Welcome to SETP

Leadership Transition at the National Test Pilot School

January 2025, President Message

Greetings and Happy New Year!

It is my honor to continue serving alongside the Board of Directors as your President in the 69^th year of our Society.  We have been hard at work and in the course of our first few meetings, we have gone about some normal business cleaning up SOP wording and streamlining the Membership/Upgrade application process with some long-needed updates – both the SOP/Constitution and Membership Committees deserve credit for this work.  We have also started preparations for the multitude of section symposia over the coming months, as well as our annual Symposium and Banquet to be held in Anaheim in September.  Shawn Kern (AF) of NASA has been appointed as the General Chairman of the S&B and his committee has been approved by the Board.  If you would like to help out in any capacity, please contact Shawn or any of his committee members:

Symposium Chairman – Bryan Kelly (M)
Luncheon Chairman – Andy Edgell (AF)
Banquet Chairman – Art Tomassetti (F)
Displays Chairman – Jeffrey Mabry (M)
                                                     Technical Tour Chairman – Glenn Graham (AF)
                                                      Education Outreach Chairman – Kevin Gross (AF)
                                                      Sponsorship Chairwoman – Laurie Balderas

Volunteerism continues to be the main source of manpower to ensure our symposia and other events are so fruitful.  At your next opportunity, please take a moment to thank these individuals and other volunteers within the Society for their efforts.

The Board of Directors has also approved the establishment of a committee to evaluate the role of SETP in the development and flight testing of unmanned air vehicles along with emerging developments in automation and autonomy in both manned and unmanned air vehicles. The committee will provide actionable recommendations to the Board to ensure SETP remains at the forefront of flight testing and actively engaged and relevant across all facets of the field.  Mike Rabens (F) has been appointed as the Committee Chairman and in January, he will be putting forward his recommended committee members to the Board for approval.

In October, I was fortunate to attend and present a technical paper at the Society of Flight Test Engineers 55^th Annual International Symposium in Seattle.  SFTE put on a nice event, and I was able to thank Jen Uchida for her great work this past year as their President and to welcome Jeff Canclini as their new President.

In terms of finances, your Society remains strong.  We have roughly $1.7M in current and non-current assets and we remain on budget through the 3^rd Quarter ending in September 2024 with no anticipated changes as we close out the fiscal year in December.  In addition to individual and corporate dues, any profit from the annual Symposium & Banquet becomes a component of revenue, and as soon as the financials are closed out from 2024, the Board will be formulating and approving the operating budget for 2025.  Our four full-time professional staff members are doing a great job managing expenses, but we will need to incorporate some overdue capital improvements into the 2025 Budget.  The Board intends to update our Headquarters building with necessary upgrades to ensure our staff are well cared for and proud to call “HQ” their home office.

Membership also remains strong.  As of September 2024, the Society had exactly 2500 members, which includes 5 Honorary Fellows.  This is an increase of almost 50 members since the previous Membership Committee report in June 2024.  Additionally, we have 79 Corporate Members, and dues from Corporate Membership accounts for a sizeable portion of SETP’s income throughout the year.  If you are employed by a company that is a Corporate Member, please take a moment to recognize and thank your leadership for their support of SETP.  If your employer is not a Corporate Member, please let them know of the opportunity to become one!

I also wanted to pass a quick note from the SETP Scholarship Foundation, chaired by John Fergione (F).  The Scholarship Foundation is currently supporting 10 children of our deceased and disabled members and 99 dependents of our active members – roughly $750k has been allocated in the 2024-2025 Academic Year.  Since inception of the Scholarship Foundation, a total of $7.83M has been allocated to beneficiaries (as reported at the end of 2023).  After the 2024 fiscal year accounting comes to a close, I’ll pass another update to you in my next President’s Memo.  I’m sure you will agree that this is an enormous benefit of membership, and it is heartwarming to see the impact this Foundation has had on countless families of our members.

The SETP Board, alongside other affiliated organizations, continues to seek ways to spread the good word about SETP and our members’ achievements and accomplishments.  Gordon McClymont (F) of the Publication Committee reports that Cockpit Magazine has had a recent influx of technical articles that will be published in the next edition, and the Flight Test Safety Committee continues to publish interesting articles and podcasts via Mark Jones Jr’s (AF) “Flight Test Safety Fact Newsletter” and Art Tomassetti’s (F) “Flight Test Safety Channel Podcast”.  We continue to communicate these efforts and other outreach events on our social media accounts – please follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram to keep up to date.  If you have an event that you feel should be advertised or simply deserves some due attention, please let me, a Board member, or the staff know about it, and we’ll get a link posted online.  And as always, please consider writing an article or submitting a paper to the Publications Committee for inclusion into Cockpit Magazine, or conversely to the Flight Test Safety Committee.

At the 68^th Annual Awards Banquet in September, I elaborated on the notion of not only celebrating but also “elevating” the “Firsts” and other notable accomplishments the members of this Society have achieved.  Your Board of Directors will continue to focus on “telling our Society’s story” and “celebrating our members’ accomplishments”, and that will continue to be my main focus for the year to come.  I won’t be able to attend every symposium this year but hope to see you in person at the West Coast, Central and European section events and in Anaheim for the 69^th Annual Symposium & Banquet.

Until then, fly with precision and passion!

Sincerely ~

Andrew “Face” McFarland (AF)
2024-2025 SETP President

October 2024, President Message

It is my honor to serve alongside our newly elected Board of Directors as your President in the 69^th year of our Society.  I’d like to thank Toonces for his leadership this past year and for his continued service as my Executive Adviser.  And I also want to acknowledge the outgoing Board for their contributions and welcome the new Board into service.  We on the Board are volunteers and not only do I appreciate each one of them but also those that serve as section officers or on committees or within the Foundations.  We have well over 100 volunteers that serve SETP in one way or another, and they all deserve recognition.  And of course, the SETP Staff is our engine that handles the day-to-day operation and planning for events such as the Symposium & Banquet, our hallmark event.  This is a great Society, and we, as your Board of Directors, will all endeavor to live up to the high expectations are predecessors have set for us.

At this year’s Annual Business Meeting, I discussed a few themes for the coming year.  Our goals are not to make major power or attitude corrections, but simply to keep us on speed, on course, and on glidepath with minor corrections to observed deviations.

• Our Future is bright. Credit should be given to the SETP Foundation for its work in the realm of Educational Outreach. We have cultivated many paths and connection points to potential future flight testers, and I’m happy to see that trend continue.  Additionally, our membership numbers are solid.  We can, of course, expand our membership and we will continue to make small strides and tweaks as we are able to increase opportunities to entice potential new members to apply.  For example, as unmanned aviation continues to grow, we’ll need to strike a balance to ensure we are making positive contributions to that burgeoning field of aviation as well as a potentially offering new avenues for membership as our constitution allows.

• We are well positioned in the Present. As I previously mentioned, volunteerism is strong. Our regional and annual symposia are strong, with an amazing array of contributors via technical presentations and guest speakers.  The Flight Test Safety Committee (a SETP Foundation led effort alongside SFTE and AIAA) is a strong and well attended collaborative organization.  And the SETP Scholarship Foundation is continuing to support the financial needs of the children and spouses of our disabled, deceased, and active members of the Society, with over $750,000 given in scholarships for the 2024-2025 academic year.

• Our Past is full of “Firsts” and our members continually create new “Firsts”. I want to ensure that we do our best as a Society, linked with the SETP Foundation’s Historical Committee, to support every opportunity to capture and communicate the good work of our members and the good name of our Society for posterity. We, as a Board, will be looking for ways to increase these opportunities and communication paths, be that through conventional publication of another historical archive or through more digital and social media means.  We are approaching the 70^th anniversary of our Society, and we have only published one historical archive that represents the first 20 years of our existence from 1955-1975.  We’ve got 50 years to catch up on!

At the 68^th Annual Awards Banquet in September, I elaborated on this notion of not only celebrating but also “elevating” the “Firsts” and other notable accomplishments the members of this Society have achieved.  We had four “First Flights” that were briefed at this year’s Symposium alone.  It is truly amazing what the members of SETP accomplish every year, and it’s actually very challenging to acknowledge them all.  I believe we need to continue to focus on “telling our Society’s story” and “celebrating our members’ accomplishments”, and that will be my main focus for the year to come.  I’ll update you from time to time on our progress.

I hope to see each of you throughout the year at the many regional events and, of course, in Anaheim for the 69^th Annual Symposium & Banquet.  Until then, fly with precision and passion!

Sincerely ~

Andrew “Face” McFarland (AF)
2024-2025 SETP President

68th Annual S&B Award Winners and 2024 Fellow Class

Herman R. Salmon Technical Publications Award

(Sponsored by Symbolic Displays)

For the Best Technical Paper published in Cockpit during the Past Year

"A Method for Identification and Correction of Altitude Errors for Special Mission and Research Aircraft”

Thomas A. Washington (M), MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Read more: 68th Annual S&B Award Winners and 2024 Fellow Class