Aviation Relations

Ground-based navigation and approach systems were built for precision. ILS, VOR, MALSR, PAPI, AWOS, RMM (remote monitoring), and airport lighting control. They do exactly what they were designed to do.

What changed is the infrastructure underneath them. Carrier circuits that used to be isolated copper are now IP-based. Vendor remote-access paths that used to be point-to-point now run over shared networks.

Non-federal AWOS data travels through a third-party service provider via a circuit that the airport did not choose before reaching the FAA weather system. Each of those changes happened for legitimate reasons. Almost none of them came with a conversation about what changed from a security standpoint.

That is not negligence. It is a documentation gap. Nobody has looked at the full picture from both the operational and network sides at the same time. Most airports do not have that picture documented anywhere today.

That change did not just add convenience. It changed exposure.

That is what Aviation Relations helps airports understand.

Who This Is For

Smaller commercial service and general aviation airports manage operational infrastructure without a dedicated OT or cybersecurity resource. Facilities where navigation and approach systems are vendor-maintained. Airports that have used AIP funding for infrastructure that now has some form of network connectivity, whether or not the details of that connectivity are documented anywhere.

If that describes your airport, you do not need to know whether you have a problem. You need to know what you have. That is a completely different and much easier starting point.

How It Works

The Airport Operational Infrastructure Assessment maps your operational environment. What systems are present, how they connect, who has access, and where documentation gaps exist.

You walk away with a written record of what you have, what connects to what, and where the gaps are. Useful for AIP grant scoping, vendor conversations, and setting next year's priorities.

The findings belong to you. No vendor recommendation attached. No follow-on obligation.

Free for smaller commercial service and general aviation airports managing their own operational infrastructure. No obligation. Useful regardless of what the findings show.

Latest Insights

When something happens at another airport, you want to know what it means for your systems. These pieces translate real events into operational implications, written by someone who has worked inside the systems involved. Five to ten per year, when something is worth writing about.

Teddy Cooper

Twenty-four years in federal aviation. Military avionics before that.

Ground-based navigation systems hands-on: ILS localizer and glideslope, MALSR, ALSF, PAPI, VOR, DME, AWOS, RMM (remote monitoring), airport lighting control.

MSIT, Information Security specialization. CompTIA CySA+.

Most people who work in OT security have never commissioned an ILS. Most people who have commissioned an ILS have never thought in network terms. The assessment methodology requires both. That combination is what Aviation Relations brings.

All consulting activity is conducted in a personal capacity, independent of any federal employment.

Aviation Relations. So airports can answer the question when it gets asked.