A homeland security spending bill includes language directing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to work with industry to expand the transportation security administration access certificate (TSAAC), a voluntary general aviation security program. The bill instructs the agency to report to Congress in January on plans to enhance TSAAC.
Air safety
October 17, 2006 - 9:49am
Part 135 operators and management entities will be affected by a proposed policy guidance involving wet leases, an arrangement in which an air carrier can lease an aircraft and crew from an individual or entity if it is also authorized to engage in common carriage.
October 17, 2006 - 7:59am
A University of North Dakota (UND) Cessna Citation II icing research aircraft made a successful deadstick landing near Beaver, Alaska, about 70 miles north of Fairbanks, after both engines lost power on September 30. In IMC at 9,200 feet, the Citation accumulated about seven-eighths of an inch of ice on the wing’s leading edge.
October 17, 2006 - 7:44am
With input from NBAA, the FAA has taken steps it hopes will reduce air traffic congestion between the Northeast and Florida. So-called “Snowbird” routes connecting general aviation airports and Florida destinations can become clogged by significant volume between November and March, and crippling ground stops have resulted. Key choke points were identified as the eliot Intersection, white Intersection and wavy Intersection.
October 17, 2006 - 6:30am
“We use the standard slot system like everyone else,” said a NetJets official in response to an AIN inquiry about how the frax operator gets slots under the FAA’s Special Traffic Management Program (STMP). One pilot, when hearing of the response, asked, “What did you expect them to say? ‘We cheat and get all the reservations we want?’”
October 17, 2006 - 5:56am
In what was hailed as a “giant first step” in reopening Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) to general aviation, a Hawker 1000 operated by New World Jet for Jet Aviation landed at dawn on October 18 after flying to the nation’s capital from Teterboro Airport (TEB) in New Jersey.
October 17, 2006 - 5:45am
How accurate are the NTSB’s published general aviation accident rate statistics and related data? Not accurate enough, according to the Safety Board.
October 17, 2006 - 5:07am
Like the flu and other nasty bugs, the user-fee virus is making its periodic appearance as Congress considers FAA reauthorization, up for renewal in 2007. This cycle’s strain, however, appears to be particularly virulent.
October 16, 2006 - 1:25pm
• House Minority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) has been the subject of months of scrutiny for alleged improprieties in accepting travel paid for by lobbyists, which has led to finger-pointing by both parties. That, in turn, has caused a number of legislators to double-check their travel records to ensure that proper procedures for travel were followed.
October 16, 2006 - 1:09pm
The NTSB should be able to choose which general aviation accidents it investigates, former Board member Carol Carmody said in a speech before the Washington Aero Club.
