AOPA Action: AOPA says FAA decision is ‘dangerous’
Agency denies complaint against North Carolina FBO
ASN volunteer of the month
Ray Jilek
Ray Jilek was one of the first local operators to take the opportunity to speak before a joint advisory panel about the Powder River Training Complex. Emphasizing that safety and communication are top priorities, Jilek quantified the economic and logistical issues of operating within the special-use airspace. His participation makes him a model AOPA Airport Support Network volunteer.
Jilek and his wife, Laura, own Eagle Aviation Inc., which offers charter service, flight instruction, aircraft maintenance, and full FBO service in addition to managing Black Hills Airport in Spearfish, South Dakota. Jelik has more than 8,500 hours accident-free flight experience in numerous aircraft ranging from Light Sport to twin turbine-powered aircraft. He is also an A&P mechanic, a life member of the South Dakota Pilots Association, and is the South Dakota state liaison for the Recreational Aviation Foundation.
AOPA says FAA decision is ‘dangerous’
Agency denies complaint against North Carolina FBO
The FAA’s Southern Region Airports Division has decided against AOPA’s Part 13 complaint over egregious fixed-base operator fees and unreasonable access at Asheville Regional Airport in North Carolina. It allows Signature, the sole FBO at Asheville, to continue to charge general aviation pilots for unnecessary and unwanted services. AOPA believes the decision contradicts existing FAA policies, and could set a dangerous precedent for many other airports across the country.
“We believe the FAA Southern Region decision is incorrect and inconsistent with the ruling in Orange County as well as the guidance FAA headquarters issued as recently as December 2017,” said AOPA General Counsel Ken Mead. “Most airports and FBOs are doing a great job, but in situations where that isn’t the case we will continue to fight for reasonable access, transparent and public posting of fees, and competition where practical. Are these three simple, fair, and reasonable things too much to ask for? I think not.”
In 2017, AOPA filed Part 13 complaints against Asheville, Key West International Airport in Florida, and Waukegan National Airport in Illinois. All three airports have one FBO, Signature Flight Support, that controls all available ramp space for transient GA aircraft and imposes high fees for services that pilots often don’t request or need. The airports also receive FAA Airport Improvement Program grants, which means they are bound by federal obligations to make the airport available for public use and ensure FBOs impose only fair and nondiscriminatory fees on users. AOPA withdrew the complaint against Waukegan after the airport announced a free transient tiedown area and worked with the FBO to reduce the price of self-service avgas. In April, AOPA announced an Airport Access Watch List of 10 additional airports that may have similar issues.
In the decision, the FAA Southern Region Airports Division noted that the airport “believes that Signature’s fees are necessary and reasonable” and the FAA is “not in a position to second-guess [the airport].” However, federal obligations that were included in the agency’s 2017 guidance on FBO pricing specifically require airports to “ensure” the FBO is imposing only reasonable fees and prices. The FAA’s significant deference to Asheville has enabled unfettered monopoly pricing that will have detrimental effects on airport access.
In its reasoning, the FAA also bypassed its own standard of compliance and concluded Asheville is in compliance with federal grant assurances based only on a review of the FBO’s lease and not on any specific actions of the airport.
While the decision does not set a binding precedent for other airports, Mead believes it is indicative of a flawed perspective at the FAA that has allowed certain monopoly-position FBOs to impose unreasonable fees on GA users and could worsen.
“This shows just how important our work is, and we will not stop until the FAA and the problem locations understand that fees imposed on GA pilots at publicly funded airports cannot just be whatever they think they can get away with,” said Mead.
AOPA gets STC for PA–32s
AOPA has obtained a supplemental type certificate (STC) making Piper PA–32s BasicMed compliant by restricting the aircraft to six seats. Although most Piper PA–32s have only six seats installed, the option for seven under the type certificate of certain models excludes the airplane from being piloted under BasicMed. “With more than 35,000 pilots flying under BasicMed, the medical certification reforms we fought for years to achieve have reduced some of the costs and burdensome regulations that pilots face, and this announcement means that even more pilots will have the opportunity to utilize BasicMed,” said AOPA President Mark Baker.
FAA avgas update
The FAA issued a website update on testing of two fuels being evaluated as a replacement for leaded avgas in GA aircraft that includes a tentative testing completion date of December 2019. Flight testing of two unleaded fuels under the Piston Aviation Fuels Initiative (PAFI) has accomplished about one-third of its goals, and the engine-testing portion of the program has reached the halfway point. The FAA noted that because of “differences in the two PAFI fuels as compared to 100LL,” all flight testing and some engine testing has stopped while test data and results are analyzed. While PAFI proceeds, AOPA is keeping track of unleaded-fuel research taking place outside the current R&D program, “to ensure that all relevant fuel alternatives are considered,” said AOPA Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs David Oord.
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