EAA AirVenture Remarks

Good morning, everyone. It's great to be back in Oshkosh. Looking forward to a discussion in a little while, a few minutes, about general aviation with our FAA Leadership Team.

One of my favorite parts is starting off with some awards that are richly deserved by people who have contributed to the general aviation sector in really, really incredible ways. So, let's get started.

I'd like to start with the 2024 National Certified Flight Instructor of the Year Award. That award goes to Adam Magee.

Adam is an aviation professional who teaches more than 100 students each year through the Balloon Training Academy and runs the Lighter Than Air webinars. His aviation experience includes flight instruction, checkride prep, and private and commercial ground school instruction. Adam holds multiple FAA Basic, Advanced, and Master Wings and is a member of the National Association of Flight Instructions Board of Directors. Congratulations, Adam. Adam, please come up to accept your award.

The next award is the 2024 National Aviation Technician of the Year. The awardee is Marty King. Marty, come on out. Great to see you.

Marty, too, has an incredibly impressive record. He overhauled his first engine at the age of 15 and built his first airplane in high school. He established a GA service restoration and fabric shop, King Arrow Inc., in 1991. He started an intern in training programs at several colleges and universities and developed a STEM program to teach 13- to 18-year-olds how to build a plane. Then they flew the planes that they built, which is truly remarkable. As I said, these were middle school and high schoolers and is generally hard to get their attention. So, well done. Well done. Marty. Thank you for all that you're doing to encourage the next generation of aviation technicians and congratulations on earning the 2024 National Aviation Technician of the Year Award.

The next award goes to the 2024 FAA Safety Team Representative of the Year. We'd like to recognize Cary Grant. Carey is the 2024 FAASTeam Representative of the year. He has been an FAA Safety Team Representative since 2009. He's a Flight Instructor and Assistant Professor at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. He's also a retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and was a flight instructor for numerous military aircraft, including T-37s, C-141 Starlifter Transport, and Gulfstream G-IIIs. Following his military career, Cary was a civilian pilot and flew Boeing and Airbus aircraft as a captain with United Airlines. After that, Carry finally discovered general aviation. He also volunteers with Young Eagles, Navajo Airlift, and Sky Kids. Congratulations, Carry. Please accept your award as FAA Safety Team Representative of the Year.

Well, first, let me say it again. It's really a privilege to be here for my second year at Oshkosh, and my second year having the opportunity to address the group in this forum. FAA Administrator Whittaker had hoped to be here, but had some unexpected issues arise and needs to be home to take care of those.

So, it is a privilege and honor for me to be with our leadership to talk to you about some of the issues that we know you're most concerned about and interested in within general aviation, and then we'll have a dialogue with our FAA leadership.

I know that many of you came from great distances to be here this week. As you continue to fly this summer to see family and friends, make sure you're ready to fly. You know the conditions at the airport that you're leaving from; the conditions in the airspace that you're flying to; and the conditions at the airport at which you will arrive.

We urge you to take advantage of the many user-friendly tools available for GA pilots from the FAA. Like our popular From the Flight Deck video series on YouTube. These short videos use aircraft mounted cameras to capture runway and taxiway footage, as well as provide diagrams and visual graphics to highlight hotspots in the system. We currently have over 100 videos in the series and we cover airports in 40 different states. We have a lot of more a lot more videos in development. We do urge you to go there, take a look at the content, and please make suggestions about additional content that we should add.

To further help with the pre-flight planning. We also publish Pilot Handbooks for airports nationwide. Currently, there are more than 70 handbooks available for airports across the National Airspace, and they include airport specific cautions, airspace details, and information local controllers want pilots to know.

We continue to post arrival alert notices. These were developed to address wrong surface events at airports with a history of misalignment risk, where an aircraft could line up or land on the incorrect runway, taxiway, or airport. We've done a lot over the years to manage runway safety and we continue to step up those efforts in partnership and collaboration with you.

When it comes to safety, we know that the general aviation sector has a strong commitment to continuing safety improvement and safety culture. It starts long before the pilot gets in the aircraft and starts the engine, and it doesn't stop until they leave the airfield. At the FAA, we work tirelessly to ensure the skies are safe for everyone - from the commercial airlines soaring at high altitudes to the single engine Cessna taking off from your local airport to drones and eventually Advanced Air Mobility aircraft. We know safety doesn't happen in a vacuum.

The administrator is fond of saying, and I think many of you say this too, that safety is a team sport and it requires collaboration. That's where all of us, all EAA members, and the general aviation pilots come into play.

We continue to make steady and consistent progress in reducing the GA fatality accident rate year over year. Our current goal is zero point eight nine general aviation fatalities per 100,000 flight hours by 2028. We're currently experiencing zero point six one accidents per 100,000 flight hours. But our collective goal should be to reduce that number over time to zero. With the safety technologies, the education, and the mentorship that we see across the general aviation community - we believe that's possible.

So, you have a critical role to play, as do we, along with our FAA webinars; educational activities and outreach efforts by our FAA Safety Team (or what we call "FAASTeams"); and other FAA programs. We partner very closely with industry to take deep dives into safety data to prevent problems before they occur.

We continue to use GA flight data in the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing Database, or what we call and many of you know as ASIAS, to improve decision making and make better, more informed decisions - sooner.

We currently have more than 2.3 million hours of flight data for light GA, voluntarily submitted into ASIAS. This includes data from operators, flight schools, and even the Civil Air Patrol. We've identified several risk areas using this data, including risks related to too low of an airspeed on climb out and geographic areas where the risk of a mid air collision is increased.

In the General Aviation Joint Safety Committee, or GAJSC, government and industry teams are also constantly on the lookout for new ways to prevent GA accidents. Today the committee has deployed nearly 50 risk mitigations, officially called safety enhancements, designed to address issues with a high safety risk - maintaining control during unusual altitudes, spatial disorientation, and engine failures to name just a few.

We are also continuing to work with you all on reducing pilot deviations in GA aviation. The Runway Safety Team examined specific safety issues at airports throughout the NAS. A product of this team includes the From the Flight Deck videos that I mentioned a few moments ago.

The "FAASTeam" Program has been offering operational presentations online and in person to increase awareness and insight. FAASTeam program managers participate in 300 plus Runway Safety Action Team meetings each year. Since March 2020, they have hosted nearly 200 seminars and 100 webinars on runway safety and avoiding pilot deviations. This is part of all of our ongoing efforts to make sure that GA pilots and the GA Community have the resources they need to better understand conditions at the airports and in the airspace as they fly their planes.

Pilots, your dedication - I should say your continued dedication to safety - is paramount. Please continue to hone your skills. Stay up to date on regulations and advocate for a strong General Aviation Community. We at the FAA value your feedback and your insights.

I want to talk next about the future of the NAS. It's a really exciting time.

As I was talking to Jack Pelton earlier today and EAA leadership - I said one of the things that I really, really love about AirVenture is the fact that you can see the past, present, and the future come together with all aspects of general aviation. It's always an exciting time to be in aviation, but it's never more exciting than it is today and it will be tomorrow.

The GA community has been an indispensable partner to the FAA in safely integrating new technologies into the NAS. We like to say that you are the incubators for the innovators. Innovation, almost across the spectrum, is happening in GA first and it's demonstrated in all the booths and everywhere you visit today. As you know, whether it's technology or its pilot competencies, it starts with the General Aviation Community. Then you see gradual uptake into commercial aviation and more sophisticated and complex operations, and that's a testament to your creativity and ingenuity. So, everything from electronic flight bags, automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (which we know is ATSB), composition construction technology. These are all examples of technologies that began in general aviation.

With the arrival of Advanced Air Mobility, or AAM, it's including air taxis, drones and smaller aircraft that can carry more people. This partnership will continue to be as critical as ever.

We are working now to enable the safe integration of AAM into the airspace through operating rules, aircraft certification, and pilot certifications. We expect to have some really exciting announcements over the next six months to one year, so stay tuned for that.

Last year when we were here, Acting Administrator Trottenberg had the pleasure of announcing our proposed rule on modernization of special air airworthiness certification rule, or what we all know is MOSAIC. That will significantly enhance the 2004 sport pilot, light sport aircraft rule and expand the scope of light sport aircraft certification and operations, including electric propulsion.

What that is going to do is provide more flexibility while ensuring a safe level of safety across the system. We received more than 3,500 comments on the proposal. The response was overwhelmingly positive both here at Oshkosh and through the comments we received. We're currently working through those comments to put together the final rule that we hope and expect to release by May of 2025. So, we will have a lot to talk about next year as well.

Earlier this year, the FAA granted two Part 135 Operators Certificates and issued the final airworthiness criteria for two AAM aircraft. These are important steps towards receiving certification and pilot training authorization. There are currently more than 100 companies expressing their intent to build or operate AAM. We can expect many of them to be established to grow to maturity within the incubator of general aviation.

The FAA is preparing for the safe integration of AAM operations by reviewing our general aviation guidance documents to ensure the AAM community will have the safety information and support that it needs. We are maintaining regular contact with AAM operators, industry associations, and local authorities to understand the issues and the challenges ahead and have solutions in place. Having aircraft type certification efforts run concurrently with operational certification activities minimizes the time between aircraft achieving FAA certification and entering commercial service.

The FAA also participates in the AAM interagency working group led by the Department of Transportation. This group is composed of more than 15 federal agencies with equities on these issues. Our objective is to develop and deliver a national AAM strategy that's cohesive, makes sense, and is scalable so that it works for the public at large.

Our foundational goal is for the introduction of next generation aircraft into our cities, suburbs, underserved and rural communities to occur safely, and ensure that the NAS and the next generation aircraft remain accessible to everyone regardless of where they may live.

While we champion innovation, the FAA must also regulate aviation. After all, safety remains our North Star as it does for you. We're obligated to ensure new entrants maintain the same high level of safety as traditional aircraft, appropriate to the risks they pose, which is why safety will ultimately drive the process and timeline for certification and integration of all emerging aircraft.

We will go through the same safety-first, data driven, process-oriented, methodical approach that has served us so well in the past. Our obligation as the aviation safety regulator is to ensure the introduction of this new generation of aircraft maintains a high level of safety today and into the future.

So, this week at AirVenture, please come visit us. If you haven't been to the FAA Safety Center yet, we're just a little way down the road. We have representatives from across our agency addressing runway safety, medical issues, airport issues. We have lawyers there. We have folks from our weather programs. A whole array of people that are there and looking forward to taking your questions.

We have an open-door policy, and we want to hear from you. Not just today but throughout the year. If you haven't already, please establish a good working relationship with your local FAA Field Office and your Runway Safety Teams at your home airports.

Check out those From the Flight Deck videos on our YouTube channel and our Pilot Handbooks on our website. Stay connected with us for the latest aviation safety news on social media. Besides YouTube, you can find us on X, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Together, we'll keep this the skies friendly, accessible, and most importantly safe. We can nurture the next generation of pilots and engineers and push the boundaries of what's possible in aviation.

I have to tell you this is this is my third day at EAA this year. I had the chance to be all over the area, seeing home built, Light Sport aircraft, the Warbirds, and Kid Venture. I had the incredible opportunity to meet one of the Tuskegee Airmen, James Harvey, yesterday. He just celebrated his one hundred and first birthday. I even went into the hypoxia chamber this morning, just to get an experience of the range of issues that are important to the General Aviation Community. It's incredible what you're doing. It's incredible to see the passion for aviation. Please continue doing it.

Together, the sky is no longer the limit. On that, let me bring in our FAA Leadership Team and we'll do a little fireside chat with Rob and then take questions from the audience. Thank you so much for your time.

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