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FAA

FAA: Please don’t shoot down any drones

Over in America, the FAA has been forced to release a statement in response to a proposed ordinance under consideration in the tiny farming community of Deer Trail, Colorado, that would encourage hunters to shoot down drones. Under the proposed ordinance, Deer Trail would give $25 hunting permits to hunters to shoot down drones and then reward them with $100 when a valid (drone) hunting license and identifiable pieces of a drone are presented.

Resident Phillip Steel authored the proposal (more or less symbolic) and has told the media he has 28 signatures on a petition or roughly 10% of the town’s registered voters. Under Colorado law, local officials must formally consider the proposal at a meeting next month and they would have the option of either adopting the ordinance or putting it on the ballot in an election this fall.

However, the FAA warned that a drone:

…hit by gunfire could crash, causing damage to persons or property on the ground, or it could collide with other objects in the air. Shooting at an unmanned aircraft could result in criminal or civil liability, just as would firing at a manned airplane.

Steel dismissed the FAA’s warning plus there are dozens of other laws being introduced across the country aimed at curbing the use of the unmanned aircraft or drones.

Meanwhile, the FAA is working on regulations to integrate drones into the skies and Congress has given them until 2015 to develop the necessary regulations, but the agency is behind schedule. Once the drone regulations are in place, thousands of drones could take to the skies – something that concerns privacy advocates.

YouTube stunt lands a stunt pilot into FAA trouble

Stunt pilot Jason Newburg who was filmed performing a practice stunt has landed into trouble with the FAA for having an aerobatics waiver that had expired in November. The video of the stunt in which he flew at 200 miles an hour comes within feet of a man on a runway and another on a bike, was posted on YouTube and had attracted considerable attention – including that of the FAA:

ABC News first reported on the stunt which apparently took place at a North Texas airport and may have been a practice run for an upcoming show being filmed in the area. A local city manager stated:

He does have an FAA aerobatic waiver. We are required to keep a copy of the waiver on file. We do have a copy of that waiver and have verified it’s currently valid.

However, the FAA stated that it could not “immediately locate a waiver tied to the pilot, the airport or the plane seen in the stunt” and it was later reported that the waiver to perform aerobatics had expired in November.

Apparently, Jason often performs with motorcycle showmen known as the Dallas Stunt Riderz who do maneuvers beneath his aircraft. Moreover, Newburg’s company was involved in a helicopter crash in 2008 when an unlicensed helicopter pilot took off with rather than against the wind, causing a hard landing.

Most comments on the later report seemed to criticize the FAA, including posts like:

“FAA told ABC to get the attention off the Boeing’s lithium battery problem…”

and:

“It was a slow day at headquarters.”

I guess one could say that the stunt was reasonably “safe” – so long as the participants knew not to move and there was no sudden burst of wind. However, Jason should have gotten his expired waiver renewed and he should not have posted a video on the Internet to remind the FAA to do their job!

What are the stupidest FAA or EASA rules or regulations?

John Zimmerman recently posted a question on Air Facts to ask readers what they think is the worst FAA regulation. John began his post by noting that the most common complaint from pilots about the FAA is the lack of common sense when it comes to applying their regulations with the FAA view of flying and the job of a pilot being “completely divorced from reality.”

On the other hand, John did acknowledge that regulation is a necessary evil while US airlines are now enjoying the safest stretch of flying in history as there has been no fatal accident involving a major airline in a decade. Certainly the FAA deserves some credit for this.

John then asked readers what they thought were the worst FAA regulations with some of the responses including:

  • 44709 which grants FAA inspectors carte blanche to reexamine any pilot at any time as they see fit without any due process.
  • The prohibition to sport pilots to perform preventive maintenance on certified aircraft they own.
  • The third class medical for private pilots.

Hence, we would like to ask our American readers: What do you think are the stupidest FAA rules or regulations? And for our Europe based readers: What are the dumbest EASA rules or regulations?

Sleeping Washington DC air traffic controller sparks controversy

Last week, air traffic safety in the USA came under increased scrutiny when two passenger jets landed without any controller assistance at Reagan National Airport because they could not reach the airport tower. Apparently, the only air traffic controller on duty was asleep.

Hence, the pilots of the two planes had to stay in contact with air traffic controllers at a regional Federal Aviation Administration facility located about 40 miles away. Nevertheless and while the planes landed safely, the incident has sparked considerable controversy and calls for a minimum of two air traffic controllers to be on duty for the midnight shift at an airport that is only a short drive away from the White House and the Pentagon.

Naturally, plenty of aviation and pilot bloggers over the past week have had time to write their thoughts about the incident. Terry Maxon of the Airline Biz Blog has posted a timeline from the NTSB detailing the incident. He also summarized in another post the statement issued by FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt regarding the suspension of the controller on duty plus he suggested checking out recent stories that have appeared in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post about the incident. David Parker Brown has also noted the incident on his AirlineReporter blog and the story he wrote for AOL Travel News with quotes from an airline pilot, the FAA, United Airlines and others about what happened. In addition, Sylvia, the blogger behind Fear of Flying, also has a great post summarizing the facts of the incident along with links to radio transmissions and other resources.

Meanwhile, Rob Mark, the blogger behind the JetWhine, blogger, defended the head of the FAA by writing:

Sure it’s embarrassing, but one controller on the midnight shift is also stupid precisely because of what occurred last week, not to mention that this could have been even uglier if a vehicle had run out on the runway when either of the two airliners landed. And Randy Babbitt knows it, because he’s not a bureaucrat … he’s a pilot who happens to have been chosen to run a bureaucracy that ranks almost dead last in terms of being a great place to work.

On the other hand, Vincent, the blogger behind the Plastic Pilot blog, was more critical of Bruce Babbit and wrote:

So, Mr. Babbitt, your outraged. And this is a a former airline pilot. This sounds to me like a lot of finger pointing during the early stages of an incident investigation. Could it be that you’re trying to divert attention. The controller feel asleep, is part of an agency, right?

And this agency had him working four night in a row, alone. In other parts of the world, so called “single man operation” (SMOP, for short) are not allowed. Human can fail, and they do.

He further noted that it is Babbit who bears ultimate responsibility for having a controller working alone in the tower in the first place.

Hence, we want to ask you our readers what you think of the this incident. Who is really to blame and can such an incident happen at a major airport in the UK or Europe?