Priv Pilots have Protective "Bill of Rights" now
Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 3:16 pm
AOPA commends President Barack Obama for signing into law the Pilot’s Bill of Rights on Aug. 3. The legislation guarantees pilots under investigation by the FAA expanded protection against enforcement actions via access to investigative reports, air traffic control and flight service recordings, and it also requires the FAA to provide the evidence being used as the basis of enforcement at least 30 days in advance of action.
The legislation, championed by Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska), co-chair of the Senate General Aviation Caucus, passed the Senate unanimously on June 29. Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), co-chair of the House GA Caucus, and GA Caucus member Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) shepherded the measure through the House, which passed on July 23.
the law requires an advisory committee to reanalyze the notice to airmen (notam) procedures, as well as a committee to review medical certification. Pilots will also, for the first time, be able to appeal decisions in federal courts and the National Transportation Safety Board is given greater oversight in reviewing enforcement cases.
Ensuring pilots are notified of any investigation of them by the FAA.
Giving pilots full access to data and evidence pertinent to the investigation.
Clearing up the burdensome ‘NOTAM’ process, which requires pilots comb through an “overwhelming” number of Notices to Airmen before flight.
Notices to Airmen “NOTAM”:
NOTAMs have been criticized as an unnecessary burden to pilots, who must review an “overwhelming” number of notices before flight in a national airspace system. A NOTAM improvement process will begin in order to simplify and make useful the notices.
As a result of the improvement process, NOTAMs will be organized in a central public location, and will be available for pilots in a searchable format. They will be prioritized for the location that the pilot is flying in.
Medical Certification:
The application for medical certification has also been criticized as unfair. It will be examined in order to make changes that provide better clarity and guidance to applicants.
Changes to the medical certification application would allow for the consistent treatment of applicants, and will hopefully decrease the number of alleged falsifications due to unclear medical questions
The bill, dubbed by one wag as “The Inhofe Revenge Bill,” was sparked by an October 2010 incident in which the Oklahoma Republican, a private pilot, landed his Cessna 340 on a closed runway at a small South Texas airport — scaring the daylights out of workers doing maintenance.
A recorded call to the FAA from the crew’s supervisor said Inhofe “sky-hopped” over the men and trucks and “scared the crap out of us.” (The call is really worth listening to. Click the link below and then click the play button in the Washington Post article to hear the "interesting" recording.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in- ... _blog.html
There were huge (60 feet long by 10 feet wide) yellow X’s on the runway showing that it was closed.
The FAA in January 2011 barely gave Inhofe a slap on the wrist — let alone a license suspension — and ordered what he called some “painless” remedial training in lieu of any enforcement action. He praised the FAA, and said, “I could not have been treated better” by the agency.
Even so, Inhofe told us last February that he would introduce a bill to give pilots greater rights. “If a person is going to be accused of something,” he said, “he has to know what he’s being accused of.”
“I was never appreciative of the feeling of desperation,” Inhofe said, “until it happened to me.”
click picture below: Think how desperate those workers on the runway that day must have felt.
[img]http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_ ... nY7t2eOslg[/img]
The legislation, championed by Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska), co-chair of the Senate General Aviation Caucus, passed the Senate unanimously on June 29. Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), co-chair of the House GA Caucus, and GA Caucus member Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) shepherded the measure through the House, which passed on July 23.
the law requires an advisory committee to reanalyze the notice to airmen (notam) procedures, as well as a committee to review medical certification. Pilots will also, for the first time, be able to appeal decisions in federal courts and the National Transportation Safety Board is given greater oversight in reviewing enforcement cases.
Ensuring pilots are notified of any investigation of them by the FAA.
Giving pilots full access to data and evidence pertinent to the investigation.
Clearing up the burdensome ‘NOTAM’ process, which requires pilots comb through an “overwhelming” number of Notices to Airmen before flight.
Notices to Airmen “NOTAM”:
NOTAMs have been criticized as an unnecessary burden to pilots, who must review an “overwhelming” number of notices before flight in a national airspace system. A NOTAM improvement process will begin in order to simplify and make useful the notices.
As a result of the improvement process, NOTAMs will be organized in a central public location, and will be available for pilots in a searchable format. They will be prioritized for the location that the pilot is flying in.
Medical Certification:
The application for medical certification has also been criticized as unfair. It will be examined in order to make changes that provide better clarity and guidance to applicants.
Changes to the medical certification application would allow for the consistent treatment of applicants, and will hopefully decrease the number of alleged falsifications due to unclear medical questions
The bill, dubbed by one wag as “The Inhofe Revenge Bill,” was sparked by an October 2010 incident in which the Oklahoma Republican, a private pilot, landed his Cessna 340 on a closed runway at a small South Texas airport — scaring the daylights out of workers doing maintenance.
A recorded call to the FAA from the crew’s supervisor said Inhofe “sky-hopped” over the men and trucks and “scared the crap out of us.” (The call is really worth listening to. Click the link below and then click the play button in the Washington Post article to hear the "interesting" recording.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in- ... _blog.html
There were huge (60 feet long by 10 feet wide) yellow X’s on the runway showing that it was closed.
The FAA in January 2011 barely gave Inhofe a slap on the wrist — let alone a license suspension — and ordered what he called some “painless” remedial training in lieu of any enforcement action. He praised the FAA, and said, “I could not have been treated better” by the agency.
Even so, Inhofe told us last February that he would introduce a bill to give pilots greater rights. “If a person is going to be accused of something,” he said, “he has to know what he’s being accused of.”
“I was never appreciative of the feeling of desperation,” Inhofe said, “until it happened to me.”
click picture below: Think how desperate those workers on the runway that day must have felt.
[img]http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_ ... nY7t2eOslg[/img]