In the wake of the partial government shutdown at the beginning of the year, ICAS headquarters was forced to give serious consideration to the possibility that the federal government could enter a second shutdown. With the first shutdown creating a significant backlog of air show-related work within the FAA, there was fear that a second shutdown—coupled with the introduction of new FAA air show policy in Volume 3, Chapter 6, Section 1 of 8900.1—would directly and negatively impact air shows in the first quarter of the year.
In response to this threat, ICAS worked with the FAA leadership team to formalize a process by which ICAS members could send their waiver applications to ICAS and be reviewed by Sue Gardner, a consultant who recently retired from the FAA and is responsible for the recent re-write of the policy.
In her review of the applications submitted, she found common errors being made by applicants. ICAS issued a summary of those common errors in a previous version of Ops Bull, but feedback from the membership and the specificity of their questions made it clear that a more extensive and detailed discussion was necessary.
To make Sue Gardner’s expertise and her specific experience reviewing waiver applications available to the entire membership, ICAS Vice President of Safety and Operations Dan Hollowell hosted a town hall-style “webinar” with Gardner. Over 100 participants tuned in to listen and ask questions which set a record for any ICAS townhall.
Over 100 participants tuned in to listen and ask questions which set a record for any ICAS townhall. The townhall audio, and supporting video can be viewed here. The common errors document can be found here.
