The public has a week to review a 471-page report and offer comments on a proposal to radically change the way flight training is done in the U.S. The FAA has released a report by the National Flight Training Alliance (NFTA) that could form some of the proposed blueprint for modernization of Part 141. The FAA had earlier asked the public for input on suggested changes to flight training rules. It set April 10 as the deadline for comments and is not extending that deadline to allow stakeholders time to digest this report’s many proposals. The report makes no bones about its aggressive intent:
“The goal of this modernization effort is unambiguous: to develop a robust certification and regulatory framework under 14 CFR Part 141 that stands alone as the preeminent accreditation and method by which aviators are trained throughout the world. Under this new framework, achieving FAA certification would represent the highest standard of training excellence available anywhere negating the need for further accreditation or external oversight. The American flight training system would, in this vision, stand alone already.“
The NFTA has been gathering input for the report for about a year and held two online information and comment sessions in March. It claims to have broad support from the industry on the changes it proposes. “This report reflects not merely the recommendations of an industry, but the collective resolve of a profession dedicated to the highest standards of safety, quality, and service to the traveling public and to the national interest,” the preamble reads. “We respectfully urge expeditious consideration and action on these recommendations.”
Among the eight key recommendations (page 14 of the report) are centralization of authority and administration of flight training through a Central Management Office but still delegating regulation and oversight of nationwide standards through the local Flight Standards District Office. It also recommends new qualification metrics and standardized training for chief and check instructors. The report also says flight training rules need to reflect the modern realities of aviation. “For more than fifty years, the regulatory framework governing certificated flight training in the United States has remained fundamentally unchanged, designed for an era of aviation that no longer exists,” it says.
So stick and rudder skills no longer matter?
Having flown for airlines 31 years and given flight instruction at Part 141 and 91 flight schools, unfortunately I can confirm this is indeed the case.
The students don’t want it, the airlines don’t require it, the regulators don’t demand it.
Part 61 schools, you mean. If anything needs to be changed is to do away with part 61 entirely, leaving flight schools no choice but to either adhere to stricter standards or go teach golf.
I don’t think Wolfgang has been upended yet, although it seems like it some times. Those of us who teach and fly for the love of flight are (perhaps) dwindling in numbers, but physics is physics and for us, the ‘wing is still the thing’ (with apologies for the paraphrase).
Considering the idiot drone inspired ‘flying cars’ that are on the way, and parachutes/big red panic buttons, not really.
At our little airport one guy has considered opening a ‘Cirrus crosswind tire changing station’, so numerous are the blown tires. Button pushing prowess is supreme, actual flying ability matters not.
The ‘pattern’ is a free for all, straight ins no matter how many aircraft are in the circuit, landings without glancing at the windsock, takeoff runway chosen for pilot convenience rather than stuff like wind direction/flow of traffic/noise abatement. These aren’t just rich idiots, I see ‘professional’ corporate pilots and CFIs on instructional flights pulling this crap.
As with the anarchy on our highways, there is practically no enforcement against careless or reckless operation, so it will just get worse.
So long GA, it was a wonderful 100 years or so.
Yep, sad.
“…there is practically no enforcement against careless or reckless operation…”
You can thank Compliance Philosophy for that.
Looks like employment augmentation for senior/advanced flight instructors. 141 programs are already bureaucracy heavy and this will make it more. Where is the broad support coming from? More overhead = more cost. This will be one more (and bigger) reason to stay away from 141 schools.
Sounds like once again the bureaucracy is proposing a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist.
Sounded an awful like “Central Planning” to me, too. I gotta bad feeling about this.
This is not going to end well.
Silly me, here I thought the US already had “the preeminent accreditation and method by which aviators are trained throughout the world“. (My first reaction was “send the bureaucrat who wrote that mission statement back to the seventh grade to learn how to write in clear and simple English”. The good(?) news: it obviously wasn’t written by an AI.)
So pray tell good sir, what country does flight training and accreditation better, and for more people, now?
But while we’re at it, let’s also federalize the drivers-education training and licensing from the states as well. And Lordy, look at all the crazy, inconsistent state tax policies. Why have even forty-seven state income taxes? I’m sure everyone would much prefer to pay just one federal income tax and let our efficient and beneficent representatives in DC divvy up the money for the best of all states. And don’t get me started on all those idiosyncratic, inconsistent, and cumbersome state election laws. They have been so widely abused that we should deploy ICE to every voting site to make sure no one even thinks of casting a vote the wrong way, Comrade.
As we all know, the federal government is such a paragon of simplicity, efficiency, and fairness. What could possibly go wrong?