FAA

(April 2011) WEIGHT MATTERS. EVEN in the light-sport aircraft world. As I wrote in last month’s column about the LSA categories, the maximum gross weight is one of the key factors in determining whether or not an aircraft meets the FAA’s LSA definition. How did the FAA come to that final 1,320-pound figure? Well, it […]

On Monday FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt announced a plan to reduce general aviation accidents substantially and incrementally over the next 10 years with a 10 percent improvement as the target. At Sun ‘n Fun, the FAA will host the first of nearly 100 meetings across the country designed to let pilots and the FAA work […]

A letter was issued to the FAA last week by the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) and AOPA criticizing the recent unannounced but significant changes to the FAA knowledge test question database. Noticeable changes have appeared for the airline transport pilot (ATP), flight engineer (FE) and fundamentals of instruction (FOI) tests, and others may […]

No doubt you’ve heard by now that Congress has ordered the FAA to add photos and biometric data to all pilot certificates, which would have to be renewed every eight years with a new photo at an out-of-pocket cost to you of $22. Or maybe it’s $50. Or maybe it’s more than that. Nobody’s really […]

(February 2011) — We got an e-mail last month from a reader taking Peter Garrison to task for suggesting in his Technicalities column that, if the FAA did a thorough review of the Light Sport Aircraft industry, it would find a lot of discrepancies in the certification process for light-sport airplanes. It seemed like a […]

The FAA’s aircraft re-registration initiative has caught the attention of headline writers in the general media. “FAA loses track of 190,000 planes” was one. Naturally, the emphasis in the stories was on the potential threat to security. In fact, the larger concern is one of administrative housekeeping. Under the new rules, aircraft owners will have […]

The FAA website’s top story reflects the agency’s commitment to speeding the transformation to NextGen. It explains that Performance Based Navigation Instrument Flight Procedures (IFPs) are the key to the benefits of switching from ground-based radar to satellite-based GPS. And based on recommendations from a task force assembled by RTCA, the FAA has launched what […]

A new rule proposed by the FAA would require photo certificates for pilots. Currently, pilots carrying the “old new” tamper resistant plastic certificates must also carry a second government photo ID, such as a driver’s license. The new certificates would have to be updated every eight years with a new photo. If approved, the new […]

A rash of seat track failures in the mid 1980s led to an FAA airworthiness directive (AD) on several Cessna models. Faulty latch mechanisms led to several accidents in which the seat slid back and the pilot lost control of the airplane. Now, the FAA has published a notice of proposed rulemaking that adds new […]

If you’ve been waiting for the Aircraft Electronics Association’s take on what to expect from the FAA’s plan to implement ADS-B, you’re not going to like what you hear. In an Oct. 4, memo to the FAA, the AEA didn’t mince words. The association said the FAA’s Aug. 30 memo would “stall early equipage, delay […]