AOPA Action: On The Hill

In a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and its aviation subcommittee, AOPA and other groups urged that the panels oppose H.R.4880, the Improving Helicopter Safety Act of 2019, and H.R.4547, known as the Safe and Quiet Skies Act.

H.R.4880 would prohibit “operation of ‘nonessential’ civil rotorcraft in ‘covered airspace,’” defined as “airspace directly over any city with a population over 8 million people and with a population density of over 25,000 people per square mile, including the airspace over any waterways considered within the limits of such city.”

However, “the legislation would have no positive impact on improving the safety of commuter, charter, and tourism flights, and its negative impacts would be immediate and significant. It would completely dismantle a thriving rotorcraft industry in affected areas, dealing a [devastating] blow to the many businesses that depend on and support it,” the letter said.

Development of future flight technology might also be at stake: The bill “establishes a dangerous precedent for future legislative restrictions on access to airspace for general aviation and risks stymieing the development of vertical flight for both unmanned aircraft systems and urban air mobility,” AOPA and other groups said.

The Safe and Quiet Skies Act would introduce restrictions on air tour operators by “prohibiting specific flight routes, altitudes, and common procedures,” including an impossible burden: a mandated noise signature standard for overflight of an “‘occupied area’… that ‘no currently certificated helicopter can meet.’”

Both bills, whether through undermining federal preemption or prescribing unwarranted airspace restrictions, would be “detrimental to the industry” and the airspace system, AOPA and the groups said.

And, in a letter to the bipartisan leadership of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and its Subcommittee on Aviation and Space, AOPA voiced strong opposition to another threat to the burgeoning drone industry—and to the effective federal aviation oversight that harks back to the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. S.2607, the Drone Integration and Zoning Act, “proposes enabling thousands of local governments in the United States to impose their own restrictions on commercial UAS air carrier operations.”

AOPA and the aviation groups said it would be premature for Congress to pursue legislation before a U.S. Department of Transportation UAS Integration Pilot Program wraps up its business. The pilot program is focused on determining how state and local entities can work with the DOT and the FAA “to craft new rules that support more complex low-altitude operations” that drone integration would bring about.

As with the other proposals, S.2607 would undo a “long-established regulatory structure” that is integral to aviation safety, AOPA said, urging the lawmakers not to “unravel” the regulatory system’s ability to deliver safety.

The organizations signing both letters with AOPA included the Experimental Aircraft Association, General Aviation Manufacturers Association, Helicopter Association International, National Business Aviation Association, and National Air Transportation Association.

Web: aopa.org/pilot/capitolhill

Look out for changes to MedXPress, AOPA warns

Pilots submitting a medical application via the FAA’s MedXPress website may have noticed some substantial changes to the form made in early 2018. The FAA has referred to these alterations as updates to the medical application, known as Form 8500-8, but has not called attention to those edits—even though the changes are significant, and pilots should be both aware and forewarned.

BAKER ON THE NEWS
“Some of our greatest victories are invisible—the legislation that’s never written and the regulations that are never proposed, thanks to the influence of our advocacy team in Washington, D.C., and in state capitals. We win when bad ideas never see the light of day.” —AOPA President Mark BakerBecause pilots are legally accountable for providing the correct information to the FAA when completing Form 8500-8 through MedXPress, AOPA believes that it should be as clear and easy to understand as possible. Pilots could face FAA enforcement action or even criminal penalties for any incorrect or false statements on the form, which is outlined and reinforced by the Pilot’s Bill of Rights notification on the first page of Form 8500-8.

The FAA posted a notice to obtain approval from the Office of Management and Budget to continue using Form 8500-8 with the recent changes. To ensure that AOPA’s concerns about the changes have been documented and added to the official record, AOPA commented on the notice in October. Chief among the concerns are “additional instruction” drop-down menus, identified by a small “+” next to the question number.
The drop-downs are easy to miss and difficult to understand.

In the past, both the Government Accountability Office and the NTSB have expressed their concerns on several areas of Form 8500-8; however, the FAA has continued to make ad hoc updates instead of complete revisions. AOPA urges the FAA to immediately undertake the process to make full revisions to the form and ensure the public and aviation community are included in the process.

Web: aopa.org/pilot/medxpresschanges