Intended To Ensure Past Errors Are Not Repeated

The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) will roll out "IC Check" -- billed as the only comprehensive compliance-driven flight release system for professionally flown general aviation aircraft operations -- on June 10 at the 2008 NATA Air Charter Summit.

"The Part 121 community has been using flight releases for decades to ensure regulatory compliance and improve safety," said NATA President James K. Coyne. "After three years of development and testing, professionally flown general aviation aircraft operators now have a cost effective and easy way to confirm and track compliance on a flight-by-flight basis."

"We're very excited about the potential IC Check holds for improving the safety, security, efficiency and market advantage of the progressive operators who already are using the program," Coyne added.

NATA IC Check is an online application similar to online banking or airline reservations systems that applies up to 300 algorithms to individual flight data to confirm compliance with all applicable Federal Aviation Regulations as well as other government regulations and company, customer, industry and insurance standards applicable to professionally flown general aviation flights.

IC Check's primary goal is to assess whether individual flights for which an operator exercises operational control are flown only with legal crew, legal passengers, legal aircraft and legal flight parameters.

If IC Check's calculations indicate that the flight is "in compliance" with all operator-specified requirements, the program issues a "release" prior to flight in a process similar to that followed by many Part 121 air carriers. Once initially configured for an operator, the IC Check flight release process typically requires two minutes of data entry per flight, much of which is automated. Results are instantaneous.

To support ease of use, IC Check has been integrated with CTA/FOS and Bart with integrations pending with Avtrak, ATP, ARGUS, Wyvern, Skybooks and several other programs.

Additionally, IC Check has been integrated with the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration's weather data feed to record conditions at the origin of the flight, destination and en route. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Aircraft Situation Display to Industry (ASDI) flight tracking data also will be attached to individual flight records to prove compliance, per the request of FAA officials who have reviewed the program and are influencing its design.

NATA notes last fall's revocation of TAG/AMI's Part 135 certificate was triggered by 59 "charges" of non-compliance with federal regulations, which were listed in detail in the FAA's revocation order. The certificate revocation also included a $10 million fine. Of the FAA's charges, more than two-thirds could have been addressed to some degree by the use of IC Check, according to the group.

FMI: www.nata.aero/acs, www.nata.aero/iccheck