April 2018

• Event Reports:

o Air Traffic Controller Guest Talk

o Aviation Presentation Competition 2018

• People in the Aviation Industry: Interview with Kathy Fox

In this issue:

‘Runway in sight’

Ladies and gentlemen,

We are now on final approach, and although it’s the last month of the semester and exams

are almost here, we still have two more events ahead.

March started with the Air Traffic Controller Guest Talk presented by Stephen Newman from

the Toronto Area Control Centre. The talk was very informative, especially for those who fly

and those interested in air traffic control.

The simulator session at UTIAS on March 23 was once again a great experience for the

participants. One more session is coming up on April 6. There are still a few slots available,

so please fill out the pre-registration form if you are interested.

Our first Aviation Presentation Competition was a great success. All the finalists did very well.

The winner was Justin Pymento from McMaster University with his presentation titled “Aviation

is Powerful”. Justin’s entry will be submitted to the Royal Aeronautical Society’s international

Young Persons Lecture Competition. Read more in this newsletter and on our website.

We will touchdown on Thursday, April 26 (which is also World Pilot Day) with our end-of-the-

year networking event. We invite all our members and collaborators to come and chat about

anything and everything aviation! The event starts at 5:30pm but you may come later if you

are not able to come right at that time. Please sign up using the form

(https://goo.gl/forms/CAAb1XQ8YdXexxwr2) if you are interested in coming, as we need

to know the number of people, and we will e-mail you with all the details.

Hope to see you at the remaining events, and good luck on your exams!

Regards,

UTAC executives

Website: www.utorontoac.org

E-mail: info.utorontoac@gmail.com

Facebook: University of Toronto Aviation Club

Twitter: @utorontoac

Instagram: @utorontoac

Air Traffic Controller Guest Talk

NAV Canada is a not-for-profit company with 7 area control centres, 41 control towers, and 55

flight service stations. At this month’s guest talk, we were lucky enough to hear from Stephen

Newman, a radar controller at the Toronto Area Control Centre with over 20 years of air traffic

control experience. Stephen gave an engaging talk, and taught attendees about NAV Canada’s

role in keeping flights safe and operations running smoothly throughout the country. With 1,100

planes taking off and landing each day at Toronto Pearson Airport alone, that’s no small task!

There are two types of flight rules, visual flight rules (VFR) and Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). For

obvious reasons, air traffic control plays a much larger role in the second type. Control towers, what

often comes to mind when people think ‘air traffic control’, are in charge of a fairly small airspace,

controlling traffic on and near the airport. Area control centres, like the one Stephen works at, have

a much larger area to care for. To handle the large amount of traffic, controllers inside are split up

by specialty, and then into sectors. Stephen works in the airports specialty, controlling arrivals and

departures at small airports in the GTA.

There are two types of radar: Primary Surveillance Radar (PSR), and Secondary Surveillance

Radar (SSR). It is the SSR that communicates with the plane’s transponder, and returns information on

aircraft identity, altitude, and

position. Stephen also spoke with us

a little about the future of navigation

systems, that is, the Automatic

Dependent Surveillance Broadcast

(ADS-B). This system is space based,

which means satellite navigation

enables an airplane to broadcast its

position and receive that of nearby

aircraft. With this system, pole-to-

pole coverage, currently impractical

with ground based systems, will

become possible.

Attendees were also grateful for

the chance to ask Stephen questions

about what it is like to work for NAV

Canada, the training involved, and

the recruitment process. UTAC

hopes his talk inspired future Air

Traffic Controllers, and we know it

was fascinating to learn more about

an important part of the Aviation

Industry. If anyone is interested to

learn more about applying to NAV

Canada, please check out the NAV

Canada Careers page!

Aviation Presentation Competition 2018

March 24 was a very exciting day – it was UTAC’s first Aviation Presentation Competition. Six

finalists competed for prizes and the nomination to the Royal Aeronautical Society’s (RAeS)

international Young Persons Lecture Competition.

The presentations were evaluated by a panel of experienced aviation industry professionals:

Capt. Richard Slatter FRAeS (Head Adjudicator), Operations Consultant, ICAO (ret’d)

Martin Abramian, Senior Engineering Specialist, Bombardier Aerospace

Capt. Julie Beverstein, Assistant Chief Pilot Recruitment and Retention, Porter Airlines

Allison MacLean, Director of Systems Operations Control, Porter Airlines

Carter Mann, Manager of Government Affairs and Communications, COPA

Carolyne Mounsey, Aircraft Maintenance Engineer, Sunwing Airlines

After the competition, a Q&A panel was held where participants and guests could ask the

adjudicators questions about a variety of aviation and aerospace topics, such as new technologies,

careers in aviation and the adjudicators’ experiences.

Evaluation of presentations was on a 60-point scale using seven judging criteria, focused

mostly on the presentation skills, with the content playing a smaller role.

The competition winner was Justin Pymento from McMaster University with a score of 314

points. In his presentation, titled “Aviation is Powerful”, Justin described three key qualities that

aviation has taught him. Second place was won by Rita Audi and Vishwak Turaga from Father John

Redmond Catholic Secondary School and Garth Webb Secondary School respectively. They

presented about OSIRIS-REx explorer with a mission to asteroid Bennu and scored a total of 305

points. University of Toronto industrial engineering student Ryan Cheng placed third with a score of

300 points. He presented on the Effect of Cultural Differences on Crew Resource Management.

Other presentations in the final were: “Bilateral Aviation Agreement between Canada and the

United Arab Emirates”, “Case Study – UAS Operations Near la Guardia International Airport Arrival

Flights” and “The Future of Canadian Aviation”.

UTAC thanks all participants for their enthusiasm and excellent presentations, and the

adjudicators for volunteering their time to be a part of this event. UTAC also thanks the sponsors that

provided prizes:

From left: second place winners Rita Audi and Vishwak Turaga, first place winner Justin Pymento,

third place winner Ryan Cheng

Q&A panel with the adjudicators

Justin Pymento won the competition with his

presentation titled “Aviation is Powerful”

From left: UTAC president Valeriya Mordvinova,

first place winner Justin Pymento, head

adjudicator Capt. Richard Slatter, and UTAC VP

External Jonathan Chou during the awards

ceremony

Second place winners Rita Audi and Vishwak

Turaga presented about OSIRIS-REx

UTAC president, second place winners and the

head adjudicator during the awards ceremony

Third place winner Ryan Cheng’s presentation

was about the Effect of Cultural Differences on

Crew Resource Management

UTAC president, third place winner, head

adjudicator , and UTAC VP External during the

awards ceremony

Mohamed Widaatalla from the University of

Toronto presented about the Bilateral Aviation

Agreement Between Canada and the United

Arab Emirates

Upper Canada College students Billy Shi and

Shaan Hooey’s presentation was titled “Case

Study – UAS Operations Near LaGuardia

International Airport Arrival Flights”

Jefferson Chen and Yousif Mohamed from 110

Black Hawk Air Cadet squadron presented about

the Future of Canadian Aviation

After the awards ceremony, head adjudicator

Capt. Richard Slatter made closing remarks on

behalf of the adjudicators

Adjudicators evaluated presentations based on a

60-point scale with seven judging criteria

Participants, guests and UTAC executives all

learned a great deal from the adjudicators during

the Q&A panel

People in the Aviation Industry

Interview with Kathy Fox

This month we speak to the Chair of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada Kathy Fox. (Her

biography is available on the TSB website.)

UTAC: What are some of the skills you

obtained from your previous roles that are

indispensable to your current position?

Kathy Fox: My 45+ year involvement in multiple

aspects of aviation—as a skydiver, commercial

pilot, flight instructor, air traffic controller, small-

business owner and corporate executive—has

given me a very broad and deep understanding

of the Canadian aviation industry.

My science training (B.Sc. and M.Sc.) has

helped me to develop logical, analytical skills

and to appreciate the importance of evidence-

based arguments.

In terms of transferable skills that help me in my

current role, I’d start with the ability to see the

“big picture” while still paying close attention to

the details. I’m able to identify and reconcile

differing points of view. Prioritizing multiple

activities is important in this position, as are very

good oral and written communication skills.

UTAC: Could you tell us an interesting story or

memorable moment from your career?

KF: There are many. But one that will always

stick with me is visiting the memorial in honour

of the victims of the crash of a B737 in Resolute

Bay, Nunavut. The accident occurred in August

2011, while I was on a cruise expedition

through the Northwest Passage, having just

departed Resolute Bay a few days earlier

following a charter flight from Edmonton with the

same operator and a similar aircraft. The TSB

investigation was comprehensive and the final

report helped explain why the crew attempted

to continue an unstable approach, tragically

killing 12 of the 15 people on board. I led the

public release of the investigation report (TSB

investigation A11H0002) to the media and

then flew up to Resolute Bay with the

investigator-in-charge (IIC) to brief the local

community on the results of our investigation.

Visiting the accident site and memorial by

snowmobile the next day, at -40 degrees wind

chill, with the IIC and a family member who had

lost so much, was a very humbling and moving

experience and helped drive home in a very

personal way the importance of what we do at

the TSB.

Kathy Fox at Resolute Bay accident memorial

March 2014

People in the Aviation Industry

UTAC: What are some of the interesting facts

about the TSB?

KF: It would definitely have to be the people.

TSB employees have such rich backgrounds and

most of them have had full and diverse careers

before they ever arrive here. We have experts

in marine, pipeline, rail and aviation—of

course. But we also have metallurgists, computer

programmers, engineers, IT specialists, writers,

editors, former journalists, military personnel …

you name it! I myself have been a sport

parachutist, an air traffic controller, a pilot, and

business owner, and our Chief Operating

Officer was an accountant before he joined the

TSB.

A second “interesting” fact might be our

independence. Even though we’ve been around

for more than 25 years, there are still a lot of

people out there who think we are part of

Transport Canada. But we’re actually an

independent agency. We have to be, because

whenever we find safety deficiencies we need

to be able to point them out without concerns

about a real or perceived conflict of interest.

UTAC: Could you tell us a little about a

particularly difficult aviation investigation that the

TSB has undertaken during your time there?

KF: One investigation that comes to mind is the

Airbus A320 that struck terrain several hundred

meters short of the runway while landing at

Halifax Stanfield International Airport, during a

snowstorm (TSB investigation A15H0002). Of

the 138 people on board, 25 were taken to

hospital, and although no one died—

thankfully—the crash nonetheless generated a

great deal of media attention.

Thanks to flight recorders and cockpit voice

recorders, TSB investigators figured out very

early on in the investigation what had

happened, but it still took us a while to answer

the deeper question, the “why”. We knew that

pilot training and procedures were key factors,

particularly with respect to the use of the

autopilot, but so too were the runway lights, the

wind, and the blowing snow that dramatically

reduced visibility. We also identified

deficiencies with the airport’s emergency

response plan—which was one reason you may

have seen news reports about evacuated

passengers standing on the runway during a

snowstorm wearing shorts and sandals.

Putting all of that together took time, and

meanwhile we had media outlets—and the

public—clamoring for answers. I’m proud of our

final report because it does a solid job of

explaining why the pilots acted the way they

did, and why the eventual rescue response took

so long. It also gave us the opportunity to focus

in on what needs to be done by Transport

Canada, airports, airlines, flight crews, and

even passengers, to make things safer.

UTAC: In your opinion, what are the biggest

threats to aviation safety nowadays?

KF: We ask ourselves this question all the time,

and every two years we produce a Watchlist of

the key issues that need to be addressed to

make Canada’s transportation system even

safer.

Right now, the Watchlist contains three aviation-

specific issues: unstable approaches, runway

overruns, and the risk of collisions on runways.

An additional two issues are “multi-modal”:

People in the Aviation Industry

safety management and oversight, and the slow

progress by Transport Canada when addressing

TSB recommendations. Each of these problems

is complex, which is why they’re not necessarily

easy to solve. Each of them will also require

coordinated effort from all of those involved:

owners, operators, pilots, airports, and even

regulators.

UTAC: What common misconceptions about

aviation would you like more people to be

aware about?

KF: Many people still see aviation as a “man’s

world”. Women are just as capable of being

excellent pilots, and there are so many

accomplished female aviators who should be

better known to the public, especially here in

Canada.

And it’s not just about pilots. There are so many

diverse careers in aviation—as pilots,

maintainers, engineers, air traffic controllers,

dispatchers, to name only a few.

Finally, whenever there is an accident, everyone

wants to know whether it was due to a

mechanical breakdown or pilot error. Accidents

never happen due to just one factor, person or

organization. One thing I’ve learned at the TSB

is that we need to look at the multiple underlying

systemic factors that can cause or contribute to

an accident, or the risk of an accident. It’s only

by understanding those that change agents can

take the appropriate steps to reduce the risk of

future accidents.

UTAC: How did you get into sport parachuting?

KF: I wanted to fly from a very early age. When

I graduated from high school, I didn’t have the

money to go to university and learn to fly. So I

had to make a choice. I put my flying dreams

on hold, recognizing the importance of post-

secondary education. While studying at McGill

University, I saw a poster for a skydiving course

and thought I should try that. It was an

inexpensive way to get up in an airplane,

although it was a one-way ticket only. I had to

find my own way down! I went on to make

almost 650 jumps. I stopped jumping after I

finally had the money and learned to fly!

UTAC: Do you have any advice for young

people aspiring to join the aviation industry?

KF: This is a wonderful time to consider aviation

as a career as there are so many opportunities.

Follow your dreams: You never know where life

may lead you, so if you have a dream – go for

it!

Set realistic mini goals: You can’t achieve your

dreams if you don’t first figure out how to get

there.

Pursue your education: As I get older, I realize

just how important it is to keep the brain

stimulated and active. So, stay curious!

Do your current job well: If you want to be

noticed, be the best you can be at your current

job.

Seize opportunities when they come along:

Don’t be afraid to take risks with your career

and push yourself outside your comfort zone.

And finally, learn to deal with adversity: The

better equipped you are to deal with adversity,

the more likely you are to survive and thrive.