AircraftOwner Online

When the General Aviation Congressional Caucus was created in 2009 who would have thought it would grow to one of the largest caucus’ in the Congress?  Just a year later they now have more than 100 members.  Boy, does GA ever need them!  

This past month Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-Mich.) announced that with his retirement from the Congress he was handing the Republican co-chairmanship over to Sam Graves (R-Mo.). I have only met Rep. Ehlers a couple of times but I have had the great pleasure to know Sam Graves for several years.  

Sam is one of us. He is a concerned pilot, who flys among other things, a 650 Stearman, Citabria, Husky and he is restoring a WWII Beech AT-10.  In addition to being on the Caucus, Rep. Graves serves on the Subcommittee on Aviation (part of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure). He is also ranking member on the Small Business Committee and serves on the Agricultural committee. We are very fortunate to have a guy like Sam on GA’s side.  

This coming year will be very important to GA. I personally am very concerned about what I see as an insidious regulatory creep on the part of the FAA. I am not sure how calculated it is but there have been a number of regulations promulgated which will slowly and surely begin to restrict our General Aviaiton freedoms.  

These include the issues of local GA airport access for those living on or near airports which receive federal funding (through-the-fence). The FAA is trying to restrict access and dictate to local communities who, how and when their airports can be accessed by users. Then the FAA just recently put an NPRM out which would essentially revoke the mechanic’s license of those who, despite being current in testing and knowledge, do not meet the FAA’s idea of an appropriate activity level (see my last blog).  

Then there is the matter of the FAA forcing a periodic renewal of aircraft N-numbers. It seems innocent enough as a way to keep the data base clean, until you discover that it is not all that well thought out. This will ultimately preclude you from finding and returning to Certificated service that forgotten “airplane in a barn” or anywhere else for that matter. If the registration has not been constantly renewed, it is nothing more than a pile of parts.  

When I asked the FAA about the impact of an expired registration on the airworthiness of an aircraft it appears they had forgotten that minor detail. What happens if an aircraft slips out of the renewal window and the n-number put back in the pool and is reassigned? Airworthiness certificates have the n-number on them and the regulations require the registration be valid.  If an aircraft n-number has been reassigned because someone forgot to renew it, then the airworthiness would be invalid also.  

This is the kind of thing I’m talking about. And there are more examples. But suffice it to say, I am glad we have a GA Caucus. We are certainly going to need it.