FAA proposes rules for powered-lift aircraft, denies NBAA extension Request

The Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion (FAA) last week pro­posed a com­pre­hen­sive rule for train­ing and cer­ti­fy­ing pilots.

“These pro­posed rules of the sky will safe­ly ush­er in this new era of avi­a­tion and pro­vide the cer­tain­ty the indus­try needs to devel­op,” said act­ing asso­ciate admin­is­tra­tor for avi­a­tion safe­ty David Boul­ter.

New rules are nec­es­sary because many of the pro­posed air­craft take off and land like a heli­copter but fly en-route like an aero­plane. The pow­ered-lift pro­posed rule is designed to pro­vide cer­tain­ty to pilots and the indus­try on what the require­ments and expec­ta­tions will be to oper­ate these air­craft once it is finalised.

Under the pro­posed rule a clear path­way is pro­posed for pilots to earn pow­ered-lift rat­ings spe­cif­ic to each type of air­craft they fly. Pilots who work for pow­ered-lift air­craft man­u­fac­tur­ers could serve as the ini­tial cadre of flight instruc­tors, who could then train instruc­tors at flight schools, train­ing cen­tres and air car­ri­ers.

To safe­ly accel­er­ate pilot cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, alter­nate eli­gi­bil­i­ty cri­te­ria would enable cer­tain pilots to meet flight-time expe­ri­ence require­ments faster. This would apply to pilots who already hold a com­mer­cial pilot cer­tifi­cate and are instru­ment rat­ed.

Pow­ered-lift air­craft would fol­low the same set of oper­at­ing rules as tra­di­tion­al air­craft that are used in pri­vate and com­mer­cial flights and air tours. The pro­pos­al would con­form to Inter­na­tion­al Civ­il Avi­a­tion Orga­ni­za­tion require­ments, enabling US pilots to oper­ate in oth­er coun­tries.

Indi­vid­u­als can com­ment on the pro­posed rule for 60 days after it is pub­lished in the Fed­er­al Reg­is­ter. The pro­posed rule close­ly fol­lows anoth­er inte­gra­tion mile­stone. Last month, the FAA released an updat­ed blue­print for air­space and pro­ce­dure changes to accom­mo­date future air taxis.

Mean­while, the NBAA, along with oth­er avi­a­tion asso­ci­a­tions, request­ed the FAA extend the com­ment peri­od for UAS Beyond Visu­al Line of Sight (BVLOS), and relat­ed peti­tions for exemp­tion, hav­ing allowed only 20 days for pub­lic com­ment to this dock­et and four peti­tions for exemp­tion.

“We ful­ly sup­port the FAA’s efforts to devel­op a sys­tem that will enable these air­craft to safe­ly enter and oper­ate in the exist­ing avi­a­tion struc­ture. As our efforts in the past have shown, only through well-thought, safe­ty-dri­ven process­es, stan­dards, and rules will we be able to suc­ceed,” the asso­ci­a­tions said.

When the FAA denied the request, NBAA’s senior direc­tor of air traf­fic ser­vices and infra­struc­ture Hei­di Williams said: “We are dis­ap­point­ed with what is undoubt­ed­ly an expe­dit­ed com­ment peri­od.

“How­ev­er, BVLOS is not new to the indus­try. We have been test­ing and explor­ing these oper­a­tions safe­ly for years and are con­fi­dent these expe­ri­ences will allow us to pro­vide mean­ing­ful, effec­tive feed­back, even the short com­ment peri­od.”

In Novem­ber last year, the FAA pro­posed the new rules to help pave the way for com­mer­cial air taxi oper­a­tions by around the mid­dle of the decade, and issued a pro­pos­al to update its air car­ri­er def­i­n­i­tion to add ‘pow­ered-lift’ oper­a­tions to reg­u­la­tions cov­er­ing oth­er com­mer­cial oper­a­tions like air­lines, char­ters and air tours. The FAA is sep­a­rate­ly devel­op­ing a pow­ered-lift oper­a­tions rule for cer­ti­fy­ing pilots and oper­at­ing require­ments to fly eVTOLs.

FAA pro­pos­es rules to advance fly­ing taxi oper­a­tions