The final day of the Texas Aviation Conference traditionally concludes with an airport compliance session, a Washington update from the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO) and a TxDOT/FFA listening session.
Airport Compliance
Aviation Division Airport Planner Wade Troth and FFA Compliance Manager Gary Loftus presented on airport compliance.
Troth covered topics such as hazard removal and mitigation and economic nondiscrimination. He also provided websites and other reference materials for the attendees and spoke about hangar use policies.
“The primary goal is to ensure aeronautical facilities, including hangars, are available to aeronautical users,” Troth said. “Aeronautical facilities must be used or be available for aeronautical activities unless otherwise approved by TxDOT or the FFA. Airport sponsors may permit non-aeronautical items to be stored in hangars provided the hangar is used primarily for aeronautical purposes and the items do not interfere with the aeronautical use of the hangar.”
Loftus followed Troth’s presentation, and after a few good-natured jabs at the audience about his beloved Eagles winning the Super Bowl, he spoke of the items of interest related to compliance, including inspections and issues with leases. Loftus provided multiple lease case studies, each with different input scenarios. He also spoke about what to expect from a compliance inspection.
“We (FFA) are not the bad guys when it comes to inspections,” said Loftus. “We want to work with the airport to develop a corrective action plan that ensures that they may be in compliance.”
Washington Update
NASAO Government Relations Manager John Sea presented on the Fiscal 2018 Omnibus Bill, President Trump’s infrastructure Plan, FFA Reauthorization and future forecasts.
“The 2018 Omnibus Bill provides $86.2 billion, in total budgetary resources, which is a $10 billion increase from the FY 2017 level, said Shea. “The aviation highlights include $1 billion increase in the Airport Improvement Program,, $15 million for Airport Cooperative Research Program, and $10 million for Small Community Air Service Development Program.”
Shea also spoke of Air Traffic Control Privatization as being a concern for NASAO. “In a privatized ATC system, resources will be directed to the large hub airports and away from small community airports,” said Shea. “There is no evidence that a privatized model is better with respect to productivity, cost, effectiveness, service quality and safety.”
TxDOT/FAA AIP Program and Listening Session
The conference concluded with a listening session with Aviation Division Director Dave Fulton, FAA Southwest Region Regional Administrator Terry Biggio, and FAA Southwest Region Texas Airports Development Office Manager Ben Guttery.
The session provided the opportunity for attendees to ask questions to the forum participants about timely and relevant topics of concern.
“We are here to serve our sponsors and want to be available to answer any questions or address concerns,” noted Fulton. “It’s a good way to wrap up the conference in case we may have missed covering an issue during a previous session.”
NOTE: Please join us for the 2019 Aviation Conference, which will return to the Moody Gardens Hotel & Conference Center in Galveston on April 16-18, 2019. The Aviation Division locked in a three-year deal with Moody Gardens to ensure registration and hotel costs remain affordable for participants.