FAA needs to hear from AOPA members on approach procedure cancellations
The FAA is proposing to cancel some 270 instrument approach procedures that it considers underused or redundant. If you don't agree about one of those procedures, you need to write the FAA before May 31.
The FAA says the number of available instrument approaches has nearly doubled in the last decade, primarily because of the addition of GPS and GPS-WAAS procedures. The money to chart and maintain all of those approaches has not increased significantly.
"We want to help the FAA reduce costs, but not at the expense of things pilots need to safely use the National Airspace System," said Andy Cebula, AOPA executive vice president of government affairs. "Local knowledge is important. Only you know for sure if the approach the FAA thinks is unneeded still serves a useful purpose. So tell the FAA and AOPA, and we'll help fight to keep it if you need it."
Many of the procedures that the FAA wants to cancel are based on NDBs, which AOPA members have generally viewed as the last choice for IFR access to an airport. However, in this action the FAA isn't proposing to decommission the NDBs themselves, just some of the approach procedures. More information is available online.
May 11, 2006
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