EAA spokesman Dick Knapinski said the organization has been aware of the memo since it was issued last year and has worked behind the scenes to help individual pilots at the affected airports. However, Knapinski said the memo is fundamentally flawed in that it can only apply to aircraft that the local authorities are familiar with. “The way it stands now, there’s nothing to stop someone from flying an experimental aircraft in from somewhere else, overnighting and taking off the next day,” said Knapinski. “It creates two different levels of enforcement.” … And perhaps enforcement by personal interpretation. In addition to helping pilots at the affected airports, Knapinski said EAA has been lobbying FAA officials on the matter. “We’ve been after the FAA about this and I think we’re making some progress,” he said. Knapinski said the Van Nuys memo was “enacted at the local level” and allowing such local interpretation can cause problems. “Those levels of various rulemaking in these instances is something that EAA is constantly working against, because it leads to confusion in the pilot community,” he said.
Policy Discriminatory, Says EAA
Key Takeaways:
- The EAA is actively addressing a problematic local memo that inconsistently enforces rules for experimental aircraft, creating two levels of enforcement at affected airports.
- EAA spokesperson Dick Knapinski highlights the memo's fundamental flaw, noting it only applies to locally familiar aircraft, not transient ones, causing unfair disparity.
- The EAA is lobbying FAA officials to resolve this issue, arguing that such local interpretations and rulemaking lead to significant confusion within the pilot community.
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