AOPA’s Wish List Sent to FAA

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association sent its triennial wish list to FAA in response to its call for comments on needed regulatory changes, in the regulations. AOPA’s message was changes necessary must include allowing pilots to take advantage of the technological advances. In addition to the...

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The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association sent its triennial wish list to FAA in response to its call for comments on needed regulatory changes, in the regulations. AOPA’s message was changes necessary must include allowing pilots to take advantage of the technological advances.
In addition to the “get-with-the-program” advice, AOPA made three perennial suggestions – changes to the medical for recreational flying, approval of IFR approach-certified GPS receivers as a sole source of navigation and the creation of additional operations test methods for VORs.
The organization would replace the currently required third-class medical with a driver’s license medical for recreational pilots since crashes related to medical problems are few and far between. Indeed, said AOPA, the Air Safety Foundation’s Accident and Incident database, found only 1.9 percent of accidents have any medical factors contributing to the accidents and those that are attributable to medical problems could not have been uncovered or predicted by a medical examination. In a data-driven safety era, the change would bring recreational pilots closer to the sports flyer’s model which only requires a driver’s license, especially since recreational flyers are subject to the same limitations. AOPA noted that recreational pilots would still have to qualify they are medically fit under FAR 61.53.
AOPA also noted that advances in avionics and GPS technology make them much more reliable and thus eliminate the need for a secondary navigation system, currently required for pilots making an IFR approach in instrument conditions.
“With improvements in the GPS satellite signal and stated assurances from the Department of Transportation that GPS satellite coverage will continue, the requirement for redundancy serves more as a requirement and less to ensure the safety of flight in the event a GPS satellite is providing incorrect information,” Melissa Rudinger, vice president of regulatory affairs. She added events that compromised GPS accuracy could be handled by notice.
The FAA has already shown its confidence in GPS by approving stand-alone GPS and RNAV approaches, she said. Now there are more than 4,000 WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) and stand-alone GPS approaches providing access to more than 2,000 airports in the country.
AOPA noted that a quarter of all U.S.-registered aircraft are equipped with an IFR-certified GPS receiver.
It also wants pilots to be able to check their VOR against the GPS receiver to meet the requirement called for under FAR 91.171, requiring 30-day checks. Instead, VOR checks could be extended to match regularly scheduled maintenance, a progressive, 100-hour, or annual inspections.
“Allowing pilots and aircraft operators to test a VOR against an IFR-certified GPS unit with a current database may improve the accuracy of the VOR check and may also allow the VOR to be tested more frequently by pilots,” Rudinger wrote. “In cases where an aircraft is equipped with one IFR GPS unit and one VOR, the VOR could be checked on every flight as opposed to waiting to arrive at an airport with a VOR system test signal or test point or checking the VOR against a landmark along a VOR airway while in flight.”