Industry-Wide Advocacy Efforts Led by NBAA

The FAA recently revised some templates used for continuing authorization in using electronic signatures, electronic record keeping, and updating electronic manuals. The NBAA’s internal advisory groups and committees brought their concerns to the association’s leadership, who then mobilized an industry-wide advocacy effort leading to the FAA’s response.

The advocacy efforts were coordinated through the FAA/Industry Operations Specifications Working Group.

The revisions simplify the continuing authorization process by eliminating the need for operators to update their Operations Specifications (OpSpec), Management Specifications (MSpec), or Letter of Authoriztion (LOA). Instead, the revised A025 template enables the user to simply notify the responsible FSDO of the updates needed, or to have a process for software version control.

Brian Koester, aviation compliance and operations analyst at Jetlaw said, “These revisions create a comparable but less burdensome way to ensure safe use of electronic systems through A025. This new process is far more practical, as A025 users no longer have to update the OpSpec, MSpec or LOA every time there’s a software version or manual change, which could be as frequently as every couple of weeks.”

Koester added, “The change results in considerable time savings for FAA and industry resources while maintaining an equivalent level of safety. This is an example of small but meaningful policy change effected by industrywide consensus and collaboration.”

FMI:  www.faa.gov/