AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2014 - 104

NEWS & NOTES
ON THE

WEB

MEMBER SERVICES

AOPA Pilot Protection Services guards both your pilot and medical
certificates to protect your freedom to fly (www.aopa.org/pps).

Balancing law and aviation

AOPA Pilot
Protection Services

Important to preserving our freedom to fly
IT CERTAINLY SEEMS TO ME that there are many legal issues in aviation these days. For example, Congress passed the Pilot's Bill of
Rights, intending to right a system that was way out of whack in
favor of the FAA, and against those of us in the industry. We had
been squawking about the unfairness for years, even decades, but
the FAA wouldn't hear any of it. So, the changes brought about by
the Pilot's Bill of Rights were long overdue, and they change the
legal landscape for all of us with fixes to the system that give back
rights to airmen and justice to the system, while still supporting
the ultimate goal shared by all of us: safety in flying.
Also, AOPA and EAA submitted a petition for exemption from
the FAA's rules to allow a limited group of aviators to operate

BY KATHY YODICE

And, we came to find out that Customs and Border Patrol
(CBP) agents were stopping domestically flown general aviation
aircraft for no apparent reason, other than being general aviation aircraft operating at general aviation airports. But, there
wasn't any authority to be found that permitted the stops and the
searches that we were hearing about. We made requests under
the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), we asked CBP to explain,
we invoked the threat of legal process, and Congress got involved.
CBP answered one of our FOIA requests saying that no records
existed regarding the stops, or if they did exist, the record would
be exempt from disclosure to either the individual or the public. CBP also said that it had authority to stop an aircraft based

Customs and Border Patrol agents were stopping domestically flown general
aviation aircraft for no apparent reason, other than being general aviation aircraft
operating at general aviation airports.
aircraft without being required to hold an FAA-issued medical
certificate, provided the airman has completed a medical education program and is able to consciously assess his or her medical
fitness to fly. The petition asks the FAA to make an exception to
the rule without changing the rule altogether, which the FAA has
repeatedly refused to do. The petition states that the requested
relief would provide an equivalent level of safety to that currently
provided in the regulations-maybe even a higher level of safety,
because of the ongoing educational component-and it is based in
part on established experience with other operations not requiring a medical certificate.

on the FAA's statute and regulations, which require us to present
our documents upon request of law enforcement, but the agency
is not authorized to be stopping, asking, and searching us in the
first place.
The legal issues continue to build and we continue to advocate.
It's important to preserving our freedom to fly.
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. Kathy owns
a Piper Cherokee 180.

ANSWERS FOR PILOTS

ACHING JOINTS?
A DECADE AGO, it was an easy step up to the
toe hold on the side of a Cessna to check
the fuel. Now many of us use a step ladder.
Remember swinging easily under the tail
to unknot the tie-down rope? Let's just say

104 | AOPA PILOT January 2014

it's not so fluid a motion for some of us anymore. What's the problem? It may be too
many birthdays and the stiffness that typically comes with them. Or it may be that
you suffer from arthritis. Read about how

the disease may affect your airman medical
certificate and what you can do to mitigate the symptoms in January's Answers
for Pilots (www.aopa.org/Pilot-Resources/
Answers-for-Pilots.aspx).

http://www.aopa.org/pps http://www.aopa.org/pps http://www.aopa.org/Pilot-Resources/Answers-for-Pilots.aspx http://www.aopa.org/Pilot-Resources/Answers-for-Pilots.aspx

AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2014