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RESPONDED ON DECEMBER 2, 2009 8:45 PM 

Paul Rinaidi, President, National Air Traffic Controilers Association 

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association is represented on Secretary LaHood's 

Federal Advisory Committee by Executive Vice President Trish Gilbert. She participated 

in the Secretary's Nov. 12 forum, and believes it represented an important first step 

toward true industry-wide collaboration on the biggest issues facing the U.S. aviation 

industry. NATCA firmly believes that our best chance of success lies in bringing together 

diverse perspectives and expertise from every aspect of the aviation industry and 

working together to develop comprehensive solutions to our problems and plans for our 

future. 

It is with this in mind that we developed these recommendations for the advisory 

committee: 

1. Equipage -In order for the transition into NextGen to be successful, airlines and 

aircraft owners will need to equip their fleets with ADS-B and other new technology. 

How this equipage will take place remains an open question. The taskforceshouI3~' 

explore: 

Whether equipage should be compulsory. 

Who will be responsible for funding equipage and budgetary-fiffects of that decision. 

This funding should not come at the expense of other FAA budgets. NextGen is a longterm plan requiring long-term funding. HR 915, the FAA Reauthorization Bill that 

passed the House of Representatives, only provides funding through 2012. In contrast, 

SESAR, the European equivalent of NextGen, is funded 15 years into the future. The 

taskforce should make recommendations about funding needs and funding sources for 

NextGen in both the long and short term. 

Whether there will be other incentives for equipage (i.e. best-equipped, best-served 

policy). 

Logistical details for a best-equipped, best-served policy (i.e. procedures, displaying 

equipage information on ATC scopes). 
2. Runwa y — In order to effectively address existing problems with capacity and 

efficiency, the FAA's NextGen must include plans for runway construction as well as 

plans to maximize efficiency of the existing ground infrastructure. The taskforce should 

explore: 

Which airports would benefit from additional runway construction. 

The best configuration for the additional runways and taxiways. 

Procedural, technological and other changes that could maximize efficiency and 

capacity of existing and planned runway infrastructure. 

3. Workforce — The current and future aviation system depends as much on the 

human factors as the technological ones. Throughout the aviation industry, employers 

are finding it difficult to attract and retain qualified employees, from pilots and flight 

attendants to air traffic controllers and engineers. The taskforce should explore ways to: 

Attract qualified employees to the aviation professions. 

Retain experienced employees. 

Provide career development opportunities for the existing workforce. 

Meaningfully utilize the expertise within the workforce in research and development 

projects and beyond. 

Build trust between management and labor. 

Build and maintain a safety culture. 

Ensure that new technologies and procedures are developed with attention paid to 

human factors implications. New technology must support the work of aviation safety 

professionals. 

4. .Training - Because NextGen promises to bring significant changes both to the 

cockpit and to the control room, training must be an integral part of any NextGen Plan. 

The Taskforce must address: 

How to develop comprehensive NextGen training for both controllers and pilots (i.e. 

training on new procedures, equipment/displays, roles for controllers and pilots, 

separation standards, and blunder training). 

How to coordinate training between controllers and pilots so that each group has 

confidence in the others training and abilities. 
How to compensate for the current training burden on the air traffic control system 

due to the high percentage of new hires in the workforce and the need to train them to 

full certification. 

Training logistics (i.e. how to ensure uninterrupted service during training process) 

5. Collaboration, Accountability an d Oversight- The FAA is only now 

beginning to embarFonlTpathoT collaboration. This taskforce is a first step toward 

including industry, user and workforce stakeholders in the process of developing and 

implementing changes to the^viatlon system. This taskforce should develop: 

A program for continuing this collaboration, particularly with regard to the 

development and implementation of the FAA's NextGen projects, which would benefit 

significantly from the expertise of both workforce and industry liaisons. 

A system of oversight and accountability to ensure that the FAA follows the 

guidelines set by this taskforce and other stakeholder groups as appropriate (i.e. RTCA 

NextGen Taskforce report).