David Karalunas & Cristy Minnis
FAA Safety and Compliance Team
By Paul Cianciolo, FAA Safety Briefing Magazine
Sometimes, things don’t go as planned. Mistakes happen, but punishing someone for those mistakes doesn’t always fix the problem. At the FAA, we have a shared responsibility with aviators to find and fix safety problems together. That’s where our Safety and Compliance Team works to ensure our Compliance Program policy is effective and backed by data. Here’s a quick dive into two integral team members — both with aviation in their blood since a young age and married to pilots.
David Karalunas is the team’s policy lead. He grew up near the Lake Hood Seaplane Base in Anchorage, Alaska, and often listened to air traffic calls on his multiband radio. His first foray into flight was at the controls of a Piper PA-14 floatplane when he was nine.
“When I was 14, I got a 92% on the private pilot knowledge exam, took an evening instrument ground school class at the local community college when I was 16, and soloed when I was 17,” explains David.
Though money was an immediate limiting factor, David eventually earned his wings in college. He attended the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology in Tulsa, Okla., and received his private pilot and airframe and powerplant (A&P) certificates. At the time, entry-level mechanic jobs were more lucrative than entry-level pilots, so David chose the maintenance path. He worked on twin piston and turboprop commuters before a decade of maintaining helicopters as he worked his way up to chief inspector for an Army contractor and director of maintenance for two 14 CFR part 135 helicopter operators. After a brief stint teaching at a part 147 school, David answered the call to public service and joined the FAA in 2001.
“Since the team’s inception and before the actual Compliance Program rollout, I’ve been the lead policy writer,” he notes. “Because we have a shared responsibility to find and fix safety problems together, open, transparent communication and collaboration are key to preventing them from reoccurring, which is the basis for our policy.”
David also notes that the biggest challenge in general aviation (GA) is managing our behavior as individuals. Without a formal support system, like with commercial aviation, the GA aviator is responsible for developing their own personal safety management practices.
He adds that one of the improvements in the last two years has been efforts to measure the effectiveness of the Compliance Program. We have enough data now to see that relapse is very low after the use of a compliance action.
Measuring the different aspects of the Compliance Program is the responsibility of Cristy Minnis, who serves as the management and program analyst on the team.
Cristy grew up in Moore, Okla., fascinated by the old F-14 and P-51 fighter aircraft that flew yearly at the local air show. Her husband is a pilot, and together, they own a Taylorcraft and are building a Piper Cub with plans to explore backcountry airstrips throughout the country.
Cristy joined the FAA right out of college and applied her bachelor’s degree in experimental psychology to human factors research at the agency’s Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI). The recommendation came from her professor when the FAA was looking for someone who could interpret physiological data, which put her on the perfect course to pair with her love of aviation.
“The experience that I gained in college and at CAMI ignited a career-long pursuit of digging into data to see what valuable information it holds and how it can be used to help others,” explains Cristy. “We want to work with pilots and mechanics on understanding why the mistake happened and put practices in place to keep it from reoccurring. The Compliance Program has increased trust, communication, and collaboration between the FAA and the GA community.”
With drones, vertical lift aircraft, and commercial space operators entering the scene, our airspace is becoming more complex. Both personal risk management and voluntary reporting of safety issues are now more critical than ever. David and Cristy are working together to advance those initiatives and ensure the future of NAS safety.
Paul Cianciolo is an associate editor and the social media lead for FAA Safety Briefing. He is a U.S. Air Force veteran and an auxiliary airman with Civil Air Patrol.
