FAA Form 8710 in the computer age
Computer-generated knowledge tests, original graduation certificates, medical certificates, student pilot certificates, pilot logbooks or training records, valid identification, and the FAA Form 8710-1 -- Airman Certificate and/or Rating Application -- all carry with them a collective level of frustration that's hard to describe in a civil manner. Now, well into the twenty-first century, a Buck Rogers method of submitting your qualifications has emerged. The FAA calls it Internet Airman Certification or Rating Application, or IACRA.
IACRA is a Web-based, Internet-supported method for students, flight instructors, and designated pilot examiners to avoid handling the traditional pile of papers by connecting with the FAA's Web site via personal computer. Currently, IACRA works only with Microsoft Internet Explorer and does not yet support Macintosh, Netscape, or other systems. This is likely to change after the FAA's current system is either debugged or proves to have few flaws, allowing the FAA to devote time and effort to other systems.
To the FAA's Airmen Certification Branch (AFS-760) this system is not new. In the early 1990s, work was afoot on what was then called ACRA-DOS in response to the blitzkrieg of personal computers on the market. Users asked, "Why can't the FAA computerize this documentation hassle?" but the FAA quickly encountered a problem that it had anticipated: Applicants for pilot privileges -- and thus their circumstances --can be immensely individual.
Employees of the Airmen Certification Branch's registry issue more than 20 types of airmen certificates and ratings, each requiring applicants to meet requirements specific to each privilege and modified by allowances found within the federal aviation regulations. The possible variations can be overwhelming, often requiring extensive research of the FARs to verify eligibility. The ancient DOS system welcomed such individual circumstances like a Marine drill sergeant welcomes dirty uniforms on a parade ground. The FAA held in its bureaucratic hands another wonderful idea whose time had not yet arrived.
Perhaps the time is now. The DOS iteration of ACRA underwent testing with selected universities, colleges, and organizations on a trial basis, and the FAA had planned for it to be available to all pilot examiners and inspectors by January 1996. At that time, a training handout noted that the FAA envisioned field issuance of permanent airman certificates and immediate tracking of all airman records.
In 2005, although IACRA is quick, we must all realize that tracking is not immediate. It is much faster than the paper trail, but delays still exist. Today's computers are far more capable, and the popularity of the Windows operating system has reduced the perceived need for pilot examiners to be computer experts. That's good, because few of us were then, and few of us are now.
While this writer has not conducted a scientific poll, DPE responses to the 2004 IACRA training nearly paralleled those of 10 years earlier. Concerns about conducting practical tests at far-flung fields devoid even of telephone service continue to arise, although laptop computers with wireless/mobile telephone access are far more prevalent today. Unfortunately, so are the associated costs. Still, the tools of all trades tend to evolve, and so do ours. Some pilot examiners have already used IACRA and are at least resigned to the system, if not wildly enthusiastic about it. They note that the time burden to flight instructors is greater than that of a purely paper system.
For flight instructors, gone are the days of trusting students to follow the Form 8710's instructions. Many applicants never knew that instructions existed (see "Boarding Pass," July 2004 AOPA Flight Training). Herein is a beauty of IACRA -- when you enter information, whether as an applicant, an instructor, or an examiner, data fields must contain at least the requirements for the certificate or rating sought. Although the FAA has made Herculean strides toward standardization, the human element in processing pilot applicant files has supported some individual variations. This frustrates flight instructors and applicants when one pilot examiner demands, for example, a medical examiner's title to include MD or DO, as it appears on a medical certificate, while another pilot examiner allows the medical examiner's name alone to pass. This happens because examiners work for individual operations inspectors.
Such variations among pilot examiners do, in fact, annoy much of the aviation community and reinforce the idea that DPEs set their own rules instead of obeying a higher authority. This may be one reason that a number of pilot examiners throughout the nation have embraced IACRA. And, a couple of pilot examiners have observed that using IACRA means applicants will always have access to the most current version of Form 8710. What a relief!
Is Big Brother watching?
Questions regarding IACRA's security remain unanswered: Will the FAA discover that some 14-year-old has breached its security protocols and issued airline transport certificates to himself and his friends? The security question was raised during pilot examiner yearly training, and the forthcoming answers were only partly satisfactory. Yet DPEs must remember that we are not FAA employees. We are in truth outsiders who have volunteered to perform a given public service for pay, and we do so at the administrator's pleasure.
From the FAA perspective, IACRA removes a large documentation burden from each Flight Standards District Office and may help FSDO operations inspectors devote more time to conducting initial flight instructor practical tests. Almost every action taken by influential bodies like the FAA have unintended consequences. Some folks have whispered that IACRA is one more step toward Big Brother of George Orwell's 1984. A percentage of socially sensitive pilot examiners and flight instructors are concerned about becoming a willing part of bringing a nightmare into being. Short of changing careers, those of us who are concerned about privacy have no choice. Society values what society values, and efficiency within a bureaucracy is nearly always prized. Organizational efficiency saves organizations precious resources. Organizational efficiency saves clients precious time. Efficiency equals convenience.
Whether you are a new student pilot, a seasoned flight instructor, or a pilot examiner of many years, you will read about IACRA (you probably already have) in aviation publications of every type, and this will only increase. Anxiety about unfamiliar technologies has abated during the decade since ACRA-DOS. Students and flight instructors now are as comfortable with computers as they are with tennis shoes. The benefit, aside from immediacy in getting a temporary airman certificate, is that the Form 8710 cannot be accepted if it is incorrect. The FAA saves money by eliminating returned files, and applicants avoid the fear and frustration that is inherent in those file error returns.
Pilot examiners will certainly prize the elimination of returned files, and very few will consider the cost (computerization of citizen information) to be prohibitive. Concerns regarding the availability of computer access at outlying airports will diminish. Flight schools and busy fixed-base operators will find that having a computer/printer available for this purpose will pay over time because of the convenience factor, just as the ability to print aviation weather information has become a safety enhancement. During the 1980s, talk was ubiquitous about computers producing "paperless offices." Time has shown that no invention has caused a greater flurry of paper worldwide than computers.
IACRA appears to be an actual step toward that 1980s prophecy. While Orwell is not taking questions, you can find IACRA information on the FAA Web site.
Dave Wilkerson is a designated pilot examiner, writer/photographer, and historian. A certificated flight instructor since 1981 who has given approximately 2,000 hours of dual instruction, Wlkerson is a single- and multiengine commercial-rated pilot.
AOPA's Interactive Form 8710 is a quick and easy way for you to check the information before you submit a form to the FAA. Find it on AOPA Online.
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