AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2008 - (Page 16) AOPAACTION phone Briefing Flight Planning Tips (www.aopa.org/ flightplanning/articles) to have handy every time you call FSS. Online course a new tool for GA security General aviation security is one of AOPA’s top priorities. To ensure pilots, flight schools, airport tenants, and businesses do their part to secure their aircraft and airports, AOPA teamed up with the Transportation Security Administration to develop the new online course, General Aviation Security (http://flash.aopa.org/asf/gasecurity/gasecurity.cfm). The interactive course is divided into tracks for aircraft owners, renters, flight schools, and FBOs. For flight school and FBO employees, the custom tracks take you through the TSA’s annual recurrent security awareness training. Adopting principles from AOPA’s Airport Watch program, (www.aopa.org/airportwatch/index.html) the course shows you examples of suspicious activity at airports and ways to handle a variety of scenarios. Because the types of GA airports run the gamut, a onesize-fits-all approach to security doesn’t work. That’s why AOPA’s course contains links to Airport Watch and the TSA’s Airport Security Guidelines. With these resources, you can customize the type of security practices you need to secure your aircraft and airport. FAA makes local notams available online P ilots will soon be able to get all notices to airmen (notams) for a given flight from electronic sources, thanks to a change in the status of local notams. Effective January 28, 2008, all new local, or L, notams were reclassified as D notams and added to the national notam system. In addition, each new D notam is preceded by a keyword that indicates the area affected, such as navigation lighting, runway, ramp, or airspace. That means for the first time pilots can now get all relevant notams, including those that affect only their destination airport, without calling flight service. In the past, pilots who used online briefing sources did not receive local notams, which can include runway closures and other important operational data. “AOPA has been advocating for this change for a long time,” said Melissa Rudinger, AOPA vice president of regulatory affairs. “This helps simplify and consolidate information gathering for pilots while alleviating some of the call burden on flight service.” Although new local notams became part of the national system at 0500 UTC on January 28, existing notams will be entered into the system as FSS is able to validate, reclassify, and publish them. While there is no formal timeline for completing this transition, most L notams should have been reclassified within four months. Existing D notams that have not expired or been updated to include a keyword will then be reissued within the next 30 days. The change marks the first stage of a three-part plan for updating the notam system. Over the coming years, the FAA also plans to merge the Department of Defense notam system with the civilian system and to fully digitize all notam information to include graphics. The final phases of the projects will not be completed before 2010. Customs expands radiation screening to GA T he U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has implemented a program to scan GA aircraft for potential nuclear hazards as they enter the United States. The agency already scans more than 90 percent of cargo containers, and also scans a percentage of ships, trucks, and cars entering the country for radiation with the eventual goal of scanning 100 percent of all incoming goods, people, and vehicles. The GA screening program for international arrivals took effect December 30, 2007. Arriving aircraft will be asked to shut down their engines, auxiliary power units, and certain avionics. Officers will then scan the inside and outside of the aircraft. Passengers and crew may be asked to disembark during the scan. The entire procedure should take between five and 15 minutes and is not expected to cause arrival delays. Pilots should report any significant delays or other issues that arise during the AOPA sponsoring safety, career seminars at WAI AOPA is sponsoring a safety seminar and a presentation for aspiring career pilots at the Women in Aviation International’s annual conference in San Diego, March 13-15. Rod Machado will present an informative and humorous safety seminar, “Defensive Flying—Five Strategies to Keep You Safe in the Air,” from 7:30 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, March 13. Machado is a columnist for AOPA Pilot and AOPA Flight Training magazines. The presentation is free and open to the public. If you’re thinking about launching a career as an airline pilot, don’t miss Wayne Phillips’ presentation, scheduled for 2:50 to 3:40 p.m. on Friday, March 14. Phillips is a contributing writer and Career Advisor columnist for AOPA Flight Training’s new “Career Pilot” section. You must register for the WAI conference in order to attend Phillips’ presentation. The conference will be held at the Town and Country Resort and Convention Center. For more information or to register, see the Women in Aviation International Web site (www. wai.org). AOPA PILOT • 16 • MARCH 2008 http://www.aopa.org/flightplanning/articles http://www.aopa.org/flightplanning/articles http://ash.aopa.org/asf/gasecurity/gasecurity.cfm http://www.aopa.org/airportwatch/index.html http://www.wai.org http://www.wai.org
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.