Report From Washington

Parts Salvaged from Accidents: Do the regulations allow you to use parts that have been salvaged from an aircraft involved in an accident? The FAA supplies the answer to that old question in an extremely helpful CD-ROM video titled Parts Involved in an Accident – Can I Use Them? The 12-minute video, which is handsomely illustrated with some fine photography, offers practical regulatory advice about how to proceed in a situation like that and it makes the point that there are no regulations about selling accident parts but only about installing them in an aircraft. It states that it is not contrary to the regulations to install these parts in another aircraft, provided a number of important steps are taken, including a detailed inspection of the part by a competent certificated person and a search for the proper documentation about such items as life-limitations. The basic point is the part must be airworthy according to all the FAA regulations. The video also offers definitions of the terminology used here, plus a step-by-step illustration of how to use an engine recovered from an aircraft accident. Finally, the FAA makes the statement that if all these steps and precautions are taken, there is then no obligation to identify the part as having been retrieved from an accident. This interesting video is available from the FAA’s Suspected Unapproved Parts Office (AVR-20), 13873 Park Center Road, Suite 165, Herndon, Virginia 20171.

New Abuse Testing Forms: The Department of Transportation has revised and shortened the drug and alcohol testing forms that must be submitted by employers who are obliged to conduct alcohol/drug testing for their aviation personnel, such as pilots and mechanics. This new one-page form reduces the amount of data that must now be included, eliminating 14 items that were formerly required. Among those eliminated items were data about the training of supervisors, actions taken after drug/alcohol failures, and the number of employees eventually returned to duty after a failure. The new reporting form can be found on the web at http://dms.dot.gov, and the Docket number is OST-2003-15676.

The NTSB Leader: Ellen Engleman, the new chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said that "it’s the National Transportation, not Aviation, Safety Board," emphasizing that she intends to build awareness that during her tenure the Board’s role will be to improve safety in all modes of transportation, including rail and highway. Engleman, 43, is an attorney by training and has no aviation background, although for the past two years she served as the head of the little-known DOT Research and Special Programs. However, to her enormous credit, she has begun taking flying lessons on her own time in order to better understand aviation issues, something that recent high officials in the FAA, with no aviation background, had no interest in doing. The organization that Engleman will head as chairman for the next two years is regarded as one of the world’s premier investigators of aviation accidents, renowned for its on-site evaluations and its scientific laboratory analyses, and other nations frequently call upon it for assistance. Yet the incredible fact is that this highly-efficient and respected government organization has a total of only 429 people on its payroll–something that is astonishing in a bloated federal bureaucracy.

Aviation Rebates: The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has completed five years in its rebate program, which has given $10 million in rebates. Members who use the AOPA credit card issued by MBNA America receive a 5-percent rebate on maintenance or fuel at participating FBOs. The rebates qualify up to a total of $250 a year, but enough members have used them over the first five years of the program to reach a total of $10 million dollars. AOPA says that FBOs like to participate because it gives them free advertising and more business. And it’s a win-win situation for everybody because the credit card company pays the cost of the rebate and it does not cost the FBO or AOPA anything. AOPA receives a commission from the credit card company on each rebate, which has helped the some 400,000-member association keep its annual dues at $39 a year.