AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2012 - 12

AOPAACTION

COMPILED BY KATHY DONDZILA

What AOPA is doing to keep you flying

Keep flying: Free online course, no AME
magine if every time you completed a flight review you also took a free online course about medical self-certification that allowed you to continue flying—using your driver’s license as the baseline of health. That could become a reality if the FAA accepts a request that would allow pilots to use their driver’s license and medical self-certification to fly aircraft of 180 horsepower or less and carry one passenger. AOPA and the Experimental Aircraft Association are working to extend the driver’s license medical from sport pilot privileges to include pilots flying recreationally in slightly larger aircraft.

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In order to use a driver’s license, AOPA and EAA are proposing that pilots would have to complete a medical self-certification online course every 24 calendar months in addition to determining that they are medically fit before every flight. To make it easy to remember to take the course, pilots could align it with their flight review dates.

The online course, which would be developed by the Air Safety Institute, would be open to all pilots and explain the self-certification steps along with the pilot’s responsibilities associated with certifying fitness for flight. “Pilots visit the aviation medical examiner every

six months to five years, depending on the class of medical and age of the pilot. The rest of the time they self-certify prior to each medi flight that they are medically qualified,” said Kristine Hartzell, AOPA manager of regulatory affairs. “This would follow the same principle, using a driver’s license, completion of the online course, and selfcertification in lieu of the medical certificate.”

NATIONAL

BARR is back: Privacy rights restored

P

ilots can again protect private data about aircraft movements from being publicly released. Congress restored the Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program in November. Privacy advocates in Congress and the general aviation industry had been fighting for the restoration of BARR since the announcement earlier this year that the program—which allows participants to block their N number and associated flight information when flying IFR—would be limited to those who could prove a “valid security concern.” “On behalf of our AOPA members, we thank those in Congress and the admin12 • FEBRUARY 2012

istration who recognize the importance of assuring a measure of privacy protection to individuals operating their own aircraft,” said AOPA President Craig Fuller. “We are pleased to have the BARR program back in operation.” The dismantling of BARR was met with bipartisan opposition in Congress. Many representatives and senators voiced their opposition to the change in letters to the Department of Transportation, and two bills to restore the program began making their way through each house of Congress. The appropriations bill that led to the program’s reinstatement cut off funding to anything

that would limit an operator’s ability to request that his or her aircraft’s information be blocked from public dissemination. Proponents of BARR argued that releasing information to the public such as the aircraft’s altitude, airspeed, destination, and estimated time of arrival invades privacy, poses a security risk to those on board, and threatens the competitiveness of U.S. companies. NBAA led the initiative to restore BARR, and AOPA joined the association in taking the fight to court, petitioning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to invalidate the new limitations on BARR.

“NBAA and its members thank the leaders in Congress for taking action to address our industry’s long-standing concern that curtailment of the BARR program represents an invasion of privacy, a competitive threat to businesses, and a potential security risk,” said NBAA President Ed Bolen. EAA filed a friend of the court brief in support of the suit. EAA President and CEO Rod Hightower said, “We appreciate the efforts of those in Congress who acted to preserve the privacy rights of aviators within the BARR program. We also applaud the efforts of those within the aviation community who worked together on this important issue.”

AOPA PILOT •
AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2012
