The following email was intercepted by The Air Charter Guide yesterday April 4th. All traces of the sender and the recipient, have been removed, but the content of the email is critically important for the general aviation industry to read because it:
a) Effectively highlights the complete misunderstanding that the government currently has about the origin of aircraft belonging to the domestic air charter fleet and the scope of such, which we estimate to 90% of the active charter fleet.
b) Portends very badly for the continued operations in question
c) Egregiously reveals the rift between FAA headquarters and their flight standard district offices, since these "arrangements" have been approved at district levels for decades, and to use their own phraseology the complete lack of "operational control" that the FAA, has in actuality over its own employees, whereas they expect all certificated operators to be flawless in this respect as with everything else.
Since there is no legal requirement (despite occasional examples where this has been requested and complied with) for a part 135 operator to file all management contracts or charter management contracts with his POI, but rather that it simply comply with all pertinent F.A.R.s, there is considerable risk that the FAA will vastly underestimate the extent of the universe of such agreements, and impose considerable damage upon our industry before it finds out. In other words, I don’t see how the FAA can "inventory" the number of management or charter management "arrangements" currently in place.
If this subject is as threatening to you, your business, or your charter purchasing plans as it should be, we urge all of you to contact FAA headquarters, DOT headquarters, your associations, and your congressional representatives to give them a "heads up." Thank you for your participation.
Fred Gevalt
Founder – CEO
Air Charter Guide
Message as follows (AFS 3 Request):
"As you are aware, the most recent accident involving a CL-600 Challenger at Teterboro (TEB) is currently under investigation. One of the issues confronting the FAA concerns contractual arrangements between certificated Part 135 operators and non-certificated entities. One such arrangement is when a non-certificated entity provides pilots and aircraft to a certificated Part135 operator, who in turn places those aircraft on its Operations Specifications.
In order to assess the number, impact, and appropriateness of such arrangements, we are asking that each Flight Standards Field Office conduct an inventory to determine how many of these arrangements exist. Please e-mail your inventory results to Doug Dalbey by COB 3/23. Also, as you obtain copies of these agreements, please send a copy to the following address. Please do not wait to collect all agreements before you start sending them."
FAA HDQTRS
Flight Standards Service
800 Independence Ave., S.W.
Attn: Doug Dalbey
Suite 821
Washington, DC 20591
We apologize in advance, as we recognize this is a very short response and could represent a significant workload for some field offices. However, this information is essential to establishing a valid baseline and is desperately needed to move forward.
a) Effectively highlights the complete misunderstanding that the government currently has about the origin of aircraft belonging to the domestic air charter fleet and the scope of such, which we estimate to 90% of the active charter fleet.
b) Portends very badly for the continued operations in question
c) Egregiously reveals the rift between FAA headquarters and their flight standard district offices, since these "arrangements" have been approved at district levels for decades, and to use their own phraseology the complete lack of "operational control" that the FAA, has in actuality over its own employees, whereas they expect all certificated operators to be flawless in this respect as with everything else.
Since there is no legal requirement (despite occasional examples where this has been requested and complied with) for a part 135 operator to file all management contracts or charter management contracts with his POI, but rather that it simply comply with all pertinent F.A.R.s, there is considerable risk that the FAA will vastly underestimate the extent of the universe of such agreements, and impose considerable damage upon our industry before it finds out. In other words, I don’t see how the FAA can "inventory" the number of management or charter management "arrangements" currently in place.
If this subject is as threatening to you, your business, or your charter purchasing plans as it should be, we urge all of you to contact FAA headquarters, DOT headquarters, your associations, and your congressional representatives to give them a "heads up." Thank you for your participation.
Fred Gevalt
Founder – CEO
Air Charter Guide
Message as follows (AFS 3 Request):
"As you are aware, the most recent accident involving a CL-600 Challenger at Teterboro (TEB) is currently under investigation. One of the issues confronting the FAA concerns contractual arrangements between certificated Part 135 operators and non-certificated entities. One such arrangement is when a non-certificated entity provides pilots and aircraft to a certificated Part135 operator, who in turn places those aircraft on its Operations Specifications.
In order to assess the number, impact, and appropriateness of such arrangements, we are asking that each Flight Standards Field Office conduct an inventory to determine how many of these arrangements exist. Please e-mail your inventory results to Doug Dalbey by COB 3/23. Also, as you obtain copies of these agreements, please send a copy to the following address. Please do not wait to collect all agreements before you start sending them."
FAA HDQTRS
Flight Standards Service
800 Independence Ave., S.W.
Attn: Doug Dalbey
Suite 821
Washington, DC 20591
We apologize in advance, as we recognize this is a very short response and could represent a significant workload for some field offices. However, this information is essential to establishing a valid baseline and is desperately needed to move forward.
