Seven of general aviation’s advocacy groups have urged the FAA to consider extensions to examinations, pilot and CFI certifications, maintenance, and other filings during the COVID-19 crisis.
“General aviation has long been vital to the nation’s transportation and economic infrastructure,” said Christopher Cooper, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) director of regulatory affairs. “From providing medical resources to remote locations to supporting millions of jobs and economic activity across the United States, the benefit general aviation provides to the public, especially in times of national crisis, is enormous. Having these exemptions and deviations approved by the FAA will ensure general aviation has limited delay in operations to help the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In the letter to FAA Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety Ali Bahrami, the groups also cited a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP study showing that GA contributes 1.2 million jobs and $247 billion in economic activity to the United States.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has designated transportation — including general aviation — as a critical infrastructure sector.
“This letter builds upon an earlier request sent to the FAA on March 17, further explaining why these extensions are justified since general aviation is, indeed, a public good. Regulations and exemptions must be found to be for the public good, and this is the rationale the FAA used to provide exemptions for air carriers and commercial operations. We believe general aviation should also be provided exemptions based on the same rationale,” said Cooper.
The GA advocacy groups requested:
- Extension of FAR Part 61 pilot currency requirements, including the flight review and instrument proficiency check.
- Guidance that 709 reexaminations or paperwork inspections in person (such as logbook inspections under FAR 61.51, or maintenance record inspections under FAR 91.417) be deferred or at least be conducted electronically during the current social distancing safety protocols and directives regarding nonessential activities.
- Extensions for CFI certificate renewal, expiration, and endorsement periods.
- Extension of knowledge exam expiration period.
- Extensions for applicants on the ability to complete practical examinations.
- Extension for filing documents under FAR Part 13 (Subparts C, D, and G).
- Extensions for aircraft maintenance and continuing airworthiness requirements with necessary mitigation procedures.
Along with AOPA, officials with the Air Medical Operators Association, the Experimental Aircraft Association, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, Helicopter Association International, the National Agricultural Aviation Association, the National Air Transportation Association, and the National Business Aviation Association signed the April 1 letter.
Rick’s rejection of the assertion by Mark Jones is spot on. Unfortunately, outraged pontification is the new normal. Let’s all try to keep our heads and be thoughtful, as well as forgive each other our trespasses. Be well, all.
January, February Accidents Surpass All of 1Q19
https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2020-04-08/january-february-accidents-surpass-all-1q19
Extensions and exemptions are a fool’s errand, a predictable knee-jerk reaction made by people who cannot think of anyone but themselves.
GA has a hard time defending its poor safety record and lack of competence even in the good times. Why should the FAA assume additional risk, assume that people who need an extension or exemption are going to be any safer because of crisis?!?!
I’d rather see the GA community think outside the box, stop whining, stop begging for big government to fix problems that mostly exist because of big government.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. I really liked the part about thinking out of the box. So true.
All you’re pointing out is a couple of bad accidents that happened near the beginning of the year and that cannot be related at all (statistically or otherwise) to the issue at hand. There is so much wrong with your open ended comment; it has no basis in any kind of deeper thought or consideration. Do you really expect that accident rates are linear? That because the rates were higher in the first couple months by a low hard number that it would imply the rest of the year would follow linearly?
Also, let me ask in a different context. What exactly do you expect the statistics to be for non-commercial operations? Would you expect the accident rate for private automobile drivers to be the same as professional (commercial) bus and truck drivers? Would you expect the accident rate for private boat/vessel operators to be the same as professional vessel operators?
And please point me to the underlying data that indicates a reprieve of several months for some reviews for an unidentified subset of the active flying community would result in a higher accident rate. What you wrote has no real thought behind it… which is, sadly, so typical anymore.
I’m not sure whether extensions are safe or not, but I certainly wouldn’t base my decision on that article you referenced nor immediately assume or magically determine the amount of risk the FAA would supposedly be incurring.
Who the hell asked you? Are you even a pilot? Your diatribe is uncalled for and as worthless as this whole pandemic hoax has proven to be. We didn’t surrender our freedoms during the SARS or H1N1 “pandemics”. We should never have meekly rolled over for this.
Fear is a very powerful motivater. The current political world in the United States has the majority of the NEWS agencies tying to wip the citizens of our country into a frightened frenzy. (this statement may make you angry) COVID19 is serious and we need to take precautions but if you look at influenzas numbers you will find more people are getting sick and dyeing from the flu than are from COVID19. it is all about control. forcing the Stock market to fall so those who were in the know could take advantage of the fear!
Precisely. Thanks
Hi Mark,
Much of the GA community would be happy to think outside the box and fix the problems without needing any help from big government.
However, big government has chosen to regulate us, of its own free will. The regulations it created ARE the current problem we are trying to fix. We are prohibited, by law, from fixing the regulations by ourselves: we have to ask the government to fix them.
So…FAA has had it a week. Any indication they are going to respond while a response would be useful?
How hard is it for FAA to give an extension like they did on Medicals?
Actually they didn’t give an extension on Medicals. They merely declared that they wouldn’t prosecute the pilot for flying after the medical expires, for a while at least. The violation still exists, as far as I understand it. Will they decide to prosecute it later? Good question. The point is, they should have simply extended the validity of medicals, which would also hopefully address the insurance problem.
My guess is that they can’t extend the validity of medicals without going through the full rule change procedure, which would take longer than the expected duration of the shutdown.
They can do an emergency rule change overnight, and the government has already proclaimed a health emergency. Their action on medicals has almost zero effect because it does not alleviate the insurance problem of flying with an expired medical. They need to extend the validity of medicals during this emergency.
That’s the thing about ‘crisis’ isn’t it?
It lasts as long as those with the ‘say-so’ say so.
Don’t bother piling on pro- or con-virus arguments. It is really irrelevant to this reply.
Have a life! Be safe.
….and Always use the checklists… that would be professional aviationn ops… like the air carriers… best safety record contribution we could Ever make!!
and r&r worn out Android screen keypads….lolol🙄