FAA and Regs

The FAA says it’s working with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to update guidelines for air carriers on COVID-19 precautions but the head of the nation’s biggest pilots’ union says the current regime isn’t enough. ALPA President Capt. Joe DePete told WOIO in Cleveland that the FAA needs to mandate compliance with CDC recommendations […]

It’s been 20 years since the Air Tour Management Act of 2000, governing the nature and frequency of commercial sightseeing flights in national parks, was enacted and a federal judge says it’s time the FAA and National Parks Service started enforcing it. Circuit Court Judge Thomas Griffith told the agencies to end their turf war […]

The FAA has published a Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) designed to provide regulatory relief for individuals unable to meet some training, experience, testing and checking requirements due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The SFAR includes provisions for expiring flight instructor and medical certificates, recent flight experience requirements, flight reviews, knowledge tests and inspection authorizations. […]

The FAA has announced plans to temporarily adjust operating hours at approximately 100 air traffic control towers nationwide due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. When choosing how to modify hours, the agency says it looked at hourly aircraft counts and safety during non-towered times, air carrier, air taxi, and special operations, the ability of the […]

The FAA has issued guidance to airlines who want to take the seats out of idle aircraft and fill them with cargo. The drastic drop in passenger traffic has had a parallel effect on available cargo space. Some airlines were flying cargo-only flights with empty seats upstairs but the safety alert for operators (SAFO) issued […]

Pilots using chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine to prevent coronavirus infection (COVID-19) cannot fly while on the medication and for 48 hours after the last dose, according to guidance issued by Director of the Medical Specialties Division at the FAA’s Office of Aerospace Medicine Dr. Penny Giovanetti. Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are typically used for prevention and treatment […]

The FAA has published proposed new rules that would set noise limits for a new generation of supersonic civilian aircraft. The existing regs don’t account for supersonic aircraft. Regulations acknowledging the unique requirements of supersonic aircraft will have to be in place when any of several companies now developing supersonic business jets apply for type […]

Airbus has determined that acoustic resonance is behind the destruction of four engines on its new A220 airliners in the last couple of years. The company has come up with a software fix for the condition, which caused in-flight shutdowns of the Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines on three Swiss flights and one on […]

The FAA has put all its COVID-19-related exemptions, policy deviations and various other pronouncements approved so far on a single webpage to help pilots, operators and maintenance organizations navigate the myriad time and personal-contact dependent regs that govern aviation enterprise. The agency has essentially thrown out the book that it normally throws at violators of […]

The shortage of face masks has reached the FAA aircraft certification bureaucracy in the form of an extension of compliance time for an AD requiring inspection of the wing carry-through spars on some Cessna 210s. The process involves chemicals that require technicians to use masks so the calendar deadline for compliance has been moved from […]