To the Future! Continued from page 21 “I was 17 at the time,” Dempsey remembered. “He did a loop and a roll, and I was hooked. Somehow being in the air seemed to be very comfortable for me. I started learning to fly and working towards becoming an aircraft mechanic immediately afterwards, getting my first job in the aviation industry while I was still in high school.” Dempsey is proud to be able to say he’s worked in avia- tion for his entire career, from that moment on. “When I turned 18, I went off to the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics, got my A&P license, and went to work for Summit Aviation in Delaware, where I was from, while I worked on a Bachelor’s degree in Aviation Management at Wilmington University. I worked a lot of overtime and also got my pilot’s license and my multi-engine instrument rat- ing,” explained Dempsey. “I had my inspection authorization from the FAA by the time I was 22. I spent a lot of time at 22 the airport as a young man, let’s put it that way! And, I made enough money there that I started my own FBO business in Maryland. We became a Cessna dealer, had a flight school, and I was a partner in a maintenance center for Cessna. Seven years later, I also became a regional field rep for Cessna: a lot of my job was training and educating mechan- ics, because I knew, if I could do a good job there, then I’d rarely get a phone call about any problems later.” Dempsey’s career also included stints at Beechcraft and General Dynamics Aviation Services, before a 15-year run of leadership roles with Jet Aviation. Retirement from the lat- ter doesn’t appear to have slowed him down any. “I still get as excited thinking about the future of avia- tion as I did when I was 17,” Dempsey said of his new role at NATA. I’m seeing exciting new technologies with aircraft, private space travel, fueling and maintenance—just think of all the new types of vehicles our members will be servicing in the future! Major advances in innovation are taking place on the training side and in everything from flight planning services to apps, software and green technologies. NATA members are using more solar panels on their buildings than ever, as just one example. Everywhere I look, I see all kinds of ways to bring new efficiencies and opportunities into our industry and to continue to grow the NATA membership as all these new products and services emerge and mature. And, for every one of those new opportunities, we’ll have new needs to build on and leverage NATA’s excellent reputa- tion with our Congressional leaders on Capitol Hill as we navigate what that future will look like together.” He sees some big challenges in that future, as well. “One of our biggest challenges is going to be real estate, having the space we need at the airports where we can do business,” Dempsey predicted. “Our members are seeing aircraft getting larger and larger, so there is an ongoing need for additional space. We’re trying to get our heads around it, forming a task force and looking for opportunities where the Association can become more involved with the airport membership organizations to work on this issue. Another challenge is going to be sorting out workstream issues under the new FAA reauthorization. We will have working groups that are going to participate in helping streamline the agency’s system that is in the bill so that, for example, if you’re certifying a modification of an aircraft, then there will be workstreams as to how users could gain a delega- tion of authority to approve their own work, prove that you Aviation Business Journal | 4th Quarter 2018
