Avionics News September 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

Getting to 'yes'
I

t's Sunday morning, I've finished breakfast at the local buffet, and I'm sitting in an oversized closet in the Travelodge
Hotel in Bankstown, New South Wales, Australia, doing my
laundry. It's not a fancy laundromat - just long enough for a
single washer, dryer and deep sink, and wide enough for the machines on one side and the door to open on the other. I'm sitting
in the only chair, a white plastic patio chair - basic and utilitarian. No matter how fancy and modern we get, there is still the
need for basic utilities like a guest laundry room.
In August, the Aircraft Electronics Association presented a
Civil Aviation Safety Regulations Part 145 regulatory training
course to Australian members who are transitioning from the
decades-old CAR regulatory system to the more modern
internationally-harmonized CASR system. Technically, the
1988 rules are updating to the 1998 regulations. So in this
respect, modernization is a relative word. But the 1998
standards are generally harmonized with the standards of
Europe, the U. S. and, in a broader sense, Canada. While the
transition is challenging for many AEA members, I believe
the overall benefit of international harmonization will pay dividends to business in the future.
The class demographics, which included 25 percent of the
AEA's membership in Australia, stretched from large corporate
entities to relatively small, single-engine piston service centers.
And like most AEA functions, it's the after-hour social events
where you get to know the membership, their concerns and their
future plans. The new technologies and the changing business
model seemed to be on everybody's mind.
Back in the early 1970s when I took my first general aviation flight from Geiger Field, every airport had some maintenance and avionics capabilities. And of course, nearly every
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avionics news

september

2014

neighborhood in those days had a laundromat. Times change,
technology advances, and your business model adjusts. In the
four or five decades of CAR 30, how many times have you seen
your business adjust? Tubes to transistors; solid state to digital;
pneumatic/vacuum to electric; electric to electronic - each time
technology advances, our service-industry business model is
forced to adjust.
Non-aviation is no better. My car stereos have migrated
from four-track tapes to eight-track; eight-track tapes to cassette; cassette to compact disc; and CD to MP3, Bluetooth
and now streaming. When was the last time you saw a local
TV repair shop?
Times change, technology advances, and
your business model adjusts. In the four or
five decades of CAR 30, how many times
have you seen your business adjust?

The last three long flights I took were technologically interesting, as well. No, I wasn't fortunate enough to fly in the front
of the bus; those days are long gone. But the cabin technology
was quite interesting. I flew on two United Airlines Boeing
777s and a Qantas Boeing 767; none had in-seat entertainment
systems. They each used streaming Wi-Fi to tablet computers
to satisfy the entertainment needs of the passengers. United utilized the passengers' personal electronic devices, while Qantas
outfitted each seat with an "electronically secure" tablet.
The first commercial off-the-shelf tablet was introduced
into aviation as an electronic flight bag. Soon began the mass
marketing of applications to leverage the utility of commercial

Avionics News September 2014

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