FAA and Regs

Letter of the Week:Overregulation to Blame Regarding the “Question of the Week”: GA was in decline long before the recession and will not recover to its glory days until the cost of aircraft ownership comes down. A new single-engine piston basic trainer currently costs the same as a Ferrari. This is due to a long-standing, […]

AOPA is reporting that a group of senators has introduced a bill that would require the FAA to follow rulemaking procedures before it could adopt its much-maligned new standard for expensive sleep apnea testing for pilots. The Senate bill, introduced by members of the bipartisan General Aviation Caucus, Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., […]

On Jan. 16 the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued its annual Most Wanted list of needed improvements in transportation safety. The aviation-related items are a need to identify and communicate hazardous weather conditions to pilots, address the unique characteristics of helicopter operations, strengthen occupant protection, improve fire safety and eliminate pilot distractions. At a […]

Canadian authorities are investigating the case of n teenager who was apparently allowed to board a flight even after security found a pipe bomb in his carry-on. Using gunpowder obtained from an undisclosed source, 18-year-old Skylar Murphy of Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada, and a buddy made two pipe bombs. Boys being boys with explosives, they […]

With all the literal and figurative bells and whistles in todays cockpits, something as mundane as losing communications with ATC is rare. One reason is the stuff we have in the panel these days is a couple of light years ahead of even two decades ago in reliability. But loss of communications-going no radio, or […]

Even as the number of laser attacks on aircraft has shot up, convictions of the accused have been difficult to achieve. Now, as reported by Phys.org, new, reasonably priced technology may help. In 2006, 384 laser attacks on flight crews were reported-that number shot up to 3482 in 2012 and, while all data has not […]

GAMA says Appropriations Committee leaders have called for a slight increase in funding for the FAA to research alternatives to 100LL. The administration included $5.571 million for the fuel research in its spending estimates but the committees agreed on $6 million. If it’s approved by Congress, it will be one of only a handful of […]

Letter of the Week:Affordable Avionics Garmin’s comments are just silly. They don’t want to use open standards because then they would have to admit there are things that might be better than what they have. A bunch of years ago, some large computer manufacturer said, “Don’t get locked into open systems,” and that large computer […]

When we report the news, especially the news about the FAA, we do so as if observing a dense, featureless black cube at street level. Occasionally, a statement of some sort emerges from the cube which we quote and this passes for news. In other words, we dont have even a muddled picture of what […]

AOPA has announced that it received a letter from FAA Administrator Michael Huerta apologizing for the FAAs nearly two-year delay in responding to the joint AOPA-EAA petition that would expand the use of the drivers license medical standard. In his Dec. 26 letter, Huerta said it was important to ensure that such an unprecedented change […]