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Palmer presenting to audienceBrad Palmer, Manager of GA and Commercial Division, FAA, presents Keynote Address at Inaugural NAFI Summit. Photo credit: C. CaliThe National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) recently held its inaugural summit from Oct. 24-26. Held at the Florida Air Museum on the SUN ‘n FUN Expo Campus, Brad Palmer, Manager of General Aviation and Commercial Division of the FAA delivered the opening day keynote. Palmer and his staff are charged with developing and maintaining regulations and policies regarding pilot training, certification, and operating rules governing general aviation. His team oversees the operational environments for everything from drones to commercial space as well as airplanes, rotorcraft, powered-lift, gliders, lighter-than-air, powered parachutes, and weight-shift control aircraft. This FAA division promotes aviation safety, ensuring consistency of regulatory enforcement within the GA community, and applying environmental policy across Flight Standards. He obviously has the attention of the 200+ CFIs in the room.
Palmer could not emphasize enough throughout his presentation that his Division defines success as driving the accident rate down to zero. He began by showing that trends are going in the right direction with accidents and accidents resulting in fatalities is decreasing but 200 deaths year to date for 2023 alone is still too high and not acceptable. He takes into thoughtful consideration the cost vs. benefit analysis with any decision made. For the calendar year 2021, the rate of fatalities was .95% of 100,000 flight hours with accident rates of 5.25% for the same period.
Loss of Control In-Flight has been identified as the largest category for defining events according to NTSB Accident Data. System / Component Failure and Loss of Control on the Ground are a close 2nd and 3rd. It is a sharp drop-off for the remaining 33 categories. The General Aviation Joint Safety Committee (JSC) is actively pursuing improving pilot safety by identifying factors that can improve these metrics.Brad Palmer, Manager of GA and Commercial Division, FAA. Photo credit: O. Young, Florida Aviation Network
For additional perspective, NTSB metrics from 2019 (most recent) show an overwhelming number of accidents of fixed-wing aircraft as identified for personal flight purpose was 90% of all aircraft types with 743. When comparing accidents for fixed-wing aircraft for personal flight purposes against all flight categories (like Instructional, Aerial Application, or Business) that is still 70% of the 1,069 total fixed-wing accidents.
With an emphasis on modernization, the FAA GA and Commercial Division have four priorities with supporting projects that promote general aviation safety and efficiency. These are:
Continuous Improvement of Safety Regulations andamp; Policies
Improve/Align Engagement Strategy w/ our Positive Safety Culture
Standardize our procedures for our workforce
Proactively ensure safe UAS operationsGiven the audience of CFIs, Palmer focused his comments on the first priority. He recapped a number of completed milestones for 2023 including a Final Rule for Balloon Medical and the NPRM Releases for Powered Lift aircraft, MOSAIC, and extending the CFI renewal date. He remains committed to utilizing the FAAST Teams as much as possible.
The initiatives Palmer's staff is working on are divided into three areas of focus:
Improve training and checking structure for professional pilots and improve access to modern training equipment used for initial flight instruction.
Align regulations with current risks and practices in order to seek high compliance while removing unnecessary/obsolete requirements, reviews, or approvals.
Promote emerging technology in General Aviation.With that in mind, below are tangible examples that this FAA Division has its eye on for the future:
Make light sport aircraft more practical for use in flight instruction.
Modernizing Part 141 Flight Training such as updating a regulation made in the 1970's requiring a co-pilot to have 1500 hours. Numerous organizations are currently working with the FAA on this initiative.
Address one of the bottlenecks of the pilot shortage which is due in part to the shortage of Designated Pilot Examiners (DPEs). Palmer stated that flight students should not have to wait longer than 2 weeks for a test. This was met with an enthusiastic round of applause!
Modernize public guidance for Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality (VR/MR). There is work underway to provide proper "credits" for this mode of affordable training.
Enable Powered Lift Aircraft to operate in the NAS. They currently do not have operational guidelines.
The room also cheered at the idea that Palmer's team is exploring removing CFI renewal dates.
Revenue-carrying aircraft like Warbirds or Lighter than Air aircraft need a subpart 191 created in order for them to operate in a compliant manner.
Update oxygen mask requirements for modern GA aircraft.
And last, the current Certification Services Oversight Process (CSOP) is keeping Air Operator applicants on a wait list for years and the FAA is addressing the backlog as well as removing unnecessary red tape that causes many of the delays.NTSB GA Accident Data by Defining Event. Source: Keynote Presentation by FAA at NAFI Summit 2023Regarding emerging technology, the FAA is exploring electronic pilot certificates that you can easily provide from your phone or tablet; and better internal use of electronic data (vs. paper). The EAGLE initiative to "eliminate aviation gas lead emissions" is also a project gaining importance.
There was a strong show of hands supporting one of the comments from the floor that the WINGS program has tremendous merit yet the FAA does not promote the program, particularly to young pilots who could benefit the most. Palmer acknowledged that the program needs an overhaul and because the intent of the program is promoting safety is why the FAA is still holding on to it. He asked those in the room to assist in the promotion of the program with their flight students.
Palmer provided examples of how closely he and his team are collaborating with associations such as NAFI, EAA, and AOPA. He concluded by encouraging the attendees to use their voices collectively and individually because they matter.