The nearly decade-long effort by ICAS and dozens of ICAS members to develop and refine the Air Boss Recognition Program (ABRP) is complete. The eleventh and final draft of Revision One of the ABRP Manual can be found here. A few process issues will be resolved before the end of May, but the substance and details of the program are now final.
“This is an organic document that will evolve with time and experience,” says ICAS President John Cudahy. “Just like the Aerobatic Competency Evaluation program that ICAS has been administering for more than a quarter century, we know that this program will change as we begin to implement and live with it. But we have now completed work on the program that will start that process.”
This final version of Revision One bears little resemblance to the first draft released nearly six years ago. Experience, training, and renewal requirements have changed – sometimes dramatically – as a result of feedback received by ICAS from members during the development of the program.
“Frankly, the program has become a bit more complicated as we have integrated suggestions from and reacted to concerns expressed by our members,” says Dan Hollowell, ICAS Vice President of Safety and Operations. “We don’t like that it’s more complicated, but we know that the additional complexity has made it a better program that will improve safety, increase professionalism and be accessible to a larger percentage of our members.”
Final details on the implementation schedule for the new program will be announced within the next three weeks.
