D.C. Meetings Focus on Homebuilts, LSA, Airports

November 22, 2017 - Sean Elliott, Tom Charpentier, Doug Macnair, and Joe Norris from EAA’s advocacy team were in Washington, D.C., this week for a series of meetings covering a variety of topics of interest to EAA members. It was part of EAA’s longstanding advocacy philosophy of building relationships with key policymakers to create solutions.

One set of meetings with the FAA focused on possibilities within the light-sport aircraft community. EAA has publicly stated its goal of expanding the light-sport aircraft category to include more aircraft, through either weight-limit adjustments or establishment of performance parameters that would be more inclusive. Electric propulsion is also an area that must be considered as part of the LSA community as technology evolves and improves.

“Having good working relationships with FAA policymakers means our discussions can be frank, wide-ranging, and pointed toward solutions,” said Elliott, EAA’s vice president of advocacy and safety. “We have more than a decade of light-sport aircraft data now available to us, so we can use that baseline to form a plan for the best way to expand opportunities in that area.”

Elliott and Norris also met with FAA officials to discuss expansion of amateur-built aircraft privileges as well as airport issues with the agency’s top representatives in that area.