The United States has the largest and most diverse GA community in the world, with more than 220,000 aircraft — including amateur-built aircraft, rotorcraft, balloons, and highly sophisticated turbojets.
The FAA and the GA community are working together to put the right technologies, regulations, and education initiatives in place to improve safety, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta reported at EAA AirVenture 2016 in Oshkosh.
“The passion that drives pilots to fly here, year after year, is the same passion that fuels so much of the work we do every day at the FAA,” said Huerta. “We’re committed to making general aviation safer and more efficient and we’re making a lot of progress. Collaboration between the FAA and industry is allowing the GA community to benefit from upgraded technology, lower costs, and higher levels of safety.”
By working together, the FAA and industry are transforming general aviation in a number of ways:
The FAA is offering a one-time $500 rebate to general aviation owners to help offset the cost of purchasing ADS-B Out equipment, or an integrated system that also includes ADS-B In. The agency will issue 20,000 rebates on a first-come, first-served basis beginning this fall to owners of U.S. registered, fixed-wing, and single-engine piston aircraft. According to Huerta, the Jan. 1, 2020, deadline will not change, so the time to buy ADS-B equipment is now.
The Got Data? External Data Access Initiative aims to improve the public’s access to FAA data. The initiative will spur innovation, provide better opportunities for the development of new applications and services, and ultimately, advance the safety and efficiency of the aviation industry.
The FAA also is working to meet a recent Congressional mandate to draft a rule within 180 days that will allow pilots to fly without a medical certificate if they have a driver’s license, held a medical certificate within the past 10 years, completed a medical education course, and have been physically examined by a state-licensed physician, Huerta reported.
The Part 23 proposed rule and Non-Required Safety Enhancing Equipment (NORSEE) policy are aimed at streamlining aircraft certification.
Part 23 would overhaul the airworthiness standards for small general aviation aircraft, which would speed the time it takes to move safety-enhancing technologies for small airplanes into the marketplace.
The recent NORSEE policy will encourage general aviation aircraft owners to voluntary install safety equipment on airplanes and helicopters that is not required by the agency’s regulations. It will reduce costs and streamline the installation equipment, such as traffic advisory systems, terrain awareness and warning systems; attitude indicators; fire extinguishing systems; and autopilot or stability augmentation systems.
New Airman Certification Standards provide pilots, instructors and evaluators with a single-source set of clear, logical standards that tell them what they need to know, consider and do to qualify and pass both the knowledge and practical tests for airman certification and ratings.
The GA Joint Steering Committee promotes safety technologies and best practices within the general aviation community and is working to reduce risk in general aviation. The FAA partners with GA to raise awareness about safety issues such as Loss of Control – the number one cause of fatal general aviation accidents – through the Fly Safe education campaign.
The FAA administrator also encouraged the general aviation community to spread a positive safety culture to the newest members of the community who operate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Pilots and aircraft owners can share important UAS information with their friends and family on flying unmanned aircraft for fun or work.
When is the FAA going to do something about the fiasco they created when they got the idea to use SSN’s as a license number. There are thousands of log books out there with peoples names and SSN’s in them. What easier place to steal some ID’s
James, the FAA did something about this years ago. They offered any pilot the opportunity to obtain a new license free of charge if they wished to change from their SSN to a new number given by the FAA.
What about the SSN’s in the thousands of log books out there? All it would take would be an AD. If i were a thieve I could go looking at log books and get SSNs and names. Maybe some addresses also.
A taxpayer subsidized FAA administered $500 rebate as a [poorly conceived ill-advised and massively over-specified] ADS-B equipage incentive is an absolute government proposed travesty. No way is the ADS-B deadline as FAA envisions it going to take effect in the US by 2020. NextGen and ADS-B equipage are both on track for a massive multi-billion dollar failure disaster. The airlines are already getting relief beyond 2020, nowhere near equipping at the FAA assumed rate. DoD isn’t going to meet the deadline either. GA isn’t going to meet the deadline either by a long shot, and international operators are not going to meet the FAA deadline. FAA is dreaming if they think a $500 rebate is going to substantially alter the seriously faulty outcome. A version of ADS-B is needed like Canada or Australia (without obsolete WAAS), and that the rest of the world already can have, …NOT FAA’s fouled up over-specified 91.225/.227 ill-conceived version, that will not ever work globally, for any useful C-N-S solution, even at any price.