Tom Salat, with FAA’s WAAS National Airspace Implementation Team, spoke on performance-based navigation (PBN) for helicopter operators at Rotor & Wing’s 2010 Safety and Training Summit. Photo by Andrew D. Parker

Thomas Salat, a helicopter and ATP-rated pilot who worked in FAA’s Satellite Navigation Program Office as part of the WAAS National Airspace Implementation Team, died on June 15 in Melbourne, Fla. He gave a June 8 presentation during the performance-based navigation (PBN) workshop at the Rotor & Wing 2010 Safety and Training Summit in Denver.

Salat started out as a U.S. Army medevac pilot in Fort Bragg, N.C. He served for upwards of 25 years as a corporate pilot, including with CBS, as well as an air traffic controller at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in New York. Salat accumulated more than 12,000 accident-free hours in fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. He had served as chairman of the Helicopter Association International (HAI) Flight Operations Committee and was a member of the National Business Aviation Association.

During the Safety and Training Summit, Salat updated attendees about receiving wide area augmentation system (WAAS) certification for an FAA project with Bell Helicopter involving a 429 in EMS operations, and an effort with Harris Corp. to develop a low-altitude air traffic support system, including AWOS, automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) capability and video monitoring.

Salat is survived by his wife, Melissa, daughter Marla and his mother, two sisters and one brother. Memorial donations can be sent to the Moffitt Cancer Center Foundation of Tampa, Fla., or made online through www.moffitt.org/giving. (From August 2010 Rotorcraft Report)