FAA and Regs

Fresh into an all-New Year, it’s tempting to hope that somehow, this year things will be different. The old traps and habits and flaws of the past will fade away, as transient as champagne bubbles and confetti, and life will be shiny and new. Yet a few weeks later we find ourselves back in our […]

Letter of the Week:First Officers on the Ground I’m sure the FOs can work remotely – but why? The airline is still paying the FO’s salary. Additionally, how will the FO get stick time? The incidental expenses the airlines saves by keeping the FO home likely won’t pay the legal settlement the next time a […]

One of the most thankless jobs in aviation has to be that of an FAA Aviation Safety Inspector (ASI). This cadre of experienced aviation professionals has made the choice to work for the government bureaucracy that is the FAA and by doing so, are in many cases the front line for safety in aviation. But […]

Letter of the Week:Third Class Medical Issues Regarding Woody Beck’s article on the decline of GA: He states the following,“Over the longer term, changes in the third class medical will have no significant impact because its cost is negligible, roughly the cost of 15 gallons of av fuel every two years for us older pilots.” […]

Transport Canada just released some proposed guidance on the commercial operation of light unmanned aerial systems. Drones. If you haven’t had a chance to look it over, here’s the link (PDF). I suggest at least skimming it. (I’ll wait while you do that.) Clearly, our friends north of the border have come adrift from reality […]

Now that the debris from the Tuesday election has rained back down from the heavens, how is general aviation likely to fair in a decidedly red Congress? Such that the 113th Congress didn’t accomplish much of anything, are the prospects for GA any better in the 114th, which convenes in January? Based on conversations I […]

The FAA issued a final rule on Wednesday expanding icing certification standards for transport-category airplanes. The new measure requires Part 25 (transport category) aircraft that weigh less than 60,000 pounds to be certified for flight in icing caused by supercooled large droplets — which make up freezing drizzle and freezing rain — as well as […]

In January 2012, Bell Canada applied to the FAA for an exemption from the FARs that would allow it to increase the gross weight of its Model 429 by 500 pounds to 7,500 pounds as had been approved in Canada and a number of other countries. The FAA denied the petition in August 2012. Bell […]

While the rest of the world, especially Israel and Australia, move rapidly forward with commercial deployment of unmanned aircraft systems, the FAA’s slow formulation of regulations endangers the U.S. ability to compete. That was one observation that came out of an hour-long panel discussion attended by several hundred people at NBAA in Orlando this week. […]

Last week, the FAA issued Change 6 to the Compliance and Enforcement Handbook for its inspectors, providing enforcement guidelines for violation of the FARs by drone operators. Among its provisions, it establishes a basis for holding certificated aircraft pilots to a higher standard than other drone operators, potentially leading to harsher punishments for certificated pilots […]