FAA and Regs

Airport operators and flight schools in the Palm Beach, Florida, area are bracing for long-term economic loss and disruption due to the presidential TFR covering President Trump’s visits to his Mar-a-Lago resort. For the third weekend in a row, the presidential TFR covering Trump’s visit has shut down busy Palm Beach Country/Lantana airport and disrupted […]

NBAA and four businesses have petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals to review the FAA’s deal with the City of Santa Monica to shorten the airport’s runway. Under the deal, the runway would be cut immediately to 3,500 feet from almost 5,000, limiting its use and likely forcing some of the current tenants to immediately […]

More than 90% percent of certification work on new aircraft and aircraft parts is outsourced by the FAA to the manufacturers themselves, according to a GAO report. Similar to the FAA delegation of airman certification authority to Designated Pilot Examiners, the FAA has been authorizing most certification work to be performed by employees of the […]

General aviation pilots have several auto-fume modes. One of them is ADS-B and anything to do with medicals is a good way to get people spun up. So is the argument that the administrator of the FAA should be a pilot. This is a perennial and it came up last week when President Donald Trump […]

About 20 passengers aboard a United Airlines flight decided they really didn’t need to go to San Francisco after all on Saturday after their casually dressed captain delivered a bizarre rant over the PA system. The unidentified pilot boarded the aircraft in Austin wearing a ball cap and a t-shirt and opened by asking the […]

The majority of Americans across gender, political affiliation and age groups oppose privatization of the U.S. air traffic control system, according to a recent poll. Although voters surveyed were evenly split on the merits of privatizing government services generally, when asked about operation of the air traffic control system, those surveyed were opposed to privatization […]

After a month on simmer, what do AVweb readers think aboutthe FAA’s new BasicMed Third-Class medical exemption rule? Our recently completed survey provides a glimpse and if I could characterize the overall mood, I’d call it disappointed resignation. Why the disappointment? If there’s any common theme in the responses we received on the survey it’s […]

The FAA has pushed back by a week the effective date of new rules allowing increased use of enhanced flight vision systems (EFVS) during takeoff and landing. In a Federal Register notice issuedWednesday, the agency said it is delaying the effective date “to allow for the review of this final rule in accordance with the […]

The FAA on Tuesday published an emergency Final Rule that requires the operators of certain Piper twins to check the wiring for defects. “This AD [Airworthiness Directive] was prompted by a fatal accident where evidence of thermal damage in this area was found,” the FAA said. The AD requires the initial inspection within 30 days […]

Pilots should be wary when operating close to the boundaries of Class B airspace, the FAA said recently in a Safety Alert for Operators. Flight crew who are on a visual approach may sometimes stray outside the boundaries of the designated airspace, the FAA said. In addition, the published approaches may sometimes take an airplane […]