AOPA says the Washington ADIZ should be a temporary measure, activated only when there’s a credible security threat to the capital, instead of the persistent thorn in the side that it has become. And effectively expanding its effects to 100 nm from the city through mandatory training should be off the table. In comments on the FAA’s proposed rule to require that training, AOPA President Phil Boyer says only those who intend to fly within the ADIZ should need the training and, he argues, the vast majority of those who do venture in there are well-versed on the procedures and so-called incursions are generally the result minor errors in transponder operation. “A recent AOPA survey of pilots revealed that the biggest ADIZ-related concern they had was making a mistake while following procedures,” said Boyer. “This clearly demonstrates that most pilots likely to fly in the ADIZ know the rules already. Mandatory training for anyone flying up to 70 nm away from the ADIZ boundary isn’t going to reduce significantly the number of technical incursions.” AOPA also suggests the FAA is jumping the gun with the training rule because the final configuration of the ADIZ hasn’t been settled yet. A proposed rule to make the ADIZ permanent drew 22,000 comments (virtually all of them negative) and the agency hasn’t finished going through them yet. “It begs the question of whether the agency is truly committed to considering public comment and following the rulemaking process as required by law,” he said.
