FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION 

REDAC Subcommittee on Aircraft Safety (SAS) 

2020 Spring Meeting Minutes 

February 25-26, 2020 

The 2020 Spring REDAC SAS meeting was held on February 25-26, 2020 at the RTCA Office, 1150 18th 

Street NW, Suite 910, Washington, DC 20036. This document summarizes discussions and activities that 

occurred during the meeting. The meeting resulted in two findings and recommendations (F&Rs), which 

have been included as part of the official REDAC Chair’s submission to the FAA. All presentation 

materials are available and can be downloaded through the FAA REDAC website – 

https://faa.gov/go/redac . 

Day 1 – February 25, 2020 

Introduction/Opening 

The SAS Designated Federal Official (DFO) Mike Paglione, Technical Center Director Shelley Yak, and 

Subcommittee Chair Terry McVenes jointly kicked off the meeting with brief opening remarks, which 

were followed by introduction of SAS members and all attendees. Paglione kicked off the meeting with a 

few slides on plans for the meeting overall, purpose, and meeting agenda. Ms. Yak, during opening 

remarks, encouraged SAS to explore potential improvements within SAS to make the subcommittee 

more effective in general, and explore means for SAS to contribute in maintaining landscapes through 

systematic inputs and updates in particular. Dr. Eric Neiderman of the FAA commented that the 

subcommittee’s F&Rs need to be actionable by the FAA meaning they should be within FAA’s capability 

to address. 

SAS Chair Report on Full REDAC Meeting 

Mr. McVenes, SAS Chair, reported on the October 10, 2019 full REDAC meeting. He mentioned that the 

focus of the meeting was on the FAA’s R&D landscapes initiative, aviation industry-based research 

drivers within the landscape document, UAS integration strategy, UAS and remote ID mandate out for 

public comment, and research gaps – ground and airborne collision risk of UAS with traditional aircraft. 

Mr. McVenes also presented a summary of other subcommittee reports including F&Rs from last 

meeting and then highlighted the other subcommittee F&Rs. Attendees discussed the SAS F&R on 

emerging issues and the potential means for allocating more resources for emerging issues. The FAA will 

take necessary steps to provide resources for emerging issues. 

R&D Budget Update 

Elizabeth Delarosby, Acting Manager of Researching, Engineering and Development (RE&D) Financial 

Management, presented the FAA FY20 RE&D budget. The FAA FY20 RE&D request was $120M, while the 

enacted budget is at $191M. Delarosby presented highlights of the enacted FY20 budget. She also 

mentioned that the FY21 RE&D request is $120M, and it was delivered to Congress in February 2020. 

The established target level of RE&D funding for FY22 is $170M, which will be delivered to the Office of 

the Secretary of Transportation in June 2020. The established target levels for FY23, FY24, FY25, and 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FY26 are $170M. Attendees discussed the robustness of the FAA prioritization process in the context of 

the fixed level annual budget for next several years. 

Ms. Delarosby mentioned that the current FAA Authorization signed by the President on Oct 5, 2018 

extends the FAA authorization thru 2023. 

Aviation Safety RE&D Program 

Mark Orr, FAA Office of Aviation Safety (AVS) RE&D Manager, presented the FAA’s reengineered RE&D 

prioritization process for AVS research portfolio and status of FY22 budget process, which was initiated 

to address the need for a more data driven and risk based prioritization process as well as to ensure 

alignment of AVS research portfolio with the FAA, DOT, and Congressional priorities. Mr. Orr and 

attendees reviewed the draft FY22 research portfolio. Mr. Orr mentioned that the next step is to obtain 

AVS-1 approval for the draft FY22 research portfolio in April 2020. 

Discussion on F&Rs from SAS August 2019 Meeting 

Dr. Neiderman led the discussion of two F&Rs, i.e., funding issues with new and emerging safety risks 

(F&R #1) and incorporating landscapes into R&D process (F&R #2). 

Regarding F&R #1, he mentioned that the FAA is exploring the creation of a new budget line item (BLI) to 

address funding issues for emerging technologies. Meanwhile, the FAA will continue to utilize built-in 

flexibility in the AVS RE&D process including the aviation safety unbudgeted (i.e. “pop-up”) process and 

the flexibility in appropriation process. This includes reprogramming of funds up to 10% among BLIs as 

specified in the Congressional language to provide funding for out-of-cycle emerging issues in the year 

of execution. A progress update will be provided in the next SAS meeting. 

Regarding F&R #2, Dr. Neiderman mentioned that at this time, the plan is to perform a review of the 

proposed FY22 FAA portfolio against the initial landscapes at the FAA level to identify any gaps or issues, 

to gain experience using the landscapes, to mature the landscapes. The FAA will then evaluate 

incorporation of the landscapes into the RE&D process. 

Wes Ryan, Unmanned and Pilotless Aircraft Technology Lead, FAA’s Policy and Innovation Division, 

addressed F&R #3, i.e., complex digital systems in UAS RE&D portfolio. Mr. Ryan’s presentation focused 

on the improvement of safety through safe use of technology and automation as well as efficient and 

safe design and certification of complex systems. During the presentation, Mr. Ryan and attendees 

discussed leveraging NASA, DOD, and FAA efforts; verification and validation of complex systems (DO178 versus other processes); full authority fly-by-wire systems; importance of standards and 

collaboration with industry; and resilient autonomy project. Finally, Mr. Ryan reported on his 

organization’s participation in new university program on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide practical 

input from a government perspective. 

Update on UAS Integration Research (Current & Planned) 

Paul Strande, FAA’s AUS-300 Division, provided an update on UAS integration research. While Mr. Ryan 

presented research plan version 2, he mentioned that a version 3 is being developed. His presentation 

focused on applied research. Mr. Strande discussed a functional framework for UAS integration into the 

NAS, operational capabilities as well as their research alignment, and collaboration and partnerships. He 

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then briefly presented a list of research projects for UAS integration into the NAS. Mr. Ryan and 

attendees discussed many aspects of the research plan during the presentation. Information on the 

FAA’s UAS research activities can be found at: http://www.assureuas.org/. 

Seat Pitch Study update 

Stacey Zinke of FAA’s The Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI) provided an update on the FAA’s seat 

pitch study. Her presentation included three areas: anthropometry of current population, body types 

able to utilize seats, and effect of seat spacing/dimensions on egress. She described the experiment 

design and provided a status report. The data collection has been completed and the data analysis is 

ongoing. A report including study findings and results is expected in fourth quarter of FY20. 

Briefing on the Automation Strategy 

Wes Ryan of FAA’s Policy and Innovation Division provided a briefing on automation strategy for UAS. 

His presentation included a discussion of past success and future challenges, expected automation levels 

for UAS and Urban Air Mobility (UAM), the challenge between what is technically envisioned and what is 

allowed by regulation, highlights of research work with NASA and other entities, and a discussion on 

challenges, opportunities, and next steps. 

Cyber Safety CAT Status Update 

Isidore Venetos of the FAA’s Aviation Research Division provided a briefing on the Cyber Safety 

Commercial Aviation Team (Cyber Safety CAT). He presented the Cyber Safety CAT’s vision, mission, 

goal, and outcomes. Mr. Venetos described aviation cyber safety in the context of the aviation 

ecosystem, cyber safety overlay and integration, Cyber Safety Data Management Model, preliminary 

partners/structures, and timeline for the Cyber Safety CAT initiative. 

Closeout Discussion on Day 1 

Mike Paglione and Terry McVenes led the close-out discussion for the first day of the meeting. 

Attendees discussed the role of SAS in providing recurring input to the landscape construct and its 

emerging technologies and drivers as well as what improvements, if any, should be considered in the 

REDAC SAS structure. 

Day 2 – February 26, 2020 

Review of Homework from Day 1 

Attendees discussed improvements to the REDAC SAS including the presentation of a list priority 

research topics by SAS members and deep dive research presentations by the FAA. The FAA DFO, Mike 

Paglione, and SAS Chair, Mr. McVenes will meet and continue discussion on the need for new SAS 

members. 

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Review of FY2022 Research Portfolio 

Mr. Paglione and Mr. Orr presented the FY22 research portfolio and provided answer to attendees’ 

questions. This session lasted for about two and half hours. 

Fatigue Risk Management 

Dr. Katrina Avers of CAMI presented an update on the FAA’s fatigue risk management working group. 

The working group covers the safety and efficiency concerns in the areas of air traffic controllers, pilots, 

flight attendants, technical operations, cargo loading, and maintenance. The purpose of the group is to: 

• Formalize communication across types of operations with consideration for stakeholder 

concerns and priorities for aviation fatigue research, 

• Provide data for prioritization of fatigue research recommendations and capitalize on 

overlapping opportunities, in-house resources, pooling of resources, and industry collaboration; 

and 

• Meet annually with all stakeholders to re-assess priorities and research gaps relating to fatigue. 

Dr. Avers discussed several research projects including: 

Study of performance decrements and genetic biomarkers during sleep loss or mistimed sleep; fatigue 

mitigation in flight operations: Part 117.7 FRMS for exceedances; study sleep loss, workload, and fatigue 

associated with short haul, multisegment flight operations; study impact of circadian rhythm adaptation 

following 8-9 hours’ time zone transitions on aircrew sleep, behavioral performance, and recovery 

requirements; comparison of current air traffic controller sleep times with times recorded during a 

fatigue baseline study in 2012; gathering air traffic controller self-assessed workload and fatigue data 

and align with air traffic operational data, errors and incidents; and examining fatigue risk across 

aviation maintenance industry and develop effective fatigue risk management strategies that can be 

integrated into safety management systems. 

SAS F&R Discussions and Feedback/Closing Remarks 

Mr. Paglione and Mr. McVenes jointly led the F&R discussion as well as the closing remarks. SAS 

members agreed to work internally on the F&Rs and submit them to Paglione in a few weeks. Mr. 

McVenes briefly described the RTCA Global Symposium in Crystal City, VA in June 16-17, 2020. He 

mentioned that 200-250 industry people (see URL https://www.rtca.org/content/symposium-overview). 

Attendees decided to hold SAS summer/fall meeting at the William J. Hughes Technical Center on 

August 11-12 and the winter/spring meeting on February 23-24. The location is TBD. 

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Aircraft Safety Subcommittee

February 25, 2020 – Day 1

Name Affiliation

Wes Ryan FAA

Eric Neiderman FAA

Mark S. Orr FAA

David Polland Boeing

Stacey Zinke-McKee FAA

Rany Azzi FAA

Rich Golden FAA

Elizabeth Delarosby FAA

Bryan Lesko ALPA

Chris Heck ALPA

Don Kauffman Honeywell

Dave Atwood FAA

Hossein Eghbali FAA

Terry McVenes RTCA

Steve Ramdeen FAA

Paul Tan FAA

John Crowley Army Aeromed Lab

Chinita Roundtree Coleman FAA

Ferne Friedmanberg FAA

Paul Strande FAA

William Oehlschlager FAA

Jim Lignugaris FAA

Shelley Yak FAA (telecon)

Frank Wondowlowski HQ (telecon)

George Fernandez FAA (telecon)

Barbara Holder FAA (telecon)

Steve Summer FAA (telcon)

Akbar Sultan NASA (telecon)

James Mangie Delta (telcon)

Robert Maguire Unlisted (telcon)

Mike Paglione FAA (telcon)
Aircraft Safety Subcommittee

February 26, 2020 – Day 2

Name Affiliation

David Polland Boeing

Dres Zellweger FAA/retired

Eric Neiderman FAA

Mark S. Orr FAA

Bryan Lesko ALPA

Chris Heck ALPA

Don Kauffman Honeywell

Dave Atwood FAA

Hossein Eghbali FAA

Terry Mcvenes RTCA

Chinita Roundtree-Coleman FAA

Wes Ryan FAA

Rany Azzi FAA

Paul Tan FAA

Rich Golden FAA

Katrina Avers FAA-CAMI

Stacey Zinke-Mckee FAA-CAMI

John Crowley Army

Mike Paglione FAA

Alainna Randazzo FAA (telcon)

Cliff Johnson FAA (telecon)

O. Ahmet Unlisted (telecon)

Jim Riley Unlisted (telecon)

Frank Wondowlowski FAA (telecon)
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix II 

2020 Spring REDAC SAS Meeting 

Agenda 

February 25 – 26, 2020 

Dress code: Business Casual 

Location: RTCA Office, 1150 18th Street NW, Suite 910, Washington, DC 20036 

GoToMeeting: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/842742365 

You can also dial in using your phone. 

(For supported devices, tap a one-touch number below to join instantly.) 

United States: +1 (571) 317-3122 

- One-touch: tel:+15713173122,,842742365# 

Access Code: 842-742-365 

New to GoToMeeting? Get the app now and be ready when your first meeting starts: 

https://global.gotomeeting.com/install/842742365 

Site Info: See Page 3 for Parking/transportation and lodging information 

February 25 (Tuesday) 

Time Topic Presenter(s) 

0730 - 0800 Arrival RTCA Office 

0800 - 0815 Opening Remarks Shelley Yak 

0815 - 0830 Opening remarks/Purpose of the Meeting Mike Paglione 

0830 - 0900 SAS Chair Opening & Report on REDAC Meeting Terry McVenes 

0900 - 0930 R&D Landscapes initiative Steve Summer 

0930 - 1000 FAA Budget Update Beth Delarosby 

1000 - 1015 Comfort Break 

1015 - 1045 Update on FY2022 research portfolio/revised process Mark Orr 

1045 - 1115 Update on funding of new & emerging safety risks 

(FY19 F&R #1) 

Eric Neiderman 

1115 - 1145 Update on incorporating Landscapes into R&D process 

(FY19 F&R #2) – progress briefing on gap analysis Eric Neiderman/Mark Orr 

1145 - 1300 Lunch 

1300 - 1330 Update on UAS Integration Research (Current & Planned) Paul Strande, AUS-300/Nick Lento, 

ANG-C2 

1330 - 1400 Complex digital systems in UAS R&D portfolio (FY19 F&R #3) Wes Ryan, AIR 

1400 - 1415 Comfort Break 

1415 - 1500 Seat Pitch Study update Stacey Zinke 

1500 - 1545 Briefing on the Automation Strategy Wes Ryan 

1545 – 1630 Cyber Safety CAT Status Update Isidore Venetos 

1630 – 1700 First Day Review – Homework Assignments 

1800 - Group 

Dinner 

Location: TBD 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dress code: Business Casual 

Location: RTCA Office, 1150 18th Street NW, Suite 910, Washington, DC 20036 

GoToMeeting: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/842742365 

You can also dial in using your phone. 

(For supported devices, tap a one-touch number below to join instantly.) 

United States: +1 (571) 317-3122 

- One-touch: tel:+15713173122,,842742365# 

Access Code: 842-742-365 

New to GoToMeeting? Get the app now and be ready when your first meeting starts: 

https://global.gotomeeting.com/install/842742365 

Site Info: See Page 3 for Parking/transportation and lodging information 

February 26 (Wednesday) 

Time Topic Presenter(s) 

0730 - 0800 Arrival RTCA Office 

0800 - 0830 Review of homework from first day All 

0830 - 0945 

FY2022 Aircraft Safety Assurance Portfolio (Fire Research 

and Safety, Propulsion and Fuel Systems, Advanced 

Materials/Structural Safety, Continued Airworthiness – 

Systems, Continued Airworthiness – Structures, Aircraft 

Catastrophic Failure Prevention Research, and Terminal 

Area Safety) 

Mark Orr/Mike Paglione 

0945 - 1000 

FY2022 Digital Systems & Technologies Portfolio (Digital 

System Safety and Aircraft Systems Information Security 

Protection) 

Mark Orr/Mike Paglione 

1000 - 1015 Comfort Break 

1015 - 1025 FY2022 Environment & Weather Impact Mitigation Portfolio 

(Aircraft Icing) Mark Orr/Mike Paglione 

1025 - 1040 

FY2022 Human Performance & Aeromedical Factors 

Portfolio (Flight Deck/Maintenance/System Integration 

Human Factors and Aeromedical Research) 

Mark Orr/Mike Paglione 

1040 - 1130 

FY2022 Aviation Performance & Planning Portfolio (System 

Safety Management and Unmanned Aircraft Systems 

Research) 

Mark Orr/Mike Paglione 

1130 - 1200 Fatigue Management Working Group briefing Katrina Avers 

1200 - 1230 SAS F&R discussions and feedback/Closing remarks Terry McVenes/Mike Paglione/Mark Orr 

12300 Adjourn 

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- under 1150 18th Street NW 

Elevatnr from Parking Garage to RTCA -

inside building. 

Meeting Site Info: Lodging, Transportation, & Parking 

Visitor Information 

RTCA is located at 1150 18th NW, Suite 910, Washington, DC 20036. 

Directions from Metro 

Nearest Metro Stations are Farragut West (Orange/Blue/Silver Line) or Farragut North (Red Line) 

Exit the Farragut West (Orange/Blue/Silver Lines) metro station onto 18th Street heading north (left). 

Continue on 18th Street until 1150 18th Street. If taking Red Line, exit at Farragut North onto L St. 

heading west (left). Continue on 18th Street until 1150 18th Street. 

Parking: 

Parking is available at 1150 18th Street, NW. 

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Area Lodging: 

AC Hotel Washington DC Downtown 

1112 19th St NW, 

Washington, DC 20036 

(202) 303-0190 

Beacon Hotel & Corporate Quarters 

1615 Rhode Island Ave NW, 

Washington, DC 20036 

(202) 296-2100 

Hampton Inn Washington 

1729 H St NW 

Washington, DC 20006 

(202) 296-1006 

Hyatt Place Washington DC/Georgetown/West End 

2121 M St NW 

Washington, DC 20037 

(202) 838-2222 

Kimpton Hotel Madera 

1310 New Hampshire Ave NW 

Washington, DC 20036 

(202) 296-7600 

Kimpton Topaz Hotel 

1733 N St NW 

Washington, DC 20036 

(202) 393-3000 

Washington Marriott Georgetown 

1221 22nd St NW 

Washington, DC 20037 

(202) 872-1500 

The Mayflower Hotel 

1127 Connecticut Ave NW 

Washington, DC 20036 

(202) 347-3000 

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Hotel RL Washington DC 

1823 L St NW 

Washington, DC 20036 

(202) 223-4320 

To make an individual reservation, please use the booking link provided with Corporate Code: RTCA, or 

call the hotel at (202) 223-4320. When making a reservation, please be sure to mention you are visiting 

RTCA. 

The St. Gregory Hotel Dupont Circle 

2033 M St NW 

Washington, DC 20036 

(202) 530-3600 

The Westin Georgetown 

2350 M St NW 

Washington, DC 20037 

(202) 429-0100 

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