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FAA to Charge $150 per Pilot for iPad App Data

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Key Takeaways:

  • The FAA's AeroNav division plans to introduce fees for its previously free navigation data to cover a $5 million budget shortfall, proposing either a $150 annual charge per pilot or a developer-based flat fee.
  • These plans were discussed in a private meeting with app developers, while the public and press were excluded, leading to criticisms of a lack of transparency.
  • Industry professionals have questioned the proposed fees' unrealistic user estimations, administrative complexities, legal compliance, and the "unrealistic" April 15, 2012, implementation deadline.
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The FAA’s AeroNav division held a meeting in Washington, D.C., this week to which it invited around 70 prominent players in the app developer community. Specifically excluded from the event were the public and the press — Flying and at least one other aviation news outlet requested to attend and were turned down.

The ostensible purpose of the meeting, according to sources who asked not to be identified, was to gather industry input on AeroNav’s plan to raise fees for its data. Currently the data is essentially free to developers and even end users.

Isabel Goyer

A commercial pilot, Isabel Goyer has been flying for more than 40 years, with hundreds of different aircraft in her logbook and thousands of hours. An award-winning aviation writer, photographer and editor, Ms. Goyer led teams at Sport Pilot, Air Progress and Flying before coming to Plane & Pilot in 2015.

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