Actually, Congress is the final authority...they can tell the FAA to do whatever they want, and they did with the Flight/Duty/Rest rules, coming by 1 Aug, and the ATP, coming 1 Aug 2013.

I have come to realize that the Vikings took over the western world, including England.

Almost all of the expatriate pilots at EK are Vikings: The top 5 groups are Britain, Australia, Canada, US, New Zealand...all originally Vikings that changed Britain into the empire. They also started Russia, and their trade and technology is what created modern Europe.

cliff
AMS