Avionics News May 2023 - 25

GAMA leadership panel
members include (from left)
Emma Rasmussen, Cirrus
intern and ERAU graduate
student; Cate Brancart,
manager of European
operations and safety for
GAMA; Eric Hinson, GAMA
chair and president and CEO
of Simcom International;
Maria Della Posta, president
of Pratt & Whitney
Canada; Pete Bunce, GAMA
president and CEO; Rosa
Lee Argotsinger, Textron
Aviation; Brendan Freely,
GE Aerospace; and Gabby
Romano, Simcom Aviation
Training.
including a gear type turbofan, additive manufacturing,
parts reduction, health monitoring, digital data transmission
from the aircraft, new wings as well as winglets and active
winglets to increase fuel efficiency. Aircraft weight is
also being reduced with the use of fly-by-wire systems,
hydraulics reduction and the use of lighter-weight composite
parts. " And we are just starting to scratch the surface on
electrical augmentation that will be able to increase our
thrust capability across the board, " Bunce said.
However, getting all this new technology into use faces the
challenge of getting new products certified. It takes more than
a decade now to certify a new engine.
Hinson said the FAA has struggled recently to provide
timely and effective guidance and oversight of the general
aviation industry, and GAMA sees it grappling with
some major challenges in this area. " Within the FAA
reauthorization, we're going to focus on seeing if we can fix
some of these issues, " Hinson said. " The first is to reform
policy guidance and rulemaking. A short way of describing
this is a lot goes in and very little comes out in the way of
rulemaking policy and guidance. It just goes into a black hole
right now, and it's very difficult for the industry to see where
progress is bogging down. "
There has also been a " significant exodus " of experienced
technical personnel form the FAA, including retirements
and people being hired away even by the general aviation
industry. " The fact is the FAA has a fairly new workforce,
and it is really important that that workforce be trained to
understand the technology of today, " Hinson said. Hennig,
in a later AEA podcast, said that retirements in the industry
will continue to be a challenge in the years ahead because
the trend of baby boomers leaving the workforce hasn't
peaked yet.
Not only does the industry have to encourage the FAA to
streamline the regulatory process and backfill the reduced
ranks of technical people, but it also has to get back to
working closely with the FAA so it understands the needs of
industry and vice versa. " We absolutely have to streamline
this regulatory process to get back to where it functioned
prior to this so we can build on the future for sustainability, "
Hinson said.
GAMA's emphasis on the importance of recruiting and
training a talented workforce was highlighted at the press
conference by a panel of five employees in the general
aviation field interviewed by Maria Della Posta, President of
Pratt & Whitney Canada. GAMA members have a workforce
shortage of about 10% across the board.
There was no surprise about how Rosa Lee Argotsinger
got introduced to general aviation. She grew up in Wichita,
Kansas, " a place where you cannot escape aviation even if
you wanted to. " Her grandfather introduced her to aviation
in his 1976 Cessna 182, and she went through the flight
program at Kansas State University and was hired by Cessna
in 2004. " Since then, I have been a demonstration pilot flying
our turbine aircraft all over the world, " she said. " I led our
communications team for several years and an aftermarket
sales team in Singapore. " Today, she is director of flight
safety and security at Textron Aviation.
Continued on following page
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Avionics News May 2023

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