At the Westchester Aviation Association (WAA) Third Annual Safety Day on June 19 and 20, more than 300 attendees came together to learn from safety experts and understand the impact of technology and big data on aviation safety.
The first day’s events, held on the evening of June 19, saw 60 attendees including members of the Westchester Flying Club, Civil Air Patrol (CAP), and local pilots.
Presentations during the evening session focused on “Enhancing Safety in a Digital Age,” and featured FAA FAASTeam program manager Ben Struck; ForeFlight co-founder and CEO Tyson Weihs; Doug Ritter, board chairman and executive director of the Equipped to Survive Foundation; pilot and physician Jonathan Sackier; and round-the-world pilot Adrian Eichorn.
More than 240 attended the second-day sessions, which focused on corporate aircraft operators. In addition to ForeFlight’s Weihs and physician Sackier, presenters included corporate pilot and safety expert James Albright; Dann Runik, FlightSafety International executive director of Advanced Training Programs; The Weather Company’s Alex Huang, data science manager and lead data scientist in aviation; and Kurt Edwards, director general of the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC). During the afternoon, attendees split up into breakout sessions focused on their particular job categories.
The WAA awarded two scholarships at the event, one for $7,000 to pilot Luc Piderman, airport operations supervisor at Westchester County Airport, who plans to become an airline pilot. A $3,000 scholarship was awarded to Adam Delitta, a junior at Rye Neck High School and CAP cadet commander. Delitta plans to put the money towards earning his private pilot license and hopes to become a flight instructor so he can teach fellow CAP cadets.
