Express and the end of the reign of the notorious outlaw Jesse James takes
place March 31 through April 2. AOPA CALLS FOR SUMMIT ON WAAS

IMPLEMENTATION
AOPA President Phil Boyer and Dennis Roberts, executive director and vice
president of Government and Technical Affairs, recently met with FAA
Administrator Jane Garvey and her senior management team responsible for the
delivery of the GPS wide-area augmentation system.  GPS-WAAS promises to
deliver precision approaches to hundreds of airports using satellite-based
navigation. At the meeting, Boyer called for a summit of top-level FAA
officials, contractors, industry, and aviation user groups (including
airlines and general aviation) to "once and for all" answer the questions
pertaining to deliverable products, user benefits, schedules, and costs for
implementing the GPS-WAAS system. Garvey welcomed the offer and agreed to
participate, along with Deputy Administrator Monte Belger. AOPA, in
conjunction with the Air Transport Association and the industry's Satellite
Navigation Users Group (SNUG), is planning an agenda that includes a
briefing by the FAA and its WAAS contractors on the program's status.  The
FAA is also being asked to update industry on progress it is making to
streamline the equipment-certification process in order to incorporate this
new technology into the general aviation and air-carrier aircraft fleets. It
is hoped that the FAA and the aviation industry can agree on where this
program is going and what benefits can be expected once it is in place. This
consensus opinion will then be relayed to those on Capitol Hill who have
questioned the commitment of both the FAA and the aviation community to the
program. The meeting could occur as early as this month.

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