GWBAA’s holiday event on December 4th, hosted by Landmark Aviation at its Dulles facility, was a big success.  Over 30 business aviation professionals attended the reception, which also included the annual membership meeting.  (GWBAA thanks Landmark for its hospitality, as well as Bombardier, FlightWorks, and FlightSafety International for providing door prizes.)  GWBAA President Paige Kroner provided a summary of the past year’s events, and also asked for members who might be  interested in assisting with next year’s projects. and/or joining  the board to let her know; she can be contacted at info@gwbaa.com.

On March 19, ARINC hosted a luncheon and tour for about 20 members of GWBAA and other guests at its facilities in Annapolis.  Mike Shearer provided the audience with an overview of the services provided by ARINC (which is this year marking its 80th year of providing aeronautical communications) and the specific services available for business aviation through ARINC Direct.  ARINC provided a tour of its control center and other behind-the-scenes operations after lunch.  GWBAA thanks ARINC for its hospitality!

On September 29, sixty participants made their way to GWBAA’s fifth annual golf tournament at the Herndon Centennial Golf Course.  Those that attended last year’s event no doubt remember the huge frost delay – to avoid the cold for this year’s golf tournament, our Board decided to move the date up a month.  But believe it or not the day was actually chilly (and the pro shop sold many sweatshirts that morning)! Thankfully, the cold didn’t delay our play or our fun We enjoyed a wonderful day of golfing, networking, door prizes, and the famous BBQ lunch.

GWBAA wants to sincerely thank those who made this year’s golf outing possible – especially our major sponsors Gulfstream, Bombardier, and Sharp Details.  Thank you to all our sponsors and volunteers for making this golf tournament a success!  GWBAA is again proud to contribute a portion of the golf tournament proceeds to the Aero Club Foundation of Washington.  The funds will be used to support aerospace education programs at public schools in the District of Columbia.

GWBAA held its Third Annual Safety Standdown on May 7 at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Training Center in Ashburn, VA.  The attendees included pilots, maintenance technicians and other representatives from corporate flight departments and aviation support businesses in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and from areas throughout the country.

Doug Carr, Vice President of Safety for the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), gave the opening remarks and was followed by Jim Burin, director of technical programs for the Flight Safety Foundation, who spoke about today’s aviation safety challenges.

“A safety culture is the single most important item for any aviation operation and the one item that you can’t buy,” said Burin.  “It must be supported by senior management.”

This year’s event included three breakout sessions.  Bob Hobbi, owner of ServiceElements, spoke about achieving superior levels of customer service for FBOs, charter operators and flight departments.  John Rahilly, principal of Rahilly Aviation Associates, gave a presentation on how to obtain the best price and highest quality service when having an aircraft serviced.  Additionally, the NTSB’s Dr. Paul Schuda gave attendees a tour of the reconstructed portion of the fuselage of TWA Flight 800 and explained how the accident aircraft was reconstructed.

Captain Alfred Haynes, of United Airlines Flight 232, was the keynote speaker.  In 1989 Haynes and his crew crash landed a crippled DC-10-10 in Sioux City, Iowa with no hydraulics.  Although there were 111 fatalities, there were also 184 survivors.  During his presentation, which included the video of the accident together with ATC recordings, Haynes credited Crew Resource Management (CRM) with limiting the number of fatalities and praised everyone involved in the accident: pilots, flight attendants, maintenance personnel, air traffic controllers and especially the Sioux City emergency response crews who responded to the accident.

In lieu of an honorarium to Haynes, GWBAA has donated $2500 to the Al Haynes Scholarship Foundation, which is used to assist aviations students at Aims Community College.

“This year’s Safety Stand-Down built on the success of our last two stand-downs and was an unqualified success,” said Paige Kroner, president of GWBAA.  “My thanks to all of our sponsors, speakers and volunteers who contributed to that success.”

This year’s sponsors included Bombardier, Dassault Falcon, Gulfstream, Satcom Direct, Welsch Aviation, Sharp Details, FlightSafety, NBAA, Signature Flight Support, Universal Weather & Aviation and Landmark Aviation.  The stand-down is eligible for credit towards NBAA's Certified Aviation Manager (CAM) qualification. 

GWBAA also thanks ARINC, Air Routing, AvCard, Hawker Beechcraft, and Jeppesen for donating prizes to our drawing.  If you haven’t already, please give us your feedback, and we look forward to seeing you next year.