With all the focus on Health Care, seems the FAA Re-Authorisation Bill got passed by the senate yesterday.... With the focus on Nextgen, some word on FAA rewriting the fatigue rules, plus the 800 hrs experience req. for 121 first officers.

The Associated Press: Bill aims to speed up air traffic system overhaul

 

so when would it have to be implemented by airlines then??

 

Honestly they'll be talking about NextGen when even the youngest person on APC retires. What's wrong with radar anyway? WWII-era equipment? So are florecent bulbs and WD-40 but you don't see them going out of fashion any time soon.

It's the biggest red herring in the history of the world. What a better way to blame overcrowding of NYC's airspace, lack of qualified controllers, and not enough runways than some pie-in-the-sky technology that is way out of our price-range? I can't wait for all this new stuff to be implemented and STILL be stuck at JFK for hours in the conga line.

 

I'm curious to see what the bill will look like when it comes out of joint committee. The hour’s requirement may go up some with a meet in the middle deal.

 

Hopefully. 800 is neither here nor there and the icing condition rule is odd. May as well make it a year or two of 135 experience to fly 121.

 

I thought the 800 hours WAS the meeting in the middle... between 250 and 1500. As I understood if the FAA doesn't set standards for the 800 hours then it automatically becomes atp with 1500 hrs in a year.

 

The problem with radar is it is larger, heavy, has large moving parts, and uses a lot of power. This means it's expensive to buy, maintain, repair, upgrade, and replace.

For national security reasons, they probably won't get rid of it entirely but it might spend a lot of time turned off (saving wear, tear, and energy).

The advantages of new system includes direct routing for most flights, with associated time and fuel savings.

We can go direct now with RNAV/GPS but are not usually allowed to because that does not always provide ATC with adequate traffic de-confliction, which is done manually by controllers making decisions. The new system would automate de-confliction, with the onboard aircraft avionics making some decisions.

This will save a ton of money. Can the FAA implement it within a reasonable timeframe and budget? Will congress fund it adequately? I dunno.

 

Is this all that was mentioned on the topic of fatigue? Once again doing nothing?


Section 306 -
Directs the FAA Administrator to: (1) conclude arrangements with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for a study of pilot fatigue; and (2) study flight attendant fatigue, acting through the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI). Authorizes appropriations.

 

I agree but what good is direct with reduced lateral separation if there aren’t enough runways and gates to accommodate the traffic? If you have 2 RWY’s and can only receive 2 a/c every 2 minutes, then after being given direct we’ll just end up in a holding pattern thus negating our time and fuel savings.

The bill does allow $8B for airport improvements but that won’t help SFO get a second RWY to support Parallel ILS’s to mins……………….it will help them build a new terminal, update Eq, etc. but what good is that if you’re still restricted on giving and receiving a/c?

 

This is the congressional bill.

The FAA has a draft rule which should be released soon which is supposed to have significant changes to duty/rest.

It's confusing but the are two separate processes occurring in parrallel, a bill in congress and an FAA regulatory rulemaking. The FAA kind of does their own thing, but congress can always override their rules with a law (which is what the 800 hour law would do).

I suspect that if the FAA blows off duty/rest, congress will legislate something instead. The FAA (and the airlines, and maybe evn us pilots) would rather the FAA do it than congress...too many details to screw up.