FAA

Possession of an instrument rating opens the door to airports when the weather is below basic VFR, provided the aircraft is properly equipped and that someone has a copy of the appropriate instrument approach plate — either electronic or paper — for guidance. Anywhere and in any weather… almost. There are roughly 40 U.S. airports […]

Aircraft operating under part 91K, 121, 125, or 135, that use an electronic flight bag as a replacement for carrying required paperwork such as instrument approach plates or aircraft manuals, will want to spend some time with the guidelines in FAA’s recently updated AC 120-76D. The new version clarifies the definition of an EFB as […]

The NBAA has asked the FAA to “hit the pause button” on decommissioning old circling approaches, as well as those with circling minima, until the agency evaluates recent glitches in some FMS and navigational databases. The FAA said new area navigation technologies have fostered a doubling of usable approach procedures in the past decade and […]

Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao’s office sent out a memo announcing new information about the FAA’s state program to allow state and local governments to control their own drone regulations. It will also allow them to partner with private sector entities such as UAS operators or manufacturers to accelerate safe UAS integration. “Entities that wish […]

President Donald J. Trump’s memorandum to the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao called for an initiative to safely test operations for drones in partnership with state and local governments in select jurisdictions. The Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration Pilot Program will be used to accelerate the integration of UAS into the national airspace […]

There was good news at the FAA’s General Aviation Safety Summit held this week in Washington, D.C. “We’re still finalizing the numbers, but it looks like 2017 will end up being our safest year yet,” said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta in a speech at the Summit. The fatal accident rate has declined below one per […]

The National Transportation Safety Board this week called upon the FAA to treat balloon pilots like all others by requiring them to possess a current medical certificate. Currently, balloon pilots are exempt from medical certificate requirement in order to conduct commercial operations. In an abstract of the soon-to-be-released final report, the NTSB took the FAA […]

A temporary restraining order that had Santa Monica Airport supporters jumping for joy last week turned out to be short lived. The City of Santa Monica plans to start the process of shortening runway 3-21 on October 23 after Senior U.S. District Judge Ronald S. Lew denied a preliminary injunction and dissolved a temporary restraining […]

Just two weeks after an Air France Airbus A380 enroute to Los Angeles from Paris made an emergency landing at Goose Bay Labrador, following the failure of an engine fan hub, the FAA issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive against the airplane’s Engine Alliance GP7200 series powerplants. The Air France A380’s number four engine on September […]

Remember those executive orders President Donald Trump issued early this year aimed at simplifying and cutting costs in government? My favorite was the one requiring agencies to repeal two existing regulations before creating a new one. Close on the heels of that came “Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda,” which directed agencies to evaluate existing regulations […]