Capt. Lee Moak, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l, wrote to members of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, outlining ALPA aviation security priorities the committee must consider during its Nov. 2 hearing titled Ten Years After 9/11: The Next Wave in Aviation Security.

The letter calls for movement toward a threat-based approach to airport passenger screening; adequate funding for the Federal Flight Deck Officer Program; the widespread use of cockpit secondary barriers; improved communications and a clearly defined, prioritized plan to control the national airspace during terrorist attacks and other threats; improvements in all-cargo airline security; and making the act of knowingly shining a laser in an aircraft cockpit a federal offence.

Read Moak’s letter.

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“To say that this is an important safety step at FedEx is truly an understatement,” said FDX MEC chairman Capt. Scott Stratton. “The implementation of this safety program is owed to the hard work of our dedicated volunteers and staff and I am honored to represent the FedEx pilots.”

As of Wednesday, Nov. 2, the FedEx pilots join many other properties and now enjoy the advantages of ASAP protections from certificate enforcement actions and company discipline when their ASAP reports are accepted by the FAA Event Review Committee. In return for these protections, crewmembers will be self-reporting safety events in which they are involved.

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The Known Crewmember (KCM) program, which is jointly sponsored by ALPA and the Air Transport Association, is now operational at all of the seven airports where it is being tested (i.e., ORD, MIA, SEA, PHX, MSP, IAD, and BOS) and the system is working well at each location. More than 2,400 pilots, who fly for 28 participant airlines, are being cleared through KCM access points at these airports each day.

Since the program began on Aug. 9, pilots have used KCM entry points more than 80,000 times. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is analyzing performance metrics associated with this program and will render a decision about nationwide expansion no later than January 2012. For ongoing KCM updates, please see www.knowncrewmember.org.

Also, ALPA is seeking member feedback regarding the Known Crewmember program. Please go to www.alpa.org/survey to provide us with comments about your KCM experience.

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This week’s conference highlighted fatigue management strategies, runway excursion risk mitigations, pilot training issues, effective use of safety data, and functional check flight issues. In addition, experts discussed ongoing safety programs in many countries and progress toward identifying and addressing top aviation safety issues.

ALPA Aviation Safety chair Capt. Charles Hogeman (UAL) presented a paper on enhancing pilot training with safety data in which he highlighted the value of significant “single event” data in identifying potential changes to airline training programs.

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Read United Capt. Greg Roberts’s recommendations for useful smartphone apps on page 26 of the November issue of Air Line Pilot magazine.

On the tenth installment of The FlightDeck, learn how Emirates Airlines is expanding its reach into the United States.

Remember that both Air Line Pilot and The FlightDeck can also be accessed from the members-only portion of the ALPA website at www.alpa.org.

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• The Hill says House Democrats criticized the TSA for pushing back a deadline for inspecting all air cargo. Read more.

• The New York Times reports that many U.S. carriers now offer mobile boarding passes at airports across the country, a paperless move pioneered by Continental Airlines in 2007. Read more.

• Canadian Business indicates the cost of flying took off last year, even excluding additional fees and charges, as Canada’s main airlines hiked average fares by 5.3 percent. Read more.

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Section 35 Part 1(J) of the ALPA Administrative Manual states, “Each member shall be issued a membership card every four years.”

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If you have moved or changed your ISP or e-mail address, please update your ALPA records. If you don’t, you will no longer receive the ALPA FastRead and other e-mail bulletins and notices, and once your postal forwarding order expires, you’ll no longer receive the magazine and other ALPA mail. You can do it yourself by going to www.alpa.org and logging in. Go to “My ALPA” in the menu at the top of the page, and from there, you’ll be instructed how to make the necessary changes.

If you don’t have access to the members-only section of www.alpa.org, you can e-mail your requests by sending them to membership@alpa.org. Be sure to include your member number or enough other information so that we can identify you in the membership database, and tell us what information needs to be updated.

Please note that it is not sufficient just to notify your LEC or MEC of these changes—you should register them with the ALPA Membership Department in Herndon.

Can’t remember your member number or how to log in? Need information about your ALPA insurance programs? These and other questions about ALPA services can be answered by contacting membership@alpa.org.

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Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l
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