NATCA Impact : NATCA has continued to advocate for full funding for the FAA in our
relevant Congressional appropriations bills (the Transportation, Housing and Urban
Development Appropriations bill, "THUD").
LEGISLATIVE WATCHLIST
In addition to executive actions from President Trump, members of Congress have and
will continue to introduce anti - federal employee bills, including those that would attack
the use of official time and negatively impact federal employee pay and benefits.
PUBLIC AFFAIR S DEPARTMENT
BY THE NUMBERS
45,282
The number of r ule c ompliant ADS - B Out aircraft in the U . S . as of March 1. T he number
of ADS - B In - equ ipped aircraft reached 38,843. More details are available later in this
report , from the Safety and Technology Department.
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
"I'm proud to be a part of this organization and to lead the way for all the future
controllers here at Renton, and hopefully influence other FCTs in the country to join as
well. We don't fear the future, we shape it. We are stronger together than we are on our
own."
- FacRep David Creas y of Renton, Wash., Federal Contract Tower (FCT). Renton (RNT)
last month became NATCA's 100
th
- represented FCT. Read more .
" It is hard to imagine a system more complicated than modern air traffic control. Aircraft
of varying speeds and sizes are heading in a hundred directions in a 3 - D environment.
Every day, FAA air traffic controllers shepherd (tens of thousands of) flights across 29
million square miles of air space. Tweaking the system is bound to ease concerns in one
place and c ompound them in others. There are problems, to be sure, but the success of
the system generally is nearly miraculous. "
- From an editorial March 28 in the Half Moon Bay Review (Calif.) on the subject of ATC
modernization.
THE NATCA PODCAST LATEST EPISODE: Checking in With St. Thomas (STT)
St. Thomas USVI Air Traffic Control Tower (STT) NATCA FacRep Patrick Cieniewicz, on
the job for only a year before two Category 5 hurricanes struck the island in September
2017, talks about working traffic from under a tent and in a temporary tower in the days
and weeks after the second storm hit, and the process of recovery on the island and the
March 8, 2018 reopening of the permanent control tower. Listen here .
The NATCA Podcast is a new way t o connect the National Office with the NATCA
membership and provide news, information, and interviews with key NATCA leaders,
reps, and members. We invite you to check it out and add it to your rotation of podcast
subscriptions. The NATCA Podcast is currently available for listening and su bscribing on
Apple Podcasts on iTunes , Google Play , and also on SoundCloud .
Archive : Our first four episodes
March 1: FAA reauthorization and government funding update.
