Says There Are Exciting And Innovative Things On The Horizon For GA

By: Tom Patton

Acting FAA Administrator Dan Elwell held the annual "Meet the Boss" session at AirVenture Thursday. Elwell, who has been acting administrator since January of 2018, brought a generally positive message to the EAA members and others gathered at Theater in the Woods for the session.

Elwell said that the re-write of Part 23 was just a warmup for a new initiative called "MOSAIC" ... the Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certificates.

"This is a big one, When congress last year asked us to change the rules so that drone builders could use light-sport style consensus standards, we saw a great opportunity to kick it into high gear," Elwell said.

"For light-sport aircraft, we'll be able to safely bump up the maximum weight, so that instructors can now have some margin when flying with guys like me who enjoy a little too much brats and beer. They'll also be able to have four seats and an electric motor.

"For experimentals, if you're not actually doing experimental work, they'll likely fit into a more appropriate special airworthiness category. So you can say goodbye to those lovely, big "Experimental" stickers.

"For legacy Part 23 aircraft, an owner of a small plane that is not using it for commercial purposes will be able to exchange the standard airworthiness certificate for a special airworthiness certificate. That means the ower will be able to install lower-cost safety equipment that is widely available in the experimental market without an STC."

Elwell said there would be some tradeoffs with this new designation, such as no commercial use, and no flights into Canada. He would not give a timeline for its implementation, but called it a "huge priority" for the FAA and EAA.

Elwell said safety is the other side of the equation. And while there has been a downward trend of fatal GA accidents over the past several years, that trend may be reversed when the final data for 2018 is analyzed.

"For my part, I will be convening a government/GA safety roundtable this fall in Washington," Elwell said. "We'll bring to the table our perpectives on the causes of the injuries in GA fatalities, and we're going to look for ways to effectively address those problems. Interventions will be targeted and always based on data. We'll work with you and the industry to voluntarily make the changes that need to be made.

"We need the general aviation community, all of you, to step up with that can-do attitude to work with us and industry to figure this out, and turn it around."

Another major change that is being worked on is a plain-language version of the NOTAM system, which is being developed in part due to what the administrator heard from pilots last year at AirVenture.

"In addition to making NOTAMS readable, part of the fix will be to redesign the existing NOTAM system, or start from scratch on a new one," Elwell said. "With single-technology gateways for entering, processing and retrieving NOTAM data."

Elwell continued to sing the praises of ADS-B, saying that there have been studies which indicate that airplanes that are equipped with ADS-B Out and In were involved in about 50 percent fewer mid-air and weather-related accidents between 2013 and 2017 than non-equipped airplanes.

On the subject of the integration of unmanned aircraft into the NAS, Elwell said that there are a lot of very smart people working on the issue.

"They have come up with some really out-of-the-box innovative ideas, particularly in the construct of UTM. It's very, very challenging and very complex, but when it comes to integration, we are not going to accomodate a new entrant by chopping off big swaths of airspace for them. They're going be integrated into the NAS."

Elwell did mention that Steven Dickson was confirmed on Wednesday as the next permanent administrator, but said at a briefing for reporters prior to his appearance at Theater in the Woods that there is a 60-year-old law which prohibits both the administrator and the deputy administrator to be former active-duty military personnel, and both Elwell and Dickson are graduates of the Air Force Academy. It will literally take an act of Congress, and the signature of the President, for Elwell to stay on as deputy administrator when Dickson takes the job full time.

(Staff images)

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