AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2012 - 46

government agency takes action against somebody…that person is considered innocent until proven guilty. Except this one.” If a pilot is accused of something, the FAA would be required to share information about an incident or event 30 days prior to a decision to proceed with an enforcement action. The bill also would eliminate “NTSB rubber-stamp review of FAA actions.” Pilots can appeal an FAA action to the NTSB, “and the NTSB gives deference to the FAA,” Inhofe said, almost always accepting the agency’s findings. Inhofe said that of 61 cases appealed in fiscal year 2010, only five were reversed. If the federal district court reviewed appeals from the FAA, he continued, there would be fewer cases. “If the inspector or somebody alleging the illegal action knows that the federal district court will review it, they’ll use a lot more discretion.” In addition, the legislation would make notams and other flight service data available to pilots. Notams need to be archived for pilots in an accessible location. “If it’s not there, they can know there wasn’t a notam,” he said. Finally, the bill calls for a review of the medical certification process. “I had seven complaints just from my constituents of unequal treatment—there’s nothing uniform about how they handle these cases. The rewriting of this medical certification process will clean that up.” AOPA and EAA will be at the table to help discuss needed changes, Inhofe added. Should the measure go further? “I have been inundated with people who say, ‘You don’t go far enough.’ I agree with that. We had to draw the line to get the most egregious things passed.”
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Inhofe has a long history of supporting general aviation on Capitol Hill. In 1993 he helped lead reform of tort law, resulting in passage of the General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994—and encouraging Cessna to resume production of single-engine piston aircraft. Inhofe also introduced what became known as the “Hoover Bill,” named after legendary airshow performer Bob Hoover; signed into law in April 2000, it sought to provide due process when the FAA used its emergency authority to immediately ground a pilot without first affording the airman a chance to defend himself. The senator has been working closely with Graves, asking him to introduce a House bill with the same wording as the Senate’s—their goal is to avoid a conference committee, where things can bog down. “Right now we’ll concentrate on getting this done, but I’d like to hear from people who have a well-documented case of something that needs to be addressed,” Inhofe said. “Once we have this law passed, then we’ll start on another one.” A companion bill in the House Graves agrees with Inhofe on the need for a bill of rights. “In many cases, there’s this attitude that you’re guilty until proven innocent. And the fact of the matter is, that’s just wrong,” Graves said. “It simply doesn’t need to be that bad. That’s what this whole idea is all about—to dispel this notion that you’re guilty until proven innocent. That’s not how this society works.” Seeking medical certification, many pilots have to spend too much time addressing long-ago health issues,

Pilots and leaders Sen. James Inhofe (left), in his Harmon Rocket, and Rep. Sam Graves (above) in a T–6.

paperwork errors, or the fact that they checked or forgot to check a box on the medical application form. “They’re healthy now, yet they have to spend a lot of money to dig their way out of a situation that’s long gone,” Graves said. He’s not yet sure if the medical changes will address the sport pilot “Catch 22,” in which a pilot who has been denied a medical cannot fly as a sport pilot. “That’s one of the glitches in the sport pilot program. Something that I support is removing the requirement for third class [medicals]” in situations where operating privileges are restricted, such as the sport pilot or recreational pilot certificates. Graves also is troubled by the appeals process for FAA actions. “Right now you have a right to appeal something the FAA has cited you with to the NTSB, but the problem is that the NTSB often rubber-stamps what the FAA has done. If it’s an appeal process, the NTSB should conduct a separate investigation.” In the area of notams, Graves not only wants to establish an archive of notams, but he would like to see improved quality and timeliness of notam dissemination. “We need a very good system of providing notams, particularly in this world today where people use the Internet to get their weather. The most important intent of that provision is to give you the historical archive of that data.” Without that information, “the pilot is left to prove the unprovable—again, guilty until proven innocent.”

46 • MARCH 2012

AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2012

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