
• Temporary Flight Restriction issuance and access

The full working group then broke into five task groups to address the individual topics. NATA staff participated in the universal identification task group, which looked at procedures and processes that would reduce the current level of redundancy in security vetting and badging and facilitate access for individual. After two days of discussions, the task groups reported their progress back to the full group. The task groups and the full working group will continue their work over the next few months before providing their recommendations to the full ASAC and the TSA.

"We hit one out of the park with this year's event. Las Vegas was once again the most valuable destination for ground service safety information, training skills, products and business intelligence," said NATA Director of Safety & Training Amy Koranda. "We saw an overall jump in attendance over the past two years' figures and many participants said that they would like to return in the future."

To help its members get into the Spring Training spirit, NATA added a few fun challenges this year. Shawn Mack of Banyan Air Service won the "NATA Training Times Customer Service Idea Sweepstakes" in January that gave him a free seminar registration at Spring Training as the prize. Early this week, the Line Service Supervisor Training Seminar attendees participated in a "Wii Batting Team Challenge" with the blue team emerging as the victors, click here to visit NATA's Facebook page for a list of the winning team members. Finally, on Wednesday, Bill Odierno of Avitat Boca Raton was dubbed the MVP of the "Spring Training Week Wii Batting Challenge" and winner of the Wii system with 9 home runs totaling 5,009 feet.

"I am particularly pleased with the enthusiastic participation of the Spring Training Week attendees. We have found a winning combination of event location, seminars and overall timing, but we plan to adjust next year's schedule to give attendees even more flexibility to register for multiple seminars," added Koranda.

Last month NATA announced the hiring of Dennis van de Laar as its new manager, regulatory affairs.

Van de Laar comes to NATA from Southern Illinois Airport Authority where he served as a graduate assistant while completing his master's degree in public administration at Southern Illinois University. During his work as a graduate assistant, van de Laar participated in a host of training and regulatory compliance projects with the airport authority. Prior to his work with the airport authority, van de Laar served as a graduate assistant with the Southern Illinois University Department of Aviation Management and Flight where, under an FAA grant, he co-authored a Safety Management System manual.

As NATA's manager, regulatory affairs, van de Laar will be responsible for regulatory items affecting aircraft maintenance as well as assisting in issues involving airport and FBO operations and environmental compliance. Van de Laar will also serve as the NATA staff liaison to the Aircraft Maintenance and Systems Technology Committee.

"We are very pleased to have Dennis join the NATA government affairs team," said NATA Vice President of Government and Industry Affairs Eric R. Byer. "With his experience and education, we are excited about the impact Dennis will have on advancing NATA's regulatory agenda."

Van de Laar graduated from Southern Illinois University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in Aviation Management and completed his Masters in Public Administration in 2009.

George Larson of Aviation Week recently posted an article with a fervent reminder by NATA President James K. Coyne of why opportunities such as the Day on the Hill are so very vital to the industry.

"National Air Transportation Association President James Coyne held a town meeting Tuesday at Odyssey Aviation, a newly minted FBO at Charleston International Airport in South Carolina (and formerly a Million Air facility). Coyne reminded the audience of aviation professionals and airport authority staff who work at or near the airport that the NATA traces its founding to a period during the early years of World War II when the Roosevelt administration actually threatened to turn all airports over to the U.S. Army and shutter private business. While that never happened, it almost did, and Coyne suggested that only continuous vigilance on the part of aviation business can fend off government initiatives that could harm the industry." Click here to read more of "NATA's Coyne Catalogs Challenges In Charleston."

NATA's annual Day on the Hill event provides an invaluable opportunity for NATA members to participate in and have an effect on the legislative process in our country. Individual meetings with your representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate provide a great avenue to discuss the most important issues facing the general aviation industry today, especially those impacting your business, both nationally and locally. Meetings with your Members of Congress and their staff offer a valuable opportunity to establish and maintain a productive relationship with your elected officials in Washington as well as to gather their support on local issues affecting your community. This year, the association has modified its Day on the Hill event to include its Annual Meeting, election of officers and annual Industry Excellence Awards Dinner. Click here to register now!

In a recent blog, NATA Vice President of Government and Industry Affairs Eric R. Byer discusses how the new health care reform bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives last month will impact America's small aviation businesses. Click here to view this week's blog. To view all of Byer's Inside Washington blogs, click here.

NATA's Safety 1st program together with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have launched NATA's Safety 1st Flight Crew Briefing for Newark Liberty International Airport, a customized online training tool that provides pilots and other flight crew members flying into and out of Newark Liberty International Airport free access to critical safety information about the airport, including its location, layout, operations, regulations, and safety and security procedures.

With incredible clarity and effectiveness due to its extensive use of interactive graphics, NATA's Safety 1st Flight Crew Briefing presents pilots with views of runway incursion hot spots, scenarios representing common pilot errors, security procedures, and other information that is critical to safe aircraft operations.

The Newark Liberty International Airport training tool is available to any interested person at no charge by visiting: www.airportflightcrewbriefing.com/newark.

NATA launched the Safety 1st Flight Crew Briefing for Teterboro Airport in June 2008. Since the training tool's inception, more than 250,000 "hits" have been recorded. "We are thrilled at the industry's acceptance, use and promotion of this effective educational and safety tool," remarked NATA President James K. Coyne. "The Newark Liberty International Airport module is a critical addition to this aviation safety initiative because the airport sees such varied types of aircraft traffic. We are also confident the Newark briefing will make great strides to prove the airport's commitment to safety to flight crews and members of the surrounding community as the Teterboro module has done."

Several aircraft operators are requiring their flight crewmembers to complete the Teterboro Airport course as part of their pilot training.

"We have noticed a widespread interest in NATA's Safety 1st Flight Crew Briefings as word of their importance has traveled to industry conferences and events. Crewmembers and pilots of all experience are discovering that they have much to gain through the Teterboro briefing and they've asked when more will be offered. We are pleased to make the Newark training available at this time and report that the FAA and other airport operators are interested in facilitating the development of additional modules," Coyne said. Airports or aircraft operators interested in developing a similar module should contact NATA Vice President of Government and Industry Affairs Eric R. Byer at ebyer@nata.aero.

View NATA's Safety 1st Flight Crew Briefings by clicking here.

To view NATA's Press Release, please click here.

To find out more about ORBAA, please click here.

NATA President James K. Coyne will join with NBAA President Ed Bolen and GAMA President Pete Bunce at an upcoming Centennial Airport Business Association (CABA) event in April to promote CABA's "Aviation Saves" program. The luncheon, to be held at X Jet FBO in Englewood, CO, on April 28, will provide CABA members the opportunity to hear from the three association presidents about the latest issues affecting general aviation. This event is sponsored by CABA, which was formed in 1994 to support the growing need for advocacy from aviation businesses in and around Centennial Airport.

More information on CABA and the upcoming "Aviation Saves" event is available from the CABA Web site, www.mycaba.org.