FAA and Regs

Boeing has told at least three airlines to immediately ground a total of eight Boeing 787 Dreamliners for structural defects that occurred during manufacturing. The company issued a statement late last week that said it knows the aircraft have “two distinct manufacturing issues” that “result in a condition that does not meet our design standards.” […]

The FAA has issued an emergency airworthiness directive (AD) telling those who have Sandia SAI-340A attitude indicators that they cannot fly them under IFR or night VFR conditions and that the instrument must not be coupled to an autopilot. The device is also sold as a BendixKing KI-300. The agency is aware of 54 units […]

The FAA is apparently resisting moving a localizer at Detroit Metro Airport whose signals are sometimes blocked by taxiing aircraft. According to WXYZ, an air traffic controller at the airport filed a whistleblower complaint after he and fellow controllers, as well as pilots who suddenly lost the signal on final, were ignored by the agency. […]

The FAA has announced it is looking at technologies to clear “rogue drones” from the airspace near airports after a few collisions and some close calls, including one that might have involved Air Force One. The agency will evaluate at least 10 systems designed to disable or neutralize drones in trials that will initially be […]

Transport Canada will become the first foreign aviation agency to flight test the changes to the Boeing 737 MAX with a few hops that will originate in Canada but be conducted over Washington State. In late June, the FAA did its flight evaluation of changes to the flight control software that will change the way […]

The Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have issued a joint advisory designed to clarify federal laws and regulations potentially applicable to “the use of capabilities to detect and mitigate threats posed by Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operations.” The “Advisory on the Application […]

The FAA has opened up the Piper Cherokee spar corrosion AD for comments again after AOPA pressed for less expensive ways to address the potential problem. The AD, which was initially proposed in November of 2017, will continue to affect more than 11,000 Cherokees and Cherokee Sixes but some alternative methods of compliance suggested by […]

An independent survey of FAA safety division employees suggests they feel pressure to accommodate industry demands at the expense of safety. The Mitre Corporation survey was sent to 7,000 employees in the aviation safety group and 25 percent responded. Those who took the time painted a picture of a regulatory agency influenced by the financial […]

Airlines are enforcing their individual mask mandates in the absence of any government mandates and several flights have been turned around in the last couple of weeks because passengers refused to wear them. The latest was a Delta flight that returned to Detroit Metro because two passengers “were non-compliant with crew instructions.” The rest of […]

AOPA is reporting that hundreds of pilots may have to take their practical tests over again after an FAA investigation revealed issues with the performance of a Cincinnati FAA examiner. Anyone who passed ride with Michael A. Puehler between 2008 and 2019 may have to take the test again. AOPA says the FAA said the […]