Dec. 10, 2020
Industry representatives continue to express wide-reaching concerns over the FAA’s proposed electronic Pilot Records Database (PRD) through letters to Congress and the agency.
Phil Roberts, president of PAR Travel Tech, Inc., along with Robert Tamble, city manager of Smithville, TX and the South Dakota Pilots Association, separately wrote the FAA, expressing their concerns with the PRD requirements. The letters were also sent to the chairmen and ranking members of the U.S. House of Representative Transportation Committee and Aviation Subcommittee and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and Aviation and Space Subcommittee.
The letters share NBAA’s three main concerns regarding the impact of the PRD on business aviation:
- Codification of a definition of “corporate flight department”
- Inclusion of check-pilot comments from training and checking events
- Inclusion of aeronautical experience requirements
The PRD legislation was primarily enacted to provide information to airlines to make safe hiring decisions and did not directly address business aviation. The FAA failed to demonstrate any significant safety benefit for business aviation by imposing new reporting requirements on corporate flight departments.
“NBAA and other industry representatives continue to share concerns regarding the Pilot Records Database reporting requirements to Congress, the FAA and other agencies involved in the rulemaking,” said Brian Koester, CAM, NBAA’s director of flight operations and regulations. “The industry agrees that the proposed mandates create an unnecessary and unsubstantiated expense for business aviation organizations at a time when these organizations are providing critical COVID-19 relief and assisting economic recovery.”
The letters outlined the significant impact of COVID-19 on general aviation, including operations down 30% from this time last year and numerous aircraft manufacturing furloughs.
“As we emerge from this crisis, businesses need every resource at their disposal to get back on their feet,” the letters stated. “Mobility will be crucial to restoring the American economy, and burdensome requirements like this will only stifle our ability to grow.”
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.