Government Advocacy

Fuller to represent AOPA on aviation technical boards

By Sarah Brown

AOPA President Craig Fuller has been appointed to the board of directors and policy board of an organization charged with developing recommendations to lead American aviation into the future.

Fuller will continue AOPA’s longstanding involvement in air transportation system modernization by filling the association’s spot on the boards of RTCA, a private, not-for-profit corporation that develops consensus-based recommendations regarding communications, navigation, surveillance, and air traffic management system issues. RTCA developed the standards to expand GPS from military use into GA cockpits and has been involved in planning to implement the NextGen air transportation system.

"I look forward to continuing AOPA's involvement with RTCA,” Fuller said. “Working through this organization is one of the many ways our industry can come together to ensure that the needs of all segments of the aviation community are considered as we move into the future.”

AOPA participates on many RTCA committees, most recently the RTCA NextGen Mid-Term Implementation Task Force, which recommended improvements to the air traffic control system that can be realized between now and 2018. The association has made a strong commitment to working through RTCA and with industry to help develop recommendations to the FAA on policy and program decisions, as well as regulatory changes. 

RTCA was organized in 1935 as the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics and operates as a federal advisory committee. The RTCA policy board is the primary governing body of RTCA and is not a rulemaking committee.

December 8, 2009