Sport Pilot Talk

Many of you are aware that, as a volunteer FAA Safery Team Lead Representative, I present about 15 WINGS seminars a year, both online and in person around the country. (I know some of you are aware of this, because I see many of my Forum Family at these various events. Thanks for attending.) It is my plan to present four such seminars next month in DeLand FL, and have been going thru the usual channels to get them posted to FAAsafety.gov.

I received this strange email today from FAA:

The supervisor ... has declined the following seminar for the reason(s) listed below:
...
Reason for decline:
Event has a Cost
Event must be sponsored by a not-for-profit group.
...
Refer to FAA Order 8900.1 (fsims.faa.gov) for current guidance about events with a cost. (Page Help)

I find this bizarre, because I never charge anyone for attending my seminars, and receive no compensation for doing them. It is true that the sponsoring organization (in this case, Sport Aviation Showcase) does charge an admission fee for their event. But so do AirVenture, Sun-n-Fun, Sentimental Journey to Cub Haven, the late Sport Aviation Expo, etc.

In addition, various commercial operations, (from King Schools to Sporty's to Gleim all the way down to my little flight school) provide commercial training for a fee, and issue WINGS credit for completion. AvSport is an approved FAA Training Provider for this very reason.

So, WTF?

I'm working the problem with FAA, and fully intend to offer WINGS credit once this is resolved. Meanwhile, I thought I should give you all a heads-up of bureaucracy in action.

Well, that sucks!

Well, I'm still working the problem, and am now confident it will be resolved in time for everyone to get their WINGS credit at DeLand.

Turns out FAA is only requiring full disclosure. So, I'm adding this to the FAA Safety web descriptions:

This free FAA Safety Team WINGS seminar is offered on the grounds of DeLand Sport Aviation Showcase, for which there is an admission fee. Details at:

http://www.sportaviationshowcase.com

OK, WINGS award credit issues are now resolved, and all four of my DeLand presentations are now available for registration on faasafety.gov. Thanks for your patience, everyone.

It's now day 2 of the DeLand Sport Aviation Showcase. Yesterday things got off to a rather slow start, but I'm hoping for a better turnout today. I did meet one new forum member (JJay) at one of my seminars. I've posted a bunch of photos to my FB page (http://facebook.com/sportflying) for those interested.