Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

RAA technical affairs vice president Dave Lotterer doesn’t object to the use of so-called electronic flight bags for navigating runways and taxiways. He just doesn’t want to see them advocated at the expense of the important work that needs doing on what he considers the cumbersome but necessary system of notams already in place. 
“The FAA is quite gung ho on going forward with electronic flight bags and GPS marking for moving maps to help pilots avoid runway incursions and so forth,” said Lotterer. “I guess our message is, ‘Now wait a second, before you rush headlong into all this high-tech stuff, you’ve got a lot to do in terms of cleaning up your notam and charting processes.’” 
The FAA expected by the end of April to have adopted a new policy on certifying the “own ship position” function of Class 2 flight bags’ moving map displays, which uses GPS technology to show a pilot his own position on the airport surface (see also page 72). The agency has indicated that the simplified certification process will lower the cost of certifying EFBs for surface operations to $20,000 per unit–about one-tenth the original estimates for certifying EFBs for ground and air operations. 
The FAA reasons that the move will provide an incentive for the industry to produce EFBs in higher quantities, resulting in a higher level of safety for all. But Lotterer and many others without a direct financial stake in selling the devices worry that they could also breed complacency. 
“If people are thinking that this is going to be so wonderful that they’re not going to have [runway incursions] in the future they’re kidding themselves,” said Lotterer. “It has its limitations as a control; you want to have the pilot looking out at the taxiway and the runways; you don’t want his head buried in some chart that isn’t that accurate even with electronic flight bags.”
As if to drive home the point, Lotterer has invited the head of the FAA’s Aeronautical Information Management (AIM) division, Barry Davis, to report on the progress the agency has made toward converting notams to a digital format at the convention’s operations and maintenance forum on May 22. 
“Right now [the notam system] is not responsive to the airline business as we go about it today,” said Lotterer. “It’s difficult to coordinate; you have local notams, you have other types of notams that come from different locales; it’s up to the individual airline to go to a multitude of places to get information about that particular flight. It’s just a cumbersome process.” 
Evidently, Lotterer’s message has finally gotten through to someone with clout at the FAA: the day before Davis’ scheduled appearance at the convention, the agency plans to hold a meeting in Washington dedicated to improving the notam system. Perhaps Davis, who planned to attend the meeting, will bring with him to Memphis some news of progress.

RAA 2007: RAA’s message to FAA: clean up your notams

RAA technical affairs vice president Dave Lotterer doesn’t object to the use of so-called electronic flight bags for navigating runways and taxiways.

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

AIN Products

SUBSCRIPTIONS

RESOURCES

ABOUT AIN