FAA Acts on EAA Recommendation to Remove Obsolete Regulation

Last week the FAA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to remove a small number of regulations that are no longer relevant to civil aviation. In taking this action, the FAA in part credited comments that EAA filed last year. 

The EAA filing was in response to a DOT request for regulations that can be eliminated in the interests of achieving “meaningful burden reduction while continuing to meet statutory obligations and ensure the safety of the U.S. transportation system.” One of the more modest recommendations made by EAA was eliminating 14 CFR 61.11. This rule mostly pertains to pilot certificates issued in the 1940s and 1950s that included expiration dates. The FAA confirmed that no living airmen are subject to this language. The remaining provisions in the rule are redundant with other rules in Part 61. The FAA therefore confirmed that § 61.11 may be repealed in its entirety. 

The FAA further proposed to eliminate 14 CFR 61.7, which similarly pertains to certificates no longer issued for free-balloons, as well as certain certificates issued with a category rating without a class rating. The FAA determined that four remaining airmen nationwide could have been subject to this rule at some point in the past, but that they have all since received updated certificates that render this rule no longer relevant. 

In its comments, EAA proposed to go much farther in eliminating regulation, including removing certain restrictions on flight engineers that make it difficult to operate multi-crew warbirds without adding to safety, the removal of the requirement for a third-class medical certificate for those exercising private pilot privileges, and the removal of the Sport Pilot exclusion on flying if the most recent medical application was not successful. To date, the FAA has not acted on these additional recommendations. 

EAA also noted that many new regulations that add language to the rulebook, such as the Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification (MOSAIC) rule, are actually relieving, as they permit more aeronautical activity to take place at an appropriate level of regulation. These types of new rules are just as welcome as unnecessary rules being eliminated.