Part 135/125 Committee To Recommend Duty-time Rules
[font=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The two-year charter of the Part 135/125 Aviation Rulemaking Committee ends next month, but Kathy Perfetti, FAA program manager for the ARC, said she expects the agency will soon announce an extension to the deadline for delivery of the ARC’s recommendations, including new flight, duty and rest rules. “We have four three-inch binders of documentation, and we need more time to put them into final form,” she said Tuesday at Aviation Industry Week in Las Vegas. The recommendations will be in the form of a draft NPRM and will follow the standard rulemaking procedures after its delivery to the FAA this spring. Perfetti estimates the rulemaking process will take at least two years. The duty-time changes are among many revisions to Part 135 recommended by the ARC, which had its final meeting in late February. The proposed changes provide several crew scheduling options for different types of operations—scheduled (cargo-only, air tour, Part 380 public charter), regularly assigned (EMS, offshore helicopter) and unscheduled (traditional on-demand fixed-wing)—and permit operators to create their own rest-management programs in line with the rules, subject to FAA approval. The addition of a new crewmember status category—“available”—and more precise definitions of the “duty” and “off” categories remove the ambiguity of current definitions. The definition of “rest” remains unchanged. The National Air Transportation Association plans to post details about the recommendation on its Web site (www.nata.aero).[/font]
[font=Times New Roman, Times, serif][/font]
[font=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Stay tuned....
[/font]
[font=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The two-year charter of the Part 135/125 Aviation Rulemaking Committee ends next month, but Kathy Perfetti, FAA program manager for the ARC, said she expects the agency will soon announce an extension to the deadline for delivery of the ARC’s recommendations, including new flight, duty and rest rules. “We have four three-inch binders of documentation, and we need more time to put them into final form,” she said Tuesday at Aviation Industry Week in Las Vegas. The recommendations will be in the form of a draft NPRM and will follow the standard rulemaking procedures after its delivery to the FAA this spring. Perfetti estimates the rulemaking process will take at least two years. The duty-time changes are among many revisions to Part 135 recommended by the ARC, which had its final meeting in late February. The proposed changes provide several crew scheduling options for different types of operations—scheduled (cargo-only, air tour, Part 380 public charter), regularly assigned (EMS, offshore helicopter) and unscheduled (traditional on-demand fixed-wing)—and permit operators to create their own rest-management programs in line with the rules, subject to FAA approval. The addition of a new crewmember status category—“available”—and more precise definitions of the “duty” and “off” categories remove the ambiguity of current definitions. The definition of “rest” remains unchanged. The National Air Transportation Association plans to post details about the recommendation on its Web site (www.nata.aero).[/font]
[font=Times New Roman, Times, serif][/font]
[font=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Stay tuned....
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