New rules, new licences and streamlined certification provide new ways to enjoy private flying
Dave Higdon/WICHITA
Despite recent simplifications to certifying some of the most common types of small aircraft, the need to improve the Federal Aviation Administration's certification process for general aviation aircraft remains a major issue, says one industry executive.
He's not only talking about the type-certification process managed by regional aircraft certification offices. There are problems at the level of flight standards district offices (FSDO), where experimental-aircraft builders and kit developers must have their projects approved.
But a new era may lie ahead. Current and upcoming regulatory proposals, developed in consultation and partnership with the general aviation community, promise lower costs, improving new-product flow into the market and attracting new blood to private aviation.
Under administrator Jane Garvey's Partnership in Safety Program (PSP), efforts are under way to change the status quo and produce improvements at all levels of FAA service. Much credit, industry groups note, belongs to the continuity of Garvey's leadership as the first FAA boss appointed to a fixed five-year term.
FAA efforts to improve the lot of general-aviation participants - from aircraft, engine and avionics manufacturers to owners and pilots - resulted from those ongoing PSP initiatives. PSPs include Free Flight and CAPSTONE on the avionics and operational sides.
Early successes and the expectation of smoother relations with the FAA has contributed to a growth in PSP participants. Negotiations are under way with Eclipse Aviation - the developer of the Eclipse 500 very light jet - in a risk-sharing partnership with Williams International.
Likewise, the number of certification process improvement-guided (CPI) certification programmes continues to grow with last month's addition of Adam Aircraft Industries, developer of the Burt Rutan-designed M-309 inline-thrust twin. And efforts to apply CPI streamlined certification are underway for avionics and engines.
Recognising other needs
"Without question, one of the biggest issues we have is certification - period," says Tom Poberezny, president of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA). "Technology new to aviation creates a quandary because we want aviation to progress as fast as the new technologies can take us. But the [FAA] isn't equipped to move quickly."
In fact, certification and agency inertia are at the top of most groups' lists of concerns: for the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, which has spearheaded certification simplification; for the EAA, whose members receive most of the type certificates the FAA issues each year, and for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), whose members own, fly and buy most of the general aviation aircraft in the USA.
According to Dennis Roberts, AOPA vice- president of government and technical affairs, agency inflexibility has been only one part of the problem. A continuing frustration centres on differing voices reading different meanings into identical regulations, and uneven application of national rules from region-to-region. They all point to the need for one voice - one source with one interpretation, he told Flight International.
Another PSP initiative offers hope for resolving that decades-long complaint. According to Mike Gallagher, the FAA's manager of the Small Airplane Directorate, many certification and compliance regulations and interpretations are available on FAA's internet site. By next summer, Gallagher says, FAA and industry employees should be able to find all current regulations and interpretations there: "Where we want to get is that anybody calling in gets the same answers and same guidance for the same issues, regardless of where they are."
The FAA will provide printed guides that show what the goals are under each area of concern, describe how to approach them and explain the processes to be used. Another FAA initiative should bring about a new type of pilot's licence and aircraft category when proposed early this year: the sport pilot licence and the so-called "Light Aircraft Category" (LAC).
The Notice of Proposed Rule Making is expected any day now. It will create a new operating licence that provides more utility than the "Recreational Pilot" category of 1983, while retaining some of the restrictions placed on the recreational pilot. After 17 years, fewer than 1,000 people have earned a Recreational Pilot Certificate.
Sport pilot licence holders, however, will enjoy utility that was never available under the recreational ticket. For example, a d Sport Pilot will have the option of flying cross-country, compared to the 92.5km (50nm) limit imposed on the Recreational Pilot. Sport Pilots will also be able to enter special-use airspace under the same conditions applied today under FAR 91. But they will still be limited to VFR operations identical to the recreational pilot.
The FAA made its biggest departure from past practice with medical certification requiring either a standard third class medical or a valid driving licence.
The LAC aircraft that Sport Pilot Certificate holders are eligible to fly will also be distinct: a maximum gross weight of 587kg (1,292lb), a non-turbine engine, two seats, a stall speed of no more than 39kt (72km/h), and a maximum-speed limit of around 100kt.
Only several hundred designs of what's been called "light experimental" aircraft are eligible for certification as experimental/amateur built aircraft, and then only if the builder performs 51% of the construction. Flying an experimental/amateur built aircraft requires a student, private or recreational certificate.
"If sport pilot comes about, there are about 30,000 aircraft out there that are basically heavy ultralights that would have to be test certificated for sport pilots to take advantage of them," notes Gallagher. "We swallowed hard at the thought of [certificating] 30,000 airplanes, but we moved ahead."
Two categories
The proposals envision two categories of light aircraft: ones that existed before the rule, the other covering aircraft made after the rule goes into effect in the latter half of this year.
"Basically, we're going to treat them differently," says Gallagher. The present designs will be eligible for experimental approval, while new ones will be eligible for the LAC designation through a self-certification process developed in concert with the manufacturer's DER and local FSDO officials. Sport pilots will be legal to fly these under either category if the plane meets the light aircraft guidelines.
These LAC aircraft can be factory built and delivered to customers ready-to-fly with no home assembly required. And LAC-approved designs can be rented and used for-hire by flight schools to train Sport Pilots - a major change from today's restrictions on experimental/ amateur built aircraft.
Handling certification
"This is going to be managed by the designees in the industry," Gallagher explains, "because we don't have the resources to handle certificating 30,000 existing airplanes."
"After the rule is in effect, people get approved through the manufacturer coming in and self-certifying the plane as built to the standard. Manufacturers will also be required to establish a quality-control system, perform flight tests of new planes before delivery, provide customers with a flight manual, and establish a continuing airworthiness system to cover inspections and routine maintenance." Then, Gallagher notes, the company will get a special airworthiness certificate for light aircraft.
Says the EAA's Poberezny: "This should open up flying to a lot more people than our existing venues allow. It should be very positive for the industry and very positive for the FAA. Put that one on the positive side of the FAA ledger."
Source: Flight International
