And The Search Is On For Successor

Dave Watrous has overseen the RTCA for the past 19 years... but he announced recently he will retire in 2008, and that means the search is underway to fill his shoes.

During Watrous' tenure, RTCA has played an important role in shaping the future of aviation. Acting in a consultative role to the Federal Aviation Administration, RTCA has served a diverse constituency in advancing its mission -- to bring together the aviation community to prepare and advance solutions to contemporary communications, navigation, surveillance, and air traffic control issues.

Sources tell ANN a nationwide search for a successor will be launched within the next month, and be lead by a search team comprised of AOPA President Phil Boyer; Ed Bolen, President of NBAA; and Kevin Brown, Vice President at Boeing. The Ancora Group, LLC will organize the search effort, and hopes to have a new president in place at RTCA by early fall.

Organized in 1935 as the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics, today RTCA is a private, not-for-profit corporation that develops recommendations regarding communications, navigation, surveillance, and air traffic management (CNS/ATM) system issues. RTCA functions as a Federal Advisory Committee. Its recommendations are used by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as the basis for policy, program, and regulatory decisions and by the private sector as the basis for development, investment and other business decisions.

FMI: www.rtca.org