AOPA urges TSA to reduce burden for flying into DC-3

AOPA urges TSA to reduce burden for flying into DC-3

Flying into the Washington, D.C., Flight Restricted Zone is a needlessly cumbersome process, but AOPA has some ideas about how to improve it. To simplify the process, AOPA is asking the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to modify the procedures so that any FSDO in the country can perform the airman record checks, and pilots can be fingerprinted by any approved state or federal facility that can properly transmit the data. Currently, pilots who want to fly into the so-called DC-3 airports (College Park Airport, Potomac Airfield, and Washington Executive/Hyde Field) are required to visit the Baltimore/Washington or Dulles FSDOs to complete the airman checks. They then are to report to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to be fingerprinted and undergo criminal background checks. As part of a standard regulatory procedure, the TSA recently asked for comments on the process before the Office of Management and Budget reissues the approval to collect the data.

August 12, 2005