leadnews

The House dealt a significant blow (psychologically, anyway) to the FAA’s cost-cutting plans last week when it included language in the agency’s appropriations bill that would prevent it from spending money to combine terminal radar approach control (TRACON) facilities. The FAA says it can save millions of dollars a year by having larger and fewer […]

Worries already are spreading that older airports in the wintry parts of the country could be hard hit by the changes, though airport operators so far are denying it. More flights could be cancelled or be forced to divert. One side effect of the policy, if it does prove problematic, is that it could make […]

Both the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) have already expressed opposition to the FAA’s rule and its method of announcing it. NATA President James Coyne called it “an abusive interpretation of the regulations,” and called on the FAA to use the standard rulemaking procedures and solicit comment from […]

Winter is still a long way off, but jet operators need to think about it now, in light of a new policy published by the FAA last week. The policy mandates that jet operators — whether operating under Part 91, 123, 125 or 135 — must have a plan by Sept. 1 to ensure that […]

The Los Angeles area has some of the busiest airspace in the world, so when reports began to surface that the Sheriff’s Department was evaluating a four-pound UAV to use for surveillance, pilots quickly raised an alarm. Staff at AOPA rang the FAA, and the FAA quickly made it clear to the sheriff that as […]

Last week in Paris, a conference on UAVs worked to hash out plans for integrating the vehicles into civilian airspace by 2008. Four demonstration projects are currently being planned, focusing on affordability, propulsion, logistics and an integrated system demonstration, Flight International reported Tuesday. Meanwhile, Canada’s Department of National Defence is working to award a contract […]

The FAA and the Air Force have reached a preliminary agreement on procedures that would allow unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to be deployed in civilian airspace during emergencies, InsideDefense.com reported last week. “If a national disaster is declared, we will be able to use unmanned aerial systems such as Predator and Global Hawk over a […]

One of NATCA’s bargaining chips through negotiations and the 60-day period of congressional consideration was that the last best offer by the FAA, which theoretically is in the process of being imposed on the union, will actually cost the top echelon of controllers money. If those most experienced controllers continue working, changes to location pay […]

Well, John Carr, the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, has never been lost for words but he was in rare form last Thursday when we caught him, on his cellphone, on a Washington, D.C., freeway, for our Friday podcast. It was about 12 hours after a vote on a bill in the […]

Under the new Sport Pilot classification, the concept of self-certification is really put to the test — except for those who have already flunked an airman’s medical. While new pilots can simply show a driver’s license as proof of medical fitness, those who may have had a recreational or higher certificate but lost it for […]