Pilot Bill of Rights, Control Riding and Dealing with Drones

The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) on June 23, 2015, wrote U.S. Senators saying it is fundamentally opposed to the dangerous policy shift proposed by the Pilots Bill of Rights II (PBOR2). Reader Martin Brookes writes that every instructor he has flown with couldnt resist adding their control input on landing via subtle, unannounced control inputs to help the student. This is an unfortunately common practice, sometimes called control riding. While its easy to bash the FAA efforts to regulate drones, its important to note Congress in 2012 told the agency to come up with a regulatory scheme allowing UAS operations in the national airspace.

Key Takeaways:

• The Pilots Bill of Rights II (PBOR2) faces significant opposition, primarily from the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and Senators Bill Nelson (FL) and Richard Blumenthal (CT), who have actively sought to weaken the bill.
• "Control riding" by flight instructors, where they subtly intervene during student landings, is criticized for hindering students from learning critical self-recovery skills and indicating a CFI's lack of confidence.
• The FAA's mandated efforts to regulate and register drones, driven by Congressional directive and public incidents, are questioned by hobbyists who feel over-regulated, though the agency's main focus is on commercial UAS operations, impacting traditional RC modelers.

Key takeaways sponsored by Aviator Pro | Start Your Training ->

See a mistake? Contact us.