GA-JSC Quietly Getting the Hard Work Done

January 7, 2016 - Since its inception, EAA has devoted people and resources to the FAA’s GA-JSC. If you’ve never heard of it, you’re not alone. It stands for General Aviation-Joint Steering Committee, a government/industry/community committee that does much of the background work that gets things accomplished for GA pilots. Most recently, Doug Macnair and Tom Charpentier represented EAA at the group’s January meeting in Washington, D.C.

A major portion of the GA-JSC’s work is gathering data and risk mitigation – not exciting stuff that makes the headlines, but very important to you. Why? Because this data finds what is happening, and what is not happening, in GA’s real world.

EAA has played a pivotal role in the GA-JSC, especially in areas such as airframe certification and safety. Our involvement gives us the ability to work on airworthiness concerns before they might become Airworthiness Directives (ADs). If ADs do become necessary, EAA is engaged in the data analysis essential in their development. EAA also ensures that the voice of the grassroots pilot is at the table, maintaining that education is more effective than regulation.

EAA’s participation in the GA-JSC directly relates to our principles of engaging policymakers that reach back to Paul Poberezny in the 1950s. Through a regular, focused commitment to key certification issues via the GA-JSC, EAA builds working relationships with those key leaders and managers within the FAA. Those relationships go a long way when developing policies that benefit aircraft owners and pilots, heading off potential problems before they become major concerns.