AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - November 2018 - 12

AOPA ACTION

Commercial airport security changes can squeeze GA
AOPA is working to minimize constraints
The pilot of a single-engine airplane
lands at a small commercial-service
airport and is cleared to taxi to the
transient parking area on the public
ramp. On arrival at parking, however,
two surprises are waiting: The transient parking area has been downsized
to a few tiedown spaces since the
pilot's previous visit-and a security
guard is waiting to escort the arriving
aviator and passengers to the fixedbase operation.
Why the changes?
A clue to the answers sits close by,
where a regional airliner is boarding
passengers. The new airline in town
is flying 78-seat jets to a variety of
destinations, and the airport is hopeful that the service will expand even
more. Under Transportation Security
Administration regulations, the airport has been required to upgrade its
existing security measures to a complete, TSA-approved program because
the new airline's aircraft have "a

passenger seating configuration of 61
or more seats."
Along with restricting or relocating parking or access points, airport
management may also be required to
conduct security screening and issue
identification badges to hundreds of
employees and other personnel authorized to enter movement areas. That's
when the scenario can become tricky
for transient pilots and their passengers. Transient pilots lack locally issued
security credentials-a technicality that
has prompted at least one airport, now
coping with increased security obligations, to hire security guards to escort
transient pilots and their passengers
to and from secured portions of the
airport, augmenting the fixed-base
operator's other security measures-
and curtail general aviation parking
near airline operations, citing a safety
concern about jet blasts.
AOPA has responded to member reports of adverse effects of

security changes at airports that are
expanding their commercial service
or intend to attract larger carriers.
AOPA has opened discussions with
airport administrations to ensure
that access to airport facilities is not
curtailed.
AOPA members can help the
association work on their behalf by
notifying AOPA (airtrafficservices@
aopa.org) of changes they observe
that are linked to security procedures
at commercial-service airports, said
Nobuyo Sakata, AOPA director of aviation security. "Transient pilots may
observe changes in airport security
procedures when they fly to relatively small commercial-service
airports," she said. "Especially if you
become aware that an airport has
announced increased or additional
commercial service, you may notice
changed security procedures at the
GA ramp as well."
www.aopa.org/security-brief

AOPA's Rudinger to serve on RTCA board
AOPA Vice President of Government Affairs Melissa
Rudinger has been elected to the board of directors
of RTCA, the private, not-for-profit association that
works to establish aviation's modernization standards
by developing consensus among industry interests, in
cooperation with the FAA.
"Melissa Rudinger has been a great asset at AOPA
for more than 25 years and led a number of our most
important initiatives," said AOPA President Mark
Baker, a former RTCA board member who also served
on RTCA's NextGen Advisory Committee from 2014
to 2018. "She knows the issues that matter to pilots
12 | AOPA PILOT November 2018

and how to get things done in Washington, and she
will be a strong voice for general aviation on the RTCA
board as they work to make our skies even safer and
more efficient."
Rudinger is a commercial pilot with a lighterthan-air rating who has been in aviation for more
than 30 years, has run a local airport business, and
has received FAA Academy training in airspace
design and analysis, air traffic management, terminal
procedures development, and environmental policy.
She is co-anchor of AOPA Live This Week.
www.aopa.org/pilot/rudinger
http://www.aopa.org/security-brief http://www.aopa.org/pilot/rudinger
AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - November 2018

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