B&CA: What is NATCA's position on the Next Generation Air Transportation System? Do you think it's a sound concept, and if not, why not? Church: We are not involved in either the JPDO or NGATS. The FAA has eliminated collaboration of any kind with controllers. They sent all of our technical experts home to their control facilities, including the one who was our JPDO liaison. This is the FAA's choice for us not to be involved in the JPDO. B&CA: What is your position on automation in general?

Yesterday's "navigation fixes" gave way to today's "waypoints," all of which helped define our "course." In the ATC system of the future -- NGATS -- we will be filing for "trajectories."

"We are much further ahead than we were a year or two ago," NBAA's Doug Carr asserts, concerning the state of business aviation security, while TSA's Rob Rottman places overall general aviation security "light years ahead," compared to pre-9/11/01.