Editor’s Log

If youve been paying attention to the GA industrys efforts to deregulate the FAA medical certificate, you may know theyre proceeding along multiple paths. Progress is being made, but its slow and often not easily identified. Such is the nature of political thrust and drag.As you may recall, eliminating the need for an FAA medical certificate has been proposed for non-commercial operations of airplanes weighing 6000 pounds or less. Its based in part on the success of the sport pilot certificate and the 10-plus years of experience weve had with pilots using a state-issued drivers license to demonstrate their medical fitness.

Every few years, the law Congress uses to set the FAAs agenda and priorities expires, creating demand for a new aviation bill in Congress. The last one was enacted in 2012 but only after non-essential FAA functions were shut down when the previous version expired without an extension. That law expires this coming September 30, and Congress will be wrestling with options this summer.

Theres an old, tasteless joke from the mid-1990s, back when some Boeing 737s were having a problem with uncommanded rudder movement eventually traced to the hydraulic systems power control unit. The rudder hardovers were probable causes in two fatal U.S. accidents, and were suspected in other incidents worldwide.

As GPS becomes more ubiquitous-and as the FAA works to reduce its expenses for things like navigation facilities, airports and controllers-it has long-range plans to unplug hundreds of VOR facilities throughout the U.S. in favor of the satellites. There were 967 U.S. VORs operating in late 2012, and AOPA says the FAA wanted that number to be 500 by January 2020, when ADS-B and the next-generation ATC system are supposed to be in place.

I was out recently with a friend/neighbor/CFI, brushing the rust off some basic skills. After 20 or so minutes of slow flight, stalls, steep turns and some erratic, uncoordinated maneuvers purporting to be Lazy 8s, we rolled straight and level for a few minutes to chat and move away from a cloud deck.

Its that time again: On September 30, the FAAs existing Congressional mandate will expire, and with it the authority to spend money to do what it does. This is the tail-end of a three-year bill passed in 2012. But dont get excited; the FAA isnt going out of existence in September. Instead-and probably around the time you read this-the new Congress will crank up its policy apparatus with a goal of finaliziing a bill right about the time EAAs AirVenture 2015 kicks off. It promises to be an interesting year.

Like me, youve probably been using the FAAs free traffic and flight information. The two services, TIS-B and FIS-B, respectively, comprise the basic benefits the typical GA operator can expect from ADS-B IN, a component of the FAAs NextGen ATC system. Theyre available now, well in advance of the FAAs 2020 mandate to install and use the other component, ADS-B OUT.

Ive been thinking about recent attempts to produce and bring to the market refurbished aircraft, especially of types no longer in production, like the Cessna 150/152. These are worthy efforts, and can be a good option when the economics work out. Theres a lot of life left in Cessnas 150/152 series, and modernizing them for the flying club market can make sense under the right circumstances.

In mid-September, the NTSB released its preliminary aviation accident statistics for 2013, which contained two pieces of good news. First, the preliminary numbers show an overall decline in the number of U.S.-registered civil aviation accidents, which dropped sharply, from 1539 in 2012 to 1297 in 2013.

On August 30, an SR22T crashed in the Atlantic Ocean after its pilot become unresponsive. The airplane had been cruising at FL210, then descended to 13,000, according to FlightAware.com, before it went Nordo.