The FAA is seeking comments from general aviation aircraft owners as part of its latest General Aviation and Part 135 Activity Survey.
FAA officials need just one bit of information: The number of hours you fly annually. Comments must be submitted by Jan. 11, 2021.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) use the data, both by itself and in conjunction with aircraft age, to calculate accident rates, which are used to compare safety over time and safety performance among different aircraft types and configurations.
The information is also used by the FAA, other government agencies, the aviation industry, and others for “planning, forecasting, cost/benefit analysis, and to target areas for research,” according to a notice posted by the FAA to the Federal Register Nov. 10, 2020.
You can comment by going to Regulations.gov and entering Docket Number FAA-2020-0993.
They don’t want your hours, just comments about the process. From the docket…
Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspect of this information collection, including (a) Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for FAA’s performance; (b) the accuracy of the estimated burden; (c) ways for FAA to enhance the quality, utility and clarity of the information collection; and (d) ways that the burden could be minimized without reducing the quality of the collected information.
faa shows 18 responses at moment expects 39000 good luck
u got seven to this article
very difficult to find and respond
appears those who respond fly a lot > 100 hrs
The FAA, like many organizations, wants to make data driven decisions. This is in general a good thing. The data will point out the good and the bad, objectively. The issue is, their method of collection. Entering your hours on a docket comment? Just how many respondents do they thing they’ll get? Given the number of GA pilots in the US, and the number of them who would actually go to the trouble to read the docket, and answer, the sample size will be very low. Additionally, the respondents will probably be highly active GA participants, who else is going to watch the boards for an FAA docket?
A better approach would be to provide a simple single web page where a pilot can enter a certificate number (to validate the data – this would be stripped after entry) and have the pilots enter their times in. This is still subject to the second limitation above, but would get a larger sample, and could be left up indefinitely.
Good data is not free – offering some sort of incentive to participate would boost the participation, and improve the dataset.
FYI, the FAA is asking for comments on asking for the hours flown per year on the docket referenced…!
I have a Sport pilot Cert. I fly over 100 hours each year in my Jabiru J230. Prior to that I flew 100 plus hours each year in my Aeronca 11AC, when I lived in Michigan. I still have the Aeronca but it’s too low in HP for flying in Colorado.
I have a commercial license with an instrument rating. However, I now limit my flying to day VFR personal and recreational endeavors. In so doing, in the past 6 years I averaged 79 hr/year In my 1956 Cessna 172 that I acquired in July of 1970
Ask the insurance company?? Why?? This is also reported during the Flight Physical. The past year and 6 months. Can the FAA not access their own Data??
This info is already reported to the insurance companies, so it is unnecessary to report directly to the FAA. They just need to ask the ins. cos. for it.
I’m a private VFR only pilot. And fly for personal and recreational reasons only. I am an airplane owner of a PA28-140 and average 50 hrs per year. I have owned my Cherokee for 31 yrs.