Avionics News July 2014 - 14

In this monthly column, Ric Peri of the AEA's Washington, D.C., office, informs members of the latest regulatory updates.

B Y

R I C

P E R I
A EA V I C E P R ES I D E N T O F G OV E R N M E N T & I N D U ST RY A F FA I RS

Rumors, lies
and misinformation
A

s I write this month's column, it is late spring. For those
of you in the United States, it's graduation season. The
nightly news is filled with reports of brilliant minds
who were invited to address the graduating classes at educational institutions of all kinds, from the Ivy League in the East
to Stanford and Southern Cal in the West, only to be disinvited
by the voices of the vocal minority who missed something in
their education - the ability to hear and learn from those whose
opinion may differ from yours.
Oh, the power of the mob, exercising their constitutional right of free speech, silencing those with whom
they disagree. Where was the majority? Those risk-averse
lemmings missed an opportunity of a lifetime because they
were not willing to object to the vocal minority. Perhaps
we can get former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to
give the opening speech at next year's AEA International
Convention and Trade Show in Dallas. I think she would
get an interested and open audience for her thoughts, ideas and
values.
There were three issues raised this month that shows the
failure of academia, at least the failure of the Federal Aviation
Administration's Ivy League institution in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma.
In the first instance, a well-meaning inspector went to
Oklahoma City for training and returned with a new sense of
expertise - and in a well-meaning way, spread rumors and propaganda that bordered on - well, you know where I'm going
here. He sent a mass email to all of his "charges" informing
them he had just returned from school and was sharing what
the school had taught him about SMS. Yes, the safety man14

avionics news

july

2014

agement system rule was on short final, and within the next
90 days or so, it would be published. So he was giving all of
his charges a heads up so they could prepare for the pending
mandate.
The problem? He was addressing air charter (Part 135)
companies and repair stations (Part 145); neither of which was
included in the Part 5 proposal. Now, having been an instructor for more years than I care to count, I don't want to say the
school was spreading false information; it is quite possible
W h e re wa s t h e m a j o r i t y ? T h o s e r i s k - a v e r s e
lemmings missed an opportunity of a
l i f e t i m e b e c a u s e t h e y w e re n o t w i l l i n g t o
ob j e c t t o t h e v o c a l m i n o r i t y .

someone asked a question where the answer was misinterpreted, or perhaps the presenter was discussing the foundation
of SMS and its future applicability, and the student simply
misunderstood. However, it is worth noting that on at least
a half dozen cases since I've been in Washington, D.C., the
FAA headquarters' course managers have been expelled from
courses for noting the instructor was spreading rumors and
propaganda, not accurate policy and procedures. In fact, I was
nearly expelled myself when my instructor was misquoting an
FAA policy memo written to FAA employees that was being
presented as if the intended audience was the general public. It
didn't matter. The basic facts were the student heard bad information and, with the best of intentions, was breaking the rules

Avionics News July 2014

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