AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2013 - 100

NEWS & NOTES

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

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AOPA Legal Services Plan/Pilot Protection Services safeguards your pilot and medical certificates from FAA action (www.aopa.org/pps)

FAA application equals FAA investigation
THE NEXT TIME you submit an application to the FAA, you may be surprised, even alarmed, to receive written notification that you are under investigation. You may even be required to sign an officiallooking form that is meant to prove that you received that notification. The reason for the change is simple, and it’s good for pilots. You will now be receiving a written notification of an investigation every time you apply for a certificate—including each time you visit your AME—under the newly enacted Pilot’s Bill of Rights. President Barack Obama signed into law the Pilot’s Bill of Rights, legislation with the purpose of making changes to the FAA’s enforcement process to help put fairness back into that process. One of the changes made by the law requires that the FAA “provide timely, written notification to an individual who is the subject of an investigation relating to the approval, denial, suspension, modification, or revocation of an airman certificate.” Too often, an FAA inspector or an FAA air traffic controller would seek out a pilot to ask about a

BY KATHY YODICE

AOPA Pilot Protection Services

flight incident and the pilot would understandably respond, honestly and often with a lot of information that the FAA could use against the pilot. The pilot would not realize or understand that the FAA was investigating his or her conduct as a possible violation of the FAA’s regulations—nor would the pilot understand that there was often no obligation to provide the FAA with the information being requested. The same reasoning holds true for an application being submitted to the FAA. When you sign any FAA application form, you are certifying that the information you have provided on the form is true and accurate to the best of your knowledge, and you are agreeing that the information may be used by the FAA to determine whether to issue the certificate or rating to you. The FAA fully expects you to be truthful and accurate and complete with the information that you provide. If you fail in this regard, and the FAA finds out about it, the FAA takes the ultimate sanction against
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you—revocation of all of the certificates you hold based on charges of intentional falsification. Providing false information on your application can subject you to criminal penalties, including jail time and hefty civil penalties. So, this new step of notifying you that you are under investigation in connection with your application is, in my view, an additional safeguard to remind you of the FAA’s expectation that you have read the questions on the application form, that you understand the reason for the questions, and that you answer each of the questions correctly to the best of your knowledge.
KATHY YODICE is an aviation attorney for AOPA’s Pilot Protection Services and Legal Services Plan. She’s assisted AOPA members for more than 13 years and is a former FAA attorney. She owns a Cherokee 180 and has been a pilot since 1994.

To learn more about the program or to enroll, visit (www.aopa.org/pps).

AIRPORT SUPPORT NETWORK

ASN VOLUNTEERS JOIN HURRICANE RELIEF EFFORTS
AS HURRICANE SANDY bore down on the Northeast, ASN volunteers at several airports in the region joined with other pilots at their airports to pull together assistance for impacted communities. At Rhode Island’s Newport State Airport, ASN volunteer

Graeme Smith reported that area businesses supported his appeal for help for storm victims he planned to reach on Staten Island and in New Jersey. Hoping for a few airplane loads of supplies, Smith received more than 12 airplaneloads of goods, requiring him to

reach out to additional pilots to fly the supplies. Sixteen pilots flew a total of 23 missions in a staggering final total of 5,445 pounds of urgently needed supplies. The Fitchburg Pilots Association in Massachusetts transported thousands of

pounds of supplies to hurricane victims on Long Island. Anyone who questions the value of GA and the network of community airports across the country should remember GA’s critical value in times of emergency, and the pilots who volunteer their time and aircraft.

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http://www.aopa.org/pps http://www.aopa.org/pps http://www.aopa.org/pps

AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2013