PILOT DATABASE EXPANSION OPPOSED
NBAA is fighting a proposed FAA pilot record database that will require airlines and so-called “gateway operators” to keep files on pilots, including written and practical tests for ratings and endorsements and even training notes during flight instruction. The proposal is an expansion of the Pilot Records Improvement Act enacted in 1997 that established requirements for air carriers to do background checks on pilots before allowing them in the cockpit. The proposed rule increases the scope of the record keeping to include corporate flight departments because those are seen as stepping stones to the right seat in airliners. NBAA says the expansion of the requirements will create a lot of work for operators who aren’t set up for that kind of record keeping and disputes that corporate aviation is the pipeline to the airlines that the FAA seems to think it is.
GPS JAMMING POTENTIAL PROTESTED
A cell phone company that was once called LightSquared has been resurrected as Ligado Networks and been granted a narrow band of radio frequency right next to the frequencies used by GPS satellites to communicate with all manner of receivers, including those used for air navigation. The fear is that the cell signals, which are millions of times more powerful than the tiny emissions from space, will overwhelm the GPS signals and cause failures. Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, on behalf of opponents to the plan,told the Space Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board the move “constitutes a dereliction of duty on the FCC’s part.”
