FAAST Blast — Week of November 15, 2010
Biweekly FAA Safety Briefing News Update
Safety Soars at AOPA Summit
Amid the balmy breezes in Long Beach, Calif., thousands of pilots, vendors, and aviation enthusiasts gathered Nov. 11-13 for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) Summit. The summit's predominant focus was the future of general aviation (GA) and finding solutions to address a shrinking pilot population. FAA Deputy Administrator Michael Huerta gave summit attendees an FAA update on some of the initiatives supporting GA safety. "What we're looking at now as an agency are a range of non-regulatory approaches to safety improvement that you will hear about in the near future," Huerta said. He also commented on the new aircraft re-registration process that began Oct. 1, 2010, and will purge as many as 100,000 bad records. "The enhanced accuracy of this system will provide security benefits to all users of the aircraft registry," Huerta said. FAA Acting Assistant Administrator for Airports Catherine Lang spoke about the challenges of supporting the more than 5,200 public-use airports that make up "the most robust airport system in the world." Lang stressed the need for more help with wildlife hazard assessments. "We need better reporting from the GA community," said Lang, whose office receives fewer than 6 percent of total wildlife strike reports from GA operators. "We can't mitigate against a real threat to aviation unless we're getting a more complete picture of what's happening," Lang said. Use the online FAA Wildlife Strike Report form,
http://wildlife-mitigation.tc.faa.gov/wildlife/strikenew.aspx, to report strikes.
Videos of these and other presentations are available at www.aopa.org/aopalive.
Revised AD Affects 36,000 Cessna Airplanes
On Nov. 10, 2010, the FAA issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to update a previous Airworthiness Directive (AD) that addresses an issue with seat rails on 18 Cessna models. The revised AD will require additional steps to inspect the seat rails and ensure they are secure. The inspections must be done within 100 hours time-in-service since the last inspection completed under the old AD, or within 12 calendar months of the effective date of the new AD, whichever comes first. The inspection then must be repeated at intervals not to exceed 100 hours or every 12 months, whichever comes first. The estimated cost of compliance is $85 to perform the inspection, plus any necessary replacement costs. For more details of the inspection procedure, reference the proposed AD at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-28158.htm. Comments will be accepted until December 23, 2010.
When the Best Made Plans Go Awry
As any pilot will tell you, planning is an essential part of every flight. But as reality often dictates, not all things happen as expected. An FAA Safety Briefing article by editor Susan Parson tackles the subject of planning for the unplanned, highlighting the need to prepare for an abnormal or emergency situation. The article also outlines several tools and resources pilots can draw upon to handle emergencies.
Produced by the FAA Safety Briefing editors,http://www.faa.gov/news/safety_briefing/
Address questions or comments to: SafetyBriefing@faa.gov.
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