Greater Washington Business Aviation Association, Inc.

GWBAA Home
GWBAA News
Upcoming Events
News Links
Aviation Links
Safety Standdown
Golf Tournament
Member Directory
Joining GWBAA
Contact GWBAA

Welcome to the Greater Washington Business Aviation Association (GWBAA).  GWBAA has been established to represent the interests of business aviation in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.

For the most current GWBAA newsletter, click here.

For upcoming events, click here.

Horizontal Divider 1

ContactCongress.gif

Please join NBAA in contacting Congress and urging them to
reject the FAA's plans to impose user fees on business aviation.

Horizontal Divider 1

GWBAA HOLDS THIRD ANNUAL SAFETY STANDDOWN

standdown.jpg

GWBAA Operations and Safety Chair Jim Lumley; United Flight 232 Captain Alfred Haynes; and GWBAA President Paige Kroner

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.

ARINC HOSTS LUNCHEON AND TOUR FOR GWBAA

ARINC.jpg

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!

Horizontal Divider 1

LOUDOUN COUNTY REJECTS AIRCRAFT TAX INCREASE

The Loudoun Board of Supervisors on February 3 rejected a proposal to significantly increase its tax on aircraft based in the county, which would have affected Leesburg Executive Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport.  After being warned by airport officials and other aviation interests that a tax increase would be counterproductive, the proposal was dismissed by a 8-1 vote.   Anita Kayser, director of aviation policy for the Washington Airports Task Force, noted that:  "There are numerous other airport operators with under-utilized hangers or space to build additional hangers just waiting for Loudoun to raise its tax," citing Martinsburg, Hagerstown, Frederick and Manassas as examples.  The tax remains 1 cent per $100 of assessed value.

Horizontal Divider 1

TSA ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL DCA GATEWAY AIRPORTS

TSA allows business aviation operators to operate flights to/from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on a highly restricted basis, pursuant to the DCA Access Standard Security Program (DASSP).  One of the requirements is that the flight must depart from a designated gateway airport.  Effective April 15, the following new locations are gateways for the DASSP: Landmark Aviation at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX); Wiggins Airways at Manchester Airport (MHT); and Signature Flight Support at Long Beach Airport (LGB).  This brings the total number of DASSP gateways to 26.  For more information about DASSP, please visit http://www.nbaa.org/ops/security/programs/dassp.

Horizontal Divider 1

NO PLANE, NO GAIN

The NBAA, in coordination with GAMA, have launched an advertising campaign and a website (http://www.noplanenogain.org) to educate the public about business aviation.  "[P]olicymakers and opinion leaders need to understand that business aviation is essential to America," NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen has stated in connection with the campaign. "This advertising reminds our target audience that business aviation works for America by creating over one million jobs, providing a lifeline to communities without airline service, helping companies be more productive and providing humanitarian support for people in need.”

Members of GWBAA should promptly contact their members of Congress to emphasize the importance of business aviation and express their dissatisfaction with recent unwarranted attacks on the industry.  NBAA provides a tool on its website to identify representatives and senators and to send messages to their offices (http://capwiz.com/nbaa/home/).

Copyright 2005 - 2009 Greater Washington Business Aviation Association, Inc.
This website was last updated on June 17, 2009.