AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2016 - 16

WAYPOINTS

A summer to remember

BY THOMAS B. HAINES
Editor in Chief

Major improvements on the horizon for legacy airplanes

AOPA Editor in
Chief TOM HAINES
has been covering general aviation
for three decades.
Watch him weekly
on AOPA Live This
Week.

16 | AOPA PILOT July 2016

EVEN AFTER CLEANING the rose coloring off my glasses,
I still think maybe that glow on the horizon is a fleet of
general aviation landing lights headed our way, rather
than a nuclear explosion obliterating flying as we know
it. After decades of flat to declining aircraft sales, and
a decade of languishing GA activity, it feels as if the
headwinds may be shifting-at least to a crosswind, and
maybe even a quartering tailwind. Allow me to explain.
Sales of new piston airplanes remain flat, but interest
in refurbishing the existing fleet is strong and growing.
With the addition of only 1,000 or so new piston airplanes a year to the fleet, we'll be decades in modernizing
the fleet through attrition. Instead, pilots are recognizing
the value in the airplanes they own, and are investing in
upgrades and modernization. Quality avionics shops are
booked for months, as are quality paint shops.
Some of this enthusiasm comes from a trifecta
of related projects to make it simpler to install new
equipment in legacy airplanes. The overarching event
is the maturing of information around the FAR Part
23 rewrite, a yearslong effort by the FAA, the General
Aviation Manufacturers Association, AOPA, and others to simplify the process of meeting the intent of the
regulations that define the certification requirements
for new airplanes and upgrades to existing airplanes.
Nearly three years after publishing the industry report
on ways to simplify Part 23, the FAA issued a notice of
proposed rulemaking at the end of March. The comment period on the NPRM closed in May, with AOPA
and others submitting mostly positive comments.
The extensive rewrite would allow those creating
new airplane designs to demonstrate compliance with
the intent of Part 23 in less prescriptive ways. That's
great, but even then it will be years before we see truly
new, less-expensive designs emerge. More important
for the future of GA, the rewrite opens the door for
a simplified approach to improvements to existing
airplanes. Good news, but fleshing out exactly how
manufacturers can take advantage of the new language
will take some time. The industry is hopeful that the
FAA will issue the final rule before the end of 2016.
A more immediate way to infuse safety-enhancing
gear into the legacy fleet is through the Non-Required
Safety Enhancing Equipment initiative. Norsee grew out
of an initiative by the FAA to allow the installation of supplemental safety gear without the usual requirements for
a technical standard order (TSO) and other requirements

that drive up the cost of equipment and draw out the
time to market. After much industry encouragement, the
FAA recognized that installation of an angle of attack
indicator, for example, may improve safety. Because the
AOA information is supplemental to the pilot, it needn't
jump through the usual regulatory rigmarole. While simplified and less costly AOA installations were an early
win, the FAA's Norsee guidance leaves the door open to
all sorts of other "supplemental" gear, including cockpit weather displays and even autopilots. Manufacturers
are just beginning to understand the opportunities here.
Meanwhile, recognizing the need to move more
quickly on installation of primary gear to help improve
safety, AOPA President Mark Baker and I, along with
AOPA Senior Vice President of Government Affairs
Jim Coon, briefed FAA Administrator Michael Huerta
and his staff last summer on the state of the GA fleet.
We emphasized the need to more quickly infuse into
certified airplanes some of the proven and lower-cost
avionics available to Experimental aircraft. Huerta was
receptive, and the door cracked open further to allow
installation of primary non-TSOed gear into production
airplanes. The result of that and other industry pushes
has created quite a buzz. At Sun 'n Fun, the Experimental
Aircraft Association and Dynon Avionics announced a
supplemental type certificate to install an electronic attitude indicator in a Cessna 172. The solid-state display
replaces the vacuum-driven, mechanical gyros in the
stock attitude indicator, improving safety and reliability.
The FAA isn't relaxing Part 23 requirements, but instead
is allowing manufacturers to demonstrate that their gear
meets the intent of Part 23 using simpler methods.
Earlier this year I spoke with the presidents of the
major avionics manufacturers about their plans to take
advantage of these emerging trends around Part 23, Norsee,
and non-TSOed systems. Several have projects in the
works that promise to be orders of magnitude less expensive than traditional TSOed equipment. In fact, I predict
this summer you'll hear several significant announcements regarding ways for those of us flying certificated
airplanes to take advantage of the safety-enhancing gear
already available to those flying Experimental airplanes,
including one from AOPA. Stay tuned.
AOPA
EMAIL thomas.haines@aopa.org

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2016