AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2020 - 12

AOPA ACTION

ON THE HILL

|

AOPA, industry oppose bills
Don't let these proposals get off the ground, groups say
AOPA AND FIVE OTHER aviation-industry groups urged House and
Senate committees to reject several proposals they believe would compromise safety, "dismantle a thriving rotorcraft industry," and disperse
FAA regulatory clout among countless local governments. In a letter
to the chairmen and ranking members of the House Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure and its aviation subcommittee, AOPA
and other groups urged that the panels oppose H.R.4880, the Improving
Helicopter Safety Act of 2019, and H.R.4547, known as the Safe and Quiet
Skies Act.
H.R.4880 would prohibit "operation of 'nonessential' civil rotorcraft in
'covered airspace,'" defined as "airspace directly over any city with a population over 8 million people and with a population density of over 25,000
people per square mile, including the airspace over any waterways considered within the limits of such city."
However, "the legislation would have no positive impact on improving the safety of commuter, charter, and tourism flights, and its negative
impacts would be immediate and significant. It would completely dismantle a thriving rotorcraft industry in affected areas, dealing a [devastating]
blow to the many businesses that depend on and support it," the letter said.
Development of future flight technology might also be at stake: The bill
"establishes a dangerous precedent for future legislative restrictions on
access to airspace for general aviation and risks stymieing the development
of vertical flight for both unmanned aircraft systems and urban air mobility," AOPA and other groups said.
The Safe and Quiet Skies Act would introduce restrictions on air tour
operators by "prohibiting specific flight routes, altitudes, and common procedures," including an impossible burden: a mandated noise signature standard
for overflight of an "'occupied area'... that 'no currently certificated helicopter can meet.'"
Both bills, whether through undermining federal preemption or prescribing unwarranted airspace restrictions, would be "detrimental to the industry"
and the airspace system, AOPA and the groups said.
And, in a letter to the bipartisan leadership of the Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation and its Subcommittee on Aviation
and Space, AOPA voiced strong opposition to another threat to the burgeoning drone industry-and to the effective federal aviation oversight that harks
back to the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. S.2607, the Drone Integration
and Zoning Act, "proposes enabling thousands of local governments in the
United States to impose their own restrictions on commercial UAS air carrier operations."

12 | AOPA PILOT January 2020

BAKER ON THE NEWS

"Some of our greatest victories
are invisible-the legislation that's
never written and the regulations
that are never proposed, thanks to
the influence of our advocacy team
in Washington, D.C., and in state
capitals. We win when bad ideas
never see the light of day."
-AOPA President Mark Baker

AOPA and the aviation groups said it
would be premature for Congress to pursue legislation before a U.S. Department of
Transportation UAS Integration Pilot Program
wraps up its business. The pilot program is
focused on determining how state and local
entities can work with the DOT and the FAA
"to craft new rules that support more complex
low-altitude operations" that drone integration would bring about.
As with the other proposals, S.2607 would
undo a "long-established regulatory structure"
that is integral to aviation safety, AOPA said,
urging the lawmakers not to "unravel" the regulatory system's ability to deliver safety.
The organizations signing both letters with
AOPA included the Experimental Aircraft
Association, General Aviation Manufacturers
Association, Helicopter Association
International, National Business Aviation
Association, and National Air Transportation
Association.
aopa.org/pilot/capitolhill
http://www.aopa.org/pilot/capitolhill
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2020
