Speech

International Aviation Training Symposium

Distinguished Ministers, Directors-General, dear colleagues, friends of aviation. A good morning to you all, and welcome to Oklahoma City.

On behalf of the Administrator, Marion Blakey, I want to thank our international visitors for traveling these many miles for one of the most important gatherings for aviation safety.

Events like this directly support the FAA’s efforts to help other nations’ aviation systems. I, for one, am proud of the fact that we provide technical assistance and training to more than 100 countries, of which I understand that almost 30 are represented here this week.

This is our fourth symposium now, but what makes this particular one so special is the support from our friends at the U.S. Air Traffic Control Association, ATCA. Larry [Fortier] and Cas [Castleberry], thanks for your partnership.

Last night I had the pleasure of meeting many of you at the reception. If you couldn’t make it, let me tell you what you missed.

There was talk of aviation, sure. But the one thing people couldn’t get enough of was that dramatic World Cup final. What a heart-stopper.

The question on everyone’s mind was, “Why did he do it?” 

And if you were among the millions of people like me who saw what happened, we may never really know what was said. But one thing’s for sure. The actions of one can have a dramatic effect on so many others.

That’s how it is with this symposium. Thanks to your actions, some productive regional partnerships have been forged since we first convened. Even more new relationships may develop over the course of the next few days. And that’s the whole point of why we’re here — to achieve great hallmarks in safety. And, as we all know, the cornerstone of safety is partnership.

We’re here because, without question, proper training is the key. And I’m pleased to say that here in the States, commercial aviation has reached a level of safety of which everyone can be proud.

We’ve achieved this great state of affairs principally through technological advances.

As the FAA moves to hire new controllers, continued improvements in technology have reduced the opportunity for human error. I’ll spare you the tedium of a litany of improvements, but I will cite a few just to make the case.

For starters, we now have the ability to simulate an en route center, terminal radar approach, and the tower cab, using high-fidelity systems. These training labs are really something.

They provide a flexibility that we quite frankly just didn’t have before. They give us various levels of complexity, instructional techniques, and the ability to diagnose training performance problems.

There’s a universal lab to train terminal or en route radar controllers with the flip of a switch, which minimizes space and equipment costs. We’ve also developed an efficient way to convert en route radar data so it can easily be replayed on a PC.

These simulation advancements are helping us shorten the time it takes to get controllers out of the classroom and into the towers and centers. Other efforts underway at this very moment are showing encouraging promise.

For example, we’re looking into the benefits of voice recognition and training times in the tower, the terminal, and en route environments.

For folks in the tower, three prototype simulators have been installed in three of our busiest areas — Ontario, Chicago, and Miami.

Simulators — they’ve completely changed the way we train. They provide a safe and realistic classroom and laboratory with hands-on experience with real-time problems.

At the FAA, we’re looking into installing more tower simulators around the country — an investment decision that’ll probably come sometime this fall.

We’ve been busy in another area — on-the-job training.

For the first time ever, we’ve got a national OJT database that allows us to track the progress of every prospective controller. It gives us an inside view into the different stages of training that, quite frankly, just wasn’t there before. Now it is.

In the past, when we wanted to check someone’s proficiency level — how far they’ve advanced — we’d have to call into the facility to find out. That takes time. Now it’s all on the Web. This translates into fewer training delays, fewer missed targets, and a better understanding of how many controllers we need.

The bottom line is the database tells us where we are in having the right number of controllers in the right place at the right time.

With all the advancements I’ve been talking about, you might get the impression that we’re constantly on the lookout for better training. And you know what? You would be absolutely right.

We’re proud of the high quality training that goes into our controller workforce. Our objective is to enhance everything that they’ve learned and make them better than they were yesterday, and better tomorrow than they are today.

To that end, I’m pleased to announce that the FAA has started a new performance-based initiative for controller training.       

Performance-based contracts will help us measure training as something tangible, rather than as a variable.

Under the old system, we’d pay — or rather, the taxpayer would pay — for a controller’s training as he worked his way up toward full certification.

So let me take this moment to encourage the vendors out there to attend Industry Day. It’s scheduled for tomorrow from 6 to 8 in the evening. Come on out and learn more about the program — maybe even meet your next business partner.

In a broader context, we’ve taken the valuable lessons that we have learned in our training efforts and created a comprehensive program to assist civil aviation authorities worldwide.

Many of you are recipients of the FAA’s assistance in training safety regulators, inspectors, and controllers in your countries.

Many of you have worked side by side with the FAA to develop aviation law — the first step in many cases for developing countries to create the type of economic opportunities that aviation can bring.

It’s this hard work, and sometimes long road, that has led countries like Cape Verde and Jamaica into achieving the International Aviation Safety Assessment Category 1 rating.

I look out at the people who are here under the auspices of the Safe Skies for Africa program and know of the tremendous effort that is made by the Department of Transportation to bring the new technologies and practices of the global aviation industry into the continent — technologies like GPS and, one day, ADS-B.

I look out and see our friends from Asia and am reminded of the work we are doing in training aviation executives in so many areas — ATM, flight standards, and airports. The list could go on and on.

And, it’s not just what the FAA has done. It’s through the combined private and public efforts that we see the results of increased knowledge and capabilities in the aviation environment.

Working together toward a common goal. That’s what it’s all about.

Let me wrap up with this.

To continue to be effective, we need to be doing what we’re doing right now — learning from each other, and listening.

This symposium gives us that opportunity. And for that, I want to thank the FAA Academy and ATCA for bringing all of us together.

Thank you.