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Speech

AVS Leadership Conference

Good afternoon. Thanks for inviting me, Nick [Sabatini]. I always appreciate the opportunity to speak with the people on the front lines, especially the ones who are responsible for the tremendous safety record we’ve been able to establish. 24 months without a fatality. That’s one we’re going to be telling our grandkids about.

So, even with the record on one hand, we need to be absolutely frank about other events. The agency as a whole is taking quite a few hits. Parts of AVS have been at or near the center of some of that. Our other large organizations are in there too, case in point DFW TRACON.

What really stings about most of this is that some of the biggest wounds have been self-inflicted. It’s one thing to make a mistake and then be called upon to account for it. We understand that, and as aviation professionals, we expect it. But to knowingly sidestep the rules — well, I think we’d all agree that’s unacceptable at any level.

But I’m here to remind you of what I think should be obvious. Keep your chins up. Don’t let a few bad actors ruin your day. Your colleagues throughout the agency believe in you, and they stand by the work you do. I know I do. As a line pilot, I saw your work up close and personal. Sometimes, more up close and personal than I’d have preferred, but that’s only because I am the greatest pilot in the world, and I’ve never made a mistake.

Kidding aside, the work of AVS is first rate. I think it. I believe it. And I see it every day. The reports I get from the industry about your professionalism confirm what I’m saying. The situation with the whistle blowers needed to be addressed, and it is. But not for one second did I think that it was representative of this entire organization. Not in the least.

As I hope you’ve discussed a bit over the course of this conference, we’re in the process of issuing a statement of the FAA’s commitment to safety. Let me say up front that our mission hasn’t changed, and it’s not going to. Safety first. This new policy statement reemphasizes the FAA’s commitment to safety. Over the years, policy statements sometimes collect dust, but we can’t afford to let that happen to this one. Our safety record, and your role in it, is without question. But I want to draw your attention to the statement’s emphasis on your roles in communicating with employees to keep the paramount focus on safety. It’s something we need to make a priority. We have hurt ourselves by not communicating in an effective and timely manner with those who have raised safety concerns. Communication needs to start at the top all the way to the bottom. It needs to start at the bottom all the way to the top. This is about service to America. Safety is what they expect, and it’s what we’re going to deliver.

I came across an article the other day about something that’s near and dear to my heart. Fast cars. I went from the Academy into F-14s, and then I went to Top Gun. I bought a Corvette along the way — getting that before I got married was a better idea than I realized.

Back to the article. It was about street-legal racing. There’s a guy in Portland, Oregon, who has a car that’s dusting the Corvettes, the Carreras, the Mustangs. This guy, John Wayland, has a souped-up car that goes from zero to 60 in about 3 seconds.

This guy’s car is so fast that other racers look for a way to avoid being next to him in the queue. They know they can’t win.

Wayland calls this car the “White Zombie.” It’s a 72 Datsun. If you remember those little pieces of … history, they are a boxy economy sedan. What’s more, Wayland’s doesn’t burn a drop of gas.

It’s an electric car with two forklift motors and thirty-six 12-volt storage batteries crammed into the back seat and trunk. I think a turbo Carrera goes for about 110 grand, give or take. Wayland bought his Datsun used for $585. He beats just about everything off the line because those electric motors go from a dead stop to top speed a whole lot faster than any gas powered V-8 you can find.

But what really struck me in all this is the way the other racers viewed him. They avoided going head to head. When that didn’t work, they said he was unsafe. Then they tried to get the regulations for racing changed just to exclude the White Zombie. Then they said it just wasn’t fair. You know, watching a Viper scream out of the chute while a barely audible $585 Datsun blows by. Now you know what it takes to make a Viper cry.

But at its most basic level, what the gas-powered racers were doing was trying to keep the paradigm from shifting. They wanted it the old way — where they were comfortable and were the winners.

We’re at virtually the same spot. You know, at Oshkosh, I was looking at the electric powered airplanes. But as I’ve said before, aviation is always evolving. This is an industry that mutates and changes form every few years. The changes we’re in the middle of, I think few of us would have expected. Where was light sport 10 years ago? Did any of us think that VLJs would be the hot ticket? None of us expected 9/11, and the move to mid-size aircraft surprised a lot of us. If you pick up the Wall Street Journal, you’ll find more ads for time-share aircraft than you will time-share vacation homes. And then there’s the price of gas.

What I’m getting at is the need for us as an agency — and AVS in particular — to always keep ahead of the bow wave of change. Be ready to anticipate, and accept, new paradigms. Engines are changing. The use of composites is reshaping how hulls are built. The price of gas is changing what we fly and how we fly it.

I’ll leave it at this. This is the organization that gets the first look at the White Zombies of aviation. I’m thanking you for the professionalism you’ve shown up to this point, and I’m asking you to be vigilant as the next big thing comes along.

I know the events of the spring have made it difficult for you, and we do have some changes to make to ensure we improve our oversight. But our basic approach of SMS principles, data sharing, partnership, collaboration and voluntary disclosures is solid and we need to keep that balance regardless.

We’re going to have another hearing next month, and we’ve got some OSC issues to address, as does the ATO.

No doubt some of you will feel like you are being second-guessed, and some of you may have people who’ve never moved away from the approaches we’d been taking.

That said, we need to get things back in balance while also addressing the changes we need to make to remain a world-class organization.

That requires leadership, and I am depending on you to provide it. You are part of a great legacy of 50 years of safety. Two years accident-free. Fewer GA accidents than ever. Nearly seven years since the last large transport fatal accident.

Those are figures to be proud of, and I thank you for your role. But we all know the system is not perfect. So let’s not be complacent. Let’s strive for better results. Let’s be ready for industry changes. Let’s continue our work together by providing the leadership to keep this agency moving forward. Thank you.