The mess the FAA likes to avoid.

[Rookie120 0]

The Boyd Group is a aviation consulting firm in Colorado. Mike Boyd wrote an article on the FAA. I think he has a lot of great valid points and should be listened to just a little.

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FAA Reauthorization:
Everybody's Lost Sight Of The Objective

Rarely has there been an issue as hotly debated as that of how to fund the FAA.

Tempers are flaring. Hype is flowing. Politicians are being lobbied. Various aviation alphabet groups are working to structure their position on the matter - for, against, on the fence, or just trying to duck stray bullets.

The senior management of the FAA is darting in and out of industry meetings, implying that reauthorization is the new key to having their NextGen (a.k.a. YesterdayGen) program implemented, notwithstanding the fact that it's years late due to their own mismanagement - mismanagement that no reauthorization bill will do anything to correct.

The fight has become so intense, they've all forgotten what the goal was in the first place. All the fight is focused on is simply who gets the bill to pay for a bureaucracy that has proven itself beyond any doubt incapable of spending the money properly, and incapable of managing an ATC upgrade program. Neither the airline industry nor the GA segment is demanding full accountability for how the money will be spent. Demanding results is not in the discussion at all. It's just that neither side wants to pay more.

They're both in for a surprise.

The Airline Position: We're Carrying General Aviation. On one hand, we have the airline industry, which feels that it's bearing most of the cost of the ATC system, while general aviation gets a free ride.

Their point is that "a blip is a blip is a blip" on a radar screen that has to be managed by ATC, whether it's a 747 or the orthodontist pushing the limits of his weekend flying skills in a v-tailed Bonanza. To that end, they have a point. Their ads, however, which depict fat cats sipping champagne on G-Fives at the expense of airline passengers crammed into middle seats, are a bit over the top. GA is a lot more than just executives in $30-million biz-jets.

GA Position: We're Paying Our Share. Folks on the GA side contend, correctly, that the current system has engendered a vibrant general aviation industry that's unrivaled anywhere else in the world, and which has enormous economic impact at communities across the nation, as well as on the US economy as a whole.

To that end, they are correct. Avoiding what's happened in Europe - taxing GA out of the skies by imposing punitive fees - is a paramount objective. But this group has also decided to descend to on-the-fringe advertisements, accusing airlines of wanting yet another big federal bail-out, and discussing airline CEOs getting bonuses that rival the GDP of Bulgaria. It's not only cheap emotion-baiting, but it has no bearing on the issue at hand.

For both sides, sticking closer to the realities would be a better approach. But, as we outline below, joining forces would be the best path, because they aren't each other's enemies. The incompetence at the FAA is a mutual threat they need to counter, and soon.

Lost In The Heat of Battle: Results. Both sides are passionate. Unfortunately, they've both lost complete sight of the goal. Much to the FAA's delight, the whole debate has degenerated into the equivalent of arguing over who's going to pay the bar tab on the Titanic.

Regardless of who's paying, the ATC system is going down. Regardless of how the bill is split, the FAA will still get away with excuses as to why the ATC system is years late and millions over budget. That not a just a prediction. It's a description of the FAA's approach to ATC over the past 20 years.

Everybody's arguing over fees. Nobody, it seems, is too concerned with how the money will be spent. Nobody, it seems, is concerned about the fact that our ATC system today is a mess, and it's the mismanagement at the highest levels at the FAA that's responsible. Nobody, it seems, has had the guts to ask Marion Blakey why.

Both the airline industry and GA are living in a dream world, assuming that a) if they win, they'll pay less, or at least not more than they do today, b) the FAA will use the dough to fix the skies, and c) the senior management of the FAA has a new plan to accomplish that goal.

All three of those points are outright false, and both GA and the airline industry should stop deluding themselves - the one core problem is lack of accountability at the FAA, not funding.

Whoever Pays, The FAA Will Just Continue To Squander The Money. First, the FAA's hodge-podge upgrade program, now magically named "NexGen," is something that the FAA has proven itself incapable of implementing. They are, however, masters of the media sleight-of-hand, which never fails to succeed in diverting attention from reality. The FAA's PR stunts continue like a never-ending three ring circus, and nobody, it seems, wants to criticize the stumbling performances of clowns involved.

For the latest example, the FAA Administrator and her staff glittered into Oshkosh like a dancing-bear act to show off the great progress they've made. Then, carefully orchestrated, and with media cameras rolling merrily, she demonstrated the wonders of the "new" ADS-B system to the oohs and ahs of all in attendance. By 2014, she noted, ADS-B would be unclogging the skies of America.

That's seven years away. Left out of the show, and not mentioned by the FAA nor by any of the media in attendance, is the fact that the ADS-B project was originally to be in place by 2001.

Yup. Six years ago, and all we have to show for it today is some implementation in Alaska and, soon, over the Gulf of Mexico. Last year the estimate for full implementation was 2012. Now, it's 2014. Nothing like a moving target. And the FAA Administrator claims that their "NextGen" upgrade program, of which ADS-B is a part, is on track. And that track is going directly to nowhere.

What's amazing is that this silly burlesque from the FAA Administrator and her travelin' show took place at the Mecca-meeting of general aviation, and in front of the aviation segment that has the greatest fear of being gouged into zero-growth by some of the reauthorization proposals now in play. Yet nobody stood up and told her and the rest of her performing troupe that it was outrageous that ADS-B was a dozen years behind, and that any increase in fees must be accompanied by strict accountability in meeting deadlines and budgets. But at the official levels, GA is sitting like deer in an A-380's landing lights, just ready to get splattered into runway kill.

Then we have the airline industry, which is suffering at least an $8-$9 billion cost hit every year due to the failure of the FAA to properly upgrade and manage the ATC system. Their solution? Just make GA pay more, airlines pay less, and things will be fine. Sure, just as fine as it's been for the past decade of declining efficiency and increasing constriction in the skies.

Divide, Conquer. And Continue To Produce Non-Results. The senior management of the FAA has succeeded brilliantly in manipulating the situation. They've convinced the nation that they have a solution ready (they don't), and they have the public and the media swallowing the jive that delays, cancellations and constricted skies are all the fault of not having the money to pursue the necessary solutions (which is blatantly untrue.)

But most brilliantly, the FAA has succeeded in dividing its adversaries - getting the airline industry and general aviation at each other's throats like a couple of two-bit Iraqi warlords, instead of recognizing that the FAA is their common enemy. As of now, the public views the FAA as the good guys, when in reality, they're the ones most responsible for inflicting airline delays and cancellations on the US public.

Meanwhile, the airline industry is being hammered from all sides, taking the hit for delays, cancellations, and supposedly treating passengers like dirt on a consistent, planned basis. General aviation can't expect much sympathy, either. After all, the images of GA are rich folks flying or riding in their private jets, gumming up the oh-so-crowed skies and making the FAA's life harder.

Aviation Industry Solution: Cooperate, Consolidate, And Counter-Attack. While there needs to be some re-structuring of aviation fees, that process need not be one that torpedoes either the airline industry or GA. These two segments are co-victims of the FAA, and they need to sit down, sign an alliance aimed at making sure the skies of American do not degenerate into what's happened in Europe.

Most important to the alliance is standing up, and telling it like it is. Stop the pandering to the FAA. It is the mismanagement at the top of that organization - over the last two decades - that has gotten the nation's aviation system into this mess.

To imply that the current reauthorization debate is one critical to fixing ATC is dishonest - both sides know well what they're dealing with at the top of the FAA, and the current reauthorization debate has nothing to do with changing how the FAA has botched the ATC system. All it will do is continue what's in place today - the same system that "re-benchmarks" programs to mislead the public that they're on track. The same system that is not above mis-reporting errors. The same system that re-defines errors to make the system artificially look good. The same system that won't be one iota more efficient or accountable under the current reauthorization proposals.

Both GA and the airline industry must demand that reauthorization be tied to strict, enforceable goals and performance standards at the FAA. Both can either demand such goals, or they can continue to fight each other, while the FAA's mismanagement continues and gets rewarded.

One thing is certain. The aviation industry is at a crossroads. If they acquiesce to the current system - which is where they're headed now - they will both lose. GA will eventually get squeezed badly, and scheduled air service will, as we have forecast, continue to get "rationed." The decision is in the hands of the airline industry and GA organizations.

They can stand up, or they can continue to let patronage-appointees at the top of the FAA decide their fate and that of our air transportation system.

If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck!

[kallend 2,150]

Seems like an accurate assessment.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Rookie120 0]

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Seems like an accurate assessment.

I thought so to. I had been waiting to see what your response would be on that one. The are some things Mike Boyd says I dont agree with, or would not like to agree with but he is dead on in a lot of areas and this is one of them.

If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck!