Capital Comments

If you find yourself in a situation similar to that of John and Martha King, with police officers pointing guns at you as you exit your aircraft, just follow their instructions. That is the advice of John King after he and his wife, Martha, were held at gunpoint for about a half-hour Aug. 28 when […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Since Sept. 30, 2007, the FAA has been operating under short-term reauthorization bills — and the Congress just rushed through a 15th temporary funding bill on the final day before starting its August recess. This latest extension runs until Sept. 30. The last time the House and Senate agreed on long-term reauthorization […]

Congress is giving the FAA another short extension, this time until Sept. 30. The FAA has been operating without extended authority since the last authorization expired in 2007. That authority was passed in 2003 and Congress has been unable to agree since that time, passing extension after extension to keep the FAA funded. Included in […]

Another indication that communications in the nation’s capital should be improved is the Department of Transportation’s proposed five-year plan in which the agency sets out its goals through 2015. General aviation is all but forgotten, except for pushing again the idea that the current funding of the FAA should be something other than fuel taxes. […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On June 15 the Federal Communications Commission issued a notice of proposed rulemaking prohibiting the certification, manufacture, importation, sale, or continued use of 121.5 MHz. Yet FAA regulations require the use of Emergency Locator Transmitters, most of which use 121.5 frequency. An interesting dilemma for aircraft owners: Obey the proposal from the […]

Once again the Senate and House could not agree on reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration and the House passed a one-month extension of funding and taxing authority to keep the FAA operating through July. The FAA has been without long-term authority since Sept. 30, 2007. It has been operating on a series of three-month […]

After 17 months without an administrator and two failed nominations, the Transportation Security Administration finally has a leader. John Pistole was confirmed for the post Friday, June 25, by the full Senate. As administrator of TSA, he also is assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Pistole was deputy director of the FBI, promoted […]

A coalition of aviation alphabet groups and petroleum industry associations is striving to meet the challenges created for general aviation by recent government decisions to phase out 100 low-lead avgas. Elimination of 100LL was brought about by a petition from the Friends of the Earth to the Environmental Protection Agency in 2006. This led to […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Interest is increasing to use more unmanned aerial vehicles for security, law enforcement, weather studies, and other dangerous or dull jobs and this is posing big challenges for the FAA and pilots. These vehicles — called Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) by the FAA — have proved themselves valuable where they have been […]