Airworthiness regulations drawn up by committee over two years hailed as success
In a sharp departure from regulatory practice, the US Federal Aviation Administration has adopted the first airworthiness standards written by a consensus committee system in which it is not a leader, but merely a minor participant.
The 15 standards – introducing the first certification requirements for the FAA's new light sport aircraft (LSA) category – were written and approved during a two-year-long process by a committee composed of manufacturers, operators, regulators and other interested parties.
The process, governed by ASTM International, is a model the FAA intends to replicate in other emerging aviation categories, such as unmanned and suborbital vehicles, and perhaps eventually in commercial aviation. The ASTM committee for LSA standards – dubbed F37 – allows each participant to cast a single vote, be it a large manufacturer, the entire FAA or a private pilot. ASTM's process requires all parties to accept a proposal for a new standard before it can be forwarded to the FAA.
At that point, the agency's regulatory division is not permitted to amend or reject the standard, but to simply incorporate the committee's results into public law.
The committee model was applied to the LSA category in 2003 by FAA officials hoping to break a 15-year-old regulatory logjam on the issue caused by using the agency's traditional process. The LSA category, defined as any aircraft weighing less than 600kg (1,320lb), slower than 120kt (220km/h) and with a 45kt maximum stall speed, will soon start allowing manufacturers to certificate factory-built aircraft as special – or S-LSA – and kit-built aircraft as experimental – or E-LSA.
The first 15 standards apply to the S-LSA category. Several other standards are expected to be completed by early April, perhaps in time for the FAA to issue the first S-LSA certificates by the end of April.
Along with the LSA standards, the FAA also has adopted two new standards for gyroplanes and three standards for lighter-than-air vehicles, which are among the new certification categories created by the sport pilot rule adopted last September.
* The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is proposing a pan-European recreational private pilot's licence (RPPL), based on the UK national PPL (NPPL) that was introduced in 2003. The RPPL will be regulated by national popular flying bodies, including the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and the UK Popular Flying Association, rather than direct from EASA's Cologne headquarters.
"The UK NPPL has been hugely successful with around 2,000 licences issued to date," says Martin Robinson, regional vice-president of the International Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (IAOPA), which has been pushing for a European equivalent to be rolled out across Europe for many years.
The RPPL will cover all piston single fixed-wing aircraft with a maximum take-off weight no greater than 2,000kg.
STEPHEN TRIMBLE WASHINGTON DC/KATE SARSFIELD LONDON
Source: Flight International
