ATCA Bulletin #11 - 2015

Air Traffic Control Association

No. 11, 2015

www.atca.org

Young Aviation Professionals Take Center Stage

In This Issue: »» Fostering the Future of Aviation »» Member Spotlight: Cogent Technologies »» Google [X] Project Wing Fact Sheet »» Aviation History Corner »» And more

President’s Message

No. 11, 2015

By Peter F. Dumont, President & CEO, Air Traffic Control Association

Happy Holidrones!

1101 King Street, Suite 300 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone: 703-299-2430 Fax: 703-299-2437 info@atca.org www.atca.org

I

must confess that I stole that line. There is so much going on in our industry these days, as you heard at the recent 60th ATCA Annual, but it still seems to be all about drones. I even have one; I bought a DJI Phantom 3 Pro. I live in Alexandria, VA, so I cannot fly it there or anywhere closer than about 30 miles out. This is because of the Washington, DC Flight Restricted Zone (FRZ).

I recently spoke with some friends at the FAA and they saw some of my drone photos on my Facebook page and commented, “so now you are part of the problem.” Quite the opposite; I am the the type of drone user you want. I am the poster boy for drone use. I got the most recent aeronautical charts, I downloaded the Hover app, and I went to www.knowbeforeyoufly.org. I have no intention of making the front page of The Washington Post for doing something stupid, or worse, causing any harm.

Now, I have been in aviation since 1975. I know the airspace structure and I know the rules. Still, it was not easy to figure out where I could fly. I eventually joined the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) and a local R/C Helicopter club. I only fly at AMA fields right now.

As soon as I can, I will register my drone(s) under the new rules developed by the most recent task force.

So why am I writing about this?

Because if you were at the ATCA Annual you heard estimates are that one million drones will be sold this holiday season. I

Published for

President & CEO: Peter F. Dumont

Director, Communications: Marion Brophy Writer/Editor: Kristen Knott

Aerial selfie of Peter Dumont, ATCA President & CEO; taken with his new drone at an area Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) field.

would venture to guess that most users do not know any of the airspace rules or regulations. This concerns me but I am also encouraged. The FAA is starting to get very involved from a hobbyist point of view as well as from a commercial operator perspective. To date, they have issued more than 2,000 Section 333 Exemptions for commercial drone use.

ATCA has been very active with the FAA and a number of commercial entities like Google and government agencies like NASA who are well on their way to an air traffic management solution for both commercial and hobbyist drone use.

It will be interesting to see how we integrate all of these new platforms into the system. ATCA, as always, will be involved as we move forward. However, I encourage you to do your homework before purchasing and using drones this holiday season.

Formed in 1956 as a non-profit, professional membership association, ATCA represents the interests of all professionals in the air traffic control industry. Dedicated to the advancement of professionalism and technology of air traffic control, ATCA has grown to represent several thousand individuals and organizations managing and providing ATC services and equipment around the world.

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Upcoming Events January 12, 2016

Aviation Cyber Security Day Arlington, VA

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ATCA Bulletin | No. 11, 2015

March 8–10, 2016

World ATM Congress Recinto Ferial Juan Carlos Madrid, Spain

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the authors of the editorial articles contained in this publication are those of the respective authors and do not necessarily represent the opinion of ATCA. Printed in Canada.

Please recycle where facilities exist.

Cover photo: Ensuper/Shutterstock.com Stock photography provided by Shutterstock.com

TRAFFIC JAM AHEAD. PLAN ACCORDINGLY.

Transforming the air traffic management (ATM) system is essential for improving safety, efficiency and the environment around the globe.

Boeing is fully committed and uniquely qualified to help make ATM transformation a reality. It’s the right time and Boeing is the right partner.

ATCA’s Young Aviation Professionals Take Center Stage ATCA Engage: Tower Talks presentation provides the perfect forum at the 60th ATCA Annual and CMAC

By Kristen Knott, ATCA Writer and Editor

W

alking around the 60th ATCA Annual and CMAC’s Exhibit Hall floor, it quickly became apparent that the future of aviation has arrived. One place this was very clear was at ATCA Engage: Tower Talks on November 4 in the Aireon Fly-By Theater. The event put one of ATCA’s most popular committees, Young Aviation Professionals (YAP), front and center with short TED talkstyle presentations by some of the best and brightest young professionals in the industry.

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ATCA Bulletin | No. 11, 2015

Beyond technology, beyond NextGen, the future is here now and is embodied in the industry’s YAPs. Young professionals, or millennials, are now the largest generation in the U.S. workforce, a fact that is impossible to ignore. This begs the question…What’s driving them?

Simply put, YAPs want more out of life – more responsibility, more technology, more passion, more innovation, and yet more balance – and they’re eager to think outside the box to find it. They seek to take things a step further, just as generations

before them sought.

“I want to go beyond the standard Washington, DC question and ask, what do you really do? It’s rare that we take that time to really engage others,” said Scott Divensio of CGH Technologies in his presentation.

Of the event’s seven presentations, some tackled technology in the industry.

“We need to make smart systems today and systems engineers need to be open to those changes,” said Phil Yeung of Noblis who discussed challenges facing the National Airspace System (NAS). Antonio

Angela Hudson of NATCA is not only a YAP she is also an air traffic controller for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). She spoke about her love for her facility and her fellow controllers. “I love my career. I happen to think DCA is the greatest facility in the NAS,” said Hudson. “Our airspace houses the most important man in the U.S. We deal with priority [VIP] movements almost every day; it’s a little bit of a challenge.”

However, Hudson noted, about half of our controller workforce will be forced to retire

in the next few years.

One thing’s for sure: what unites YAPs, and everyone at ATCA, is a love of aviation.

“I’ve been in love with aviation and flying my whole life. One of the first and last things I see when I ride [metro’s] yellow line each morning and night is Reagan National Airport; it’s a wonderful and powerful reminder of how important all of our contributions are to this industry,” said Hillary Reynolds of CGH Technologies.

“It’s up to us to be the future of this powerful and innovative industry.”

ATCA Bulletin | No. 11, 2015

Images by ATCA

Correas of Skymantics spoke about his company’s role in the emergence of cloudbased systems and the threat they bring to some in air traffic management (ATM).

A sense of community was another common theme in the presentations. “When we come together as a community, we’re equals. It’s nice to take a step back; it’s excellent for fostering innovation and gives you a sense of what’s out there in communications,” said Michelle Delauer of Evans Incorporated, who leads a communications community of practice for the FAA.

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Registration Opens October 2015

Make the future of ATM your business.

BROADEN YOUR

HORIZONS

WorldATMCongress.org

Fostering the Future of Aviation at the 60th ATCA Annual Reaching out to the “selfie generation”

By Vicky Uhland for ATCA Today

Rocio Frej Vitalle reacts to audience Q & A druing the Fostering the Future of Aviation panel on Nov. 3

T

he Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 24 percent of the U.S. workforce is under the age of 30.

But a new Partnership for Public Service survey found that age group only comprises 6.5 percent of the federal workforce.

During the Tuesday morning session “Fostering the Future of Aviation,” a group of industry experts discussed how to correct that issue and prevent the brain drain in the aviation and aerospace industry.

“We’re having a problem as an industry in attracting the best and brightest,” said panel moderator Katie Kondub, senior program analyst at Noblis. The problem is multifaceted, panelists agreed.

First of all, the aviation and aeronautics field needs an image overhaul, said Ariel Scheirer, senior financial analyst with Ascent Consulting and chair of ATCA’s Young Aviation Professionals committee.

“The industry is not building practical tools to reach out to millennials,” she said. “Millennials are the selfie generation, a generation focused on imagery. But most of the stock images of aviation are pilots— typically fighter pilots,” she said.

Kyrandgel Rios of NATCA noted

that “the aviation industry has done a great job of making pilots rock stars, and now we need to do that for people like engineers, who are the masterminds of aviation.”

Other panelists pointed out that the image overhaul needs to focus on educating young people that there are other careers in the industry besides piloting and air traffic control.

There’s a whole automation system that’s “clearly becoming the backbone” of aviation and aeronautics, Scheirer said.

“How do you articulate that and demonstrate that to future generations?”

One idea is to engage STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) teachers and students who traditionally don’t focus on the aircraft industry.

Mike Greco, manager of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Air Transportation System Evaluation Branch, detailed the success of the Pathways internship program at the William J. Hughes Technical Center in New Jersey. Students majoring in STEM careers can intern in a variety of NextGen technologies not traditionally associated with the aviation industry. “We’ve got 180,000-190,000 square

feet of laboratories where they can get hands-on experience,” Greco said.

NASA has a similar internship program, said George Finelli, aeronautics director at NASA’s Langley Research Center.

Internships also help address another hiring issue: losing STEM majors to Silicon Valley companies that offer higherpaying, more flexible work.

It’s hard for the government to attract people who can be hired to a $250,000 programming job in their 20s, Finelli said.

The government hiring process is also not as nimble as the private sector’s, so the best talent can get multiple job offers while waiting for approval of an FAA or NASA job.

But on the positive side, Finelli said Pathways interns can get experiences they can’t get anywhere else. That includes being involved in research in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). “Giving people the opportunity to put their hands on things and fly them is invaluable,” he said.

At the end of the day, attracting millennials has a lot to do with nontraditional incentives, Rios said. “To quote Justin Timberlake, we’ve got to bring sexy back. Private industry does that through empowering people with the innovation process.”

Added Rocio Frej Vitalle, systems engineer at CSSI: “It’s more than pay. It’s more about being part of the change, being part of the engagement. We need to feel like we are part of the industry, part of moving NextGen move to the next level.”

ATCA Bulletin | No. 11, 2015

nito/Shutterstock.com

“The industry is not building practical tools to reach out to millennials.”

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Member Spotlight

Cogent Technologies

We are building a core team of recognized experts in their fields, with hands-on experience in research, develop-

ment, test, evaluation, operations, and support of the National Airspace System and other large scale, technically complex Aerospace and Defense systems – both domestically and internationally. If we can be of service to your organization, please contact us at info@CogentTechnologiesFHE.com. Visit us at www.CogentTechnologiesFHE.com to find out more and to download our latest white paper on a new approach to systems engineering that we call “Mission Engineering™.”

QUALITY SERVICE FOR OVER 35 YEARS Photo courtesy of FAA

JMA Solutions provides quality personnel who deliver Engineering, Financial, Air Traffic, Program Management, and Training Development & Delivery services to our government clients. JMA’s commitment to excellence has earned the organization a considerable range of customer praise, industry recognition, and success.

Founded in 1978, Midwest ATC supports a diverse customer base, including the US Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA International Office, the US Department of Defense, the North Atlantic Treaty organization, and the Canadian Department of Defense. With our solid reputation and team of highly qualified aviation experts, Midwest ATC is dedicated to providing clients with an outstanding level of service and commitment to safety at a reasonable price.

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600 Maryland Ave. SW, Suite 400 E, Washington, D.C. 20024 Phone: 202-465-8205 • www.jma-solutions.com YouTube / The JMASolutions

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Twitter/JMA_Solutions

ATCA Bulletin | No. 11, 2015

LinkedIn / jma-solutions

1.913.782.7082 www.atctower.com

Dragon Images/Shutterstock.com

C

ogent Technologies is pleased to rejoin ATCA and offer our services in Business Development, Systems Engineering, and Program Management to the Aerospace and Defense marketplace. Our principals, Bob and Cindy Peak, have a combined 82 years of experience to bring to bear, many of them being spent working for and with the FAA and the many contractors who are members of the Air Traffic Control Association. Our areas of expertise include: • Strategic Planning and Market Analysis • Business Development • Capture/Proposal Management/Color Teams • Systems Engineering • Program Management • Organizational Development • Human Resource Management • Cyber Security • Statistical Analysis • Decision Analysis • Independent Audits/Assessments • Research & Development

Google [X] Project Wing Fact Sheet sUAS Airspace Solution Project GoogleWing [X] was one of the many organizations that ATCA

was proud to feature in its programming at its 60th Annual

Data shows growing numbers of useful applications for sUAS. • •

Numerous market applications for sUAS, including industrial, media, and emergency response.

Millions of drones sold since 2014 alone—This dwarfs the total number of manned aircraft.

Today, no system currently exists to govern the layer of airspace under 500 feet and integrate aircraft and sUAS. Let’s change that.

• •

Every organization hoping to fly low altitude small UAVs is going to have to work collaboratively on systems manage this airspace.

It has to be easy for every operator to choose safety over speed and convenience.

Safe, scalable solutions are available.

• •

Current proposals (like geofencing) are a start, and we can build a full, scalable solution by drawing inspiration from the successful operation of manned aircraft systems.

We can create a solution for safe low-altitude sUAS operations using existing low cost, scalable communication and information technologies.

IDENTITY & AUTHENTICATION

A safe sUAS airspace solution relies on 3 core tenets: Identity & Authentication: Encourage good citizenship by leveraging modern identity and authentication technology.

AIRSPACE SERVICES

COOPERATION

Airspace Services: Providing important information to sUAS operations, such as where and when it is safe to fly.

Cooperation: Developing low-cost technical solutions to allow all aircraft to coordinate and communicate safely.

Create a low-altitude sUAS Airspace System using a parallel approach:

12 MONTHS

IDENTITY SYSTEM

Near Term: Deploy a sUAS identity system to encourage responsible, good-citizen operation.

Long Term: Define and create a full system for sUAS airspace with industry and government partners, including Airspace Services and Cooperative technology solutions.

© 2015, Google Inc. Confidential

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ATCA Bulletin | No. 11, 2015

FACA/RTCA APPROACH

This Month in Aviation History On November 28-29, 1929…

Richard E. Byrd, with pilot Bernt Balchen and two other crew members, became the first to fly over the South Pole, operating a Ford Trimotor from the U.S. base at Little America. Earlier, on May 9, 1926, Byrd and Floyd Bennett had made a flight credited as the first over the North Pole, in a Fokker F.VII.

Dmytro Pylypenko / Shutterstock.com

– FAA Historical Chronology

ATCA Bulletin | No. 11, 2015

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The ATCA Bulletin (ISSN 0402-1977) is published monthly by the Air Traffic Control Association.

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Staff Marion Brophy, Director, Communications Ken Carlisle, Director, Meetings and Expositions Ashley Haskins, Office Manager Kristen Knott, Writer and Editor Christine Oster, Chief Financial Officer Paul Planzer, Manager, ATC Programs Rugger Smith, International Accounts Sandra Strickland, Events and Exhibits Coordinator Ashley Swearingen, Press and Marketing Manager Tim Wagner, Membership Manager Theresa Clair, Associate Director, Meetings and Expositions

1101 King Street Suite 300 Alexandria, VA  22314

Officers and Board of Directors Chairman, Neil Planzer Chairman-Elect, Charles Keegan President & CEO, Peter F. Dumont Treasurer, Rachel Jackson East Area Director, Susan Chodakewitz Pacific Area, Asia, Australia Director, Peter Fiegehen South Central Area Director, William Cotton Northeast Area Director, Mike Ball Southeast Area Director, Jack McAuley North Central Area Director, Bill Ellis West Area Director and Secretary, Chip Meserole Canada, Caribbean, Central and South America, Mexico Area Director, Rudy Kellar Europe, Africa, Middle East Area Director, Jonathan Astill Director at Large, Rick Day Director at Large, Vinny Capezzuto Director at Large, Michael Headley