FAA and Regs

The FAA opened its annual General Aviation (GA) and Part 135 Activity Survey on Monday. According to the agency, the survey is mailed out to a “representative sample of GA and on-demand Part 135 aircraft owners and operators” and is designed to estimate the size, primary use, and flight hours of the 2019 GA fleet. […]

It is nearly impossible to mention the AIM in a discussion of proper procedures without hearing “the AIM is not regulatory!” as a retort. Often, implicit in the response is, “so we don’t really have to follow it.” But is that true? What is the difference between “regulatory” and “non‑regulatory”? Does “non‑regulatory” mean we are […]

Aviation regulators and authorities are a “find and replace” away from welcoming more females to the industry according to one advocacy group. The Institute for Women of Aviation Worldwide (IWOAW) has launched a petition calling for the FAA and others to eliminate airman and airmen from the thousands of pages of rules and regulations they […]

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Office of Inspector General announced on Monday that it has initiated an audit of the FAA’s pilot training requirements due to concerns raised by the fatal crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March 2019, both Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. The […]

The FAA is proposing to issue type certificates for individual unmanned aircraft designs heavier than 55 pounds that will be used for package delivery. In a Federal Register Notice published last week, the agency says it wants to certify drones under the “special class” category that addresses aircraft “for which certification standards do not exist […]

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the FAA and EASA are at odds over a potential wiring issue that was flagged during ongoing review of certification procedures on the Boeing 737 MAX. Boeing recently alerted the FAA that a wiring bundle for tail section controls on the MAX and maybe the previous generation NGs […]

The Collings Foundation is hopeful it will be able to resume passenger flights on its historic aircraft after the FAA finishes a review of its operations. The Collings B-17 Nine-Oh-Nine crashed at Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Connecticut, in October, killing seven and injuring another seven, including one person on the ground. It canceled the […]

Airlines got mixed messages about the return to service of the Boeing 737 MAX last week. Early in the week, Boeing said it was predicting the plane wouldn’t be ready for passengers until at least June. On Thursday, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson huddled with the CEOs of the U.S. airlines affected by the grounding of […]

The legal fallout from a Delta 777’s fuel dump over parts of Los Angeles last week has begun to pile up and the FAA has promised to “thoroughly investigate” the incident. The aircraft took off from LAX for Shanghai just before noon last Tuesday and on the tower tape the crew accepted a “high speed […]

A government advisory committee tasked with investigating FAA aircraft certification procedures and the certification of the grounded 737 MAX 8 has found that the proper process was followed by Boeing and the FAA when certifying the MAX. The Special Committee to Review the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aircraft Certification Process also found the FAA’s certification procedures […]