The Federal Aviation Adminstration (FAA) has proposed granting Ameriflight an exemption to the Part 135 payload weight limits.

As proposed last week, the FAA will grant the California-based air cargo carrier the right to fly its fleet of seven Embraer [ERJ] 120s up to the legal weight limit for the aircraft. As a Part 135 operator, Ameriflight has been restrained in its operations of the turboprop to carrying a payload no greater than 7,500 pounds.

Ameriflight, a charter member of the Regional Air Cargo Carriers Association (RACCA) and a participant in a two-year effort to re-write the Part 135/125 rules, had first applied for this exemption in January 2005. The FAA denied the exemption last February because "it did not articulate sufficient reasons that make it unique from other operators and did not articulate sufficient public interest reasons for an exemption."

Last March, Ameriflight petitioned for a reconsideration based in part on the recommendations of the panel's revisions of the Part 135 rules. Among the many recommendations the panel has made to the FAA is to increase the weight limit to 18,000 pounds. (Ameriflight only wants to exceed the current limit by 633 pounds.) In return, the panel outlined a series of new maintenance and safety requirements similar to those now mandated for Part 121 carriers.

The FAA is still reviewing the panel's recommendations. It is expected to submit them this year to public review as part of its formal rulemaking process. Not until the FAA publishes the draft rules will the panel - and the industry - know if the agency will hike the weight limit.

Ameriflight's petition differs considerably from the panel's recommendation, said John Hazlet, Ameriflight's vice president for safety and standards. "It is a lot of apples and oranges. We are asking for a few hundred pounds. The [panel's] recommendation is to virtually double the weight limit. It is an obsolete rule that was first designed to address the DC3s. Our objective and the panel's are similar, but driven differently," he said.

Hazlet had been a member of the panel that worked on the Part 135 changes.

In approving the Ameriflight request, the FAA is not tipping its hand on the weight issue. Acknowledging both the work of the panel and Ameriflight's reference to this work, the FAA stated in its finding that "this grant of exemption stands on its own merit as presented by Ameriflight, not on the basis of the justification or recommendation for general rule making."

Instead it points to Ameriflight's own record both with the Brasilias and overall operations.

"The maintenance, equipment, training and flight locality required by the conditions and limitations in this grant of exemption will ensure the equivalency of Part 121 supplemental operations. Ameriflight has conducted all-cargo operations for more than 36 years. It currently has a fleet comprised of 180 aircraft and has accumulated over 350,000 flight-hours under Part 135. It currently has seven Embraer 120 aircraft and has accumulated over 18,000 hours and 15,000 landings in those airplanes. This experience adds considerable merit to this grant of exemption," the FAA said in its finding.

Before the exemption is formalized, the agency is seeking public comment until March 9.

In the last nine months, the only objection to the proposed exemption came for the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). Citing safety concerns, the group opposes transferring Part 121 certified aircraft to Part 135 operations and then increasing the 7,500-pound weight ceiling. On the rule rewriting panel, ALPA voiced similar objections.

The conditions the FAA is attaching to the exemption differ little from the changes that Ameriflight proposed to impose on its operations in the petition for the exemption, Hazlet told Regional Aviation News.

The system that Ameriflight uses to operate and maintain the Brasilias is similar to FAA rules for a carrier using the aircraft to carry less then 10 passengers. The FAA wants Ameriflight to apply the standards as if the planes were carrying more than 10 passengers. "It involves re-writing some manuals and making the system formal rather than the informal or voluntary process we have had. It will require stiffening up some things," Hazlet said.

Among the conditions in the FAA proposal is the requirement that the planes contain cockpit and data recorders, collision avoidance systems, ground proximity warning systems and an autopilot. Hazlet noted that when Ameriflight purchased the planes they were already equipped with these instruments because of their prior passenger use. "We have left all that equipment in the planes and subsequently upgraded it to digital technology. The planes now have better upgraded technology than when they were in passenger service," he noted.

Ameriflight in some cases carries the requested additional weight as fuel, but the 7,500-pound limit prevents it from being carried as cargo.

In the end, Ameriflight will be able to add about 633 pounds of new payload to their lightest Brasilia with the exemption. The planes are capable of carrying about 8,000 pounds in cargo.

"This does not represent a safety issue since we can already carry that weight in fuel. It is the same amount of weight on the wings. It is the ability to carry 500 to 600 pounds of freight rather than fuel.

"It may not sound like much, but 600 pounds of small packages makes a lot of difference to some customers," he noted.

When Ameriflight expands its fleet, Hazlet said it does so based on which aircraft best fits the client's needs. "If someone has another 8,000 pounds of freight to be moved, we would go buy some more Embraers. In the last two years, we purchased 20 airplanes - all Metros and Beech 99s or 1900s," he said.

The FAA noted that by granting Ameriflight its exemption, the agency does not expect to see a large number of me-too requests. There are only 14 Embraer 120s now operating in an all-cargo format with most of the Brasilia fleet still in passenger service. There are two operators flying three all-cargo Brasilias under Part 121 rules and three Part 135 operators flying the other 11 Embraer 120s. Ameriflight is the largest operator of the all-cargo Brasilias.

If other operators want to petition to increase the weight limit as Ameriflight has done, the FAA said it would consider each one on its own merits.

>>DOT Docket: FAA-2005-20109. Contact: John Hazlet, Ameriflight, (818) 847-0000.<<