The FAA has opened for public comments a petition submitted by AOPA and other associations urging that flight instruction from sport pilot instructors logged by sport pilot applicants be eligible to be counted toward higher pilot certificates.
Pilots are encouraged to submit comments in support of the petition that, if granted, would give sport pilots greater incentive to pursue further flight training, and recognize the cumulative value of their aeronautical experience in the spirit of the sport pilot rule enacted in 2004.
AOPA, the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), and the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) petitioned to amend FAR 61.99 and 61.109 to clearly “permit the instruction time received in pursuit of a sport pilot certificate to be credited toward the instruction requirements of additional certificates and ratings.” Pilots wishing to earn recreational or private pilot certificates would still be required to receive training from a certificated flight instructor on all areas defined under the knowledge and flight proficiency requirements of that certificate.
The associations urged the amendments as a fix for the flaw that was preventing student sport pilots from counting their training flight hours received from sport pilot instructors toward higher certificates and thus discouraging them from pursuing additional training. A July 24, 2009, FAA letter of interpretation argued that allowing time logged with an instructor with a sport pilot rating to count toward a private pilot certificate would be “the functional equivalent of permitting that instructor to provide flight training for the issuance of the private pilot certificate.” In response, the associations pointed out that when the FAA proposed the sport pilot rule in 2002 it signaled its intent to credit flight time earned during training with a sport pilot instructor toward the higher certificate.
The associations have been pressing the FAA to correct this situation since January. Submit comments online under Docket FAA-2011-0138.
Aviation group leaders unite, explore troubling issues
User fees, flight training, privacy all on the table
What affects one segment of the aviation industry ultimately affects everyone involved in aviation, be they business jet owners, helicopter pilots, or airport operators, the leaders of the industry associations said in a recent roundtable discussion.
“We are, in fact, all part of the general aviation community, and anything that affects one segment affects us all,” said Ed Bolen, president and CEO of the National Business Aviation Association. Bolen was joined by Pete Bunce, president and CEO of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, James Coyne, president of the National Air Transportation Association, AOPA President Craig Fuller, Experimental Aircraft Association President Rod Hightower, and Matthew Zuccaro, president of Helicopter Association International.
The organizations have joined together to fight the issues that threaten aviation, and the group leaders agreed that a united front has helped them to gain a stronger voice on Capitol Hill.
Some of the issues facing the industry include privacy rights for personal aircraft, user fees, and the dwindling pilot population. Hightower said EAA is poised to sharpen its focus on nurturing the next generation of aviators by helping Young Eagles participants—some 77,000 per year—progress beyond first flights to actually completing their certification. Financial support and mentoring are approaches that will be used, he said.
AOPA’s Flight Training Retention Initiative is working to pinpoint successful and not-so-successful practices within the training community so as to improve the student pilot retention rate, Fuller said. User fees, once thought to be off the table, cropped back up in the most recent round of budget negotiations, Fuller said.
“That is not the way to raise [revenue],” he said. “It creates a new bureaucracy.” Unless we convince Congress now that it doesn’t raise money in the proper way, we’ll be at risk, he explained.
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