Last July, an FAA spokesperson gave stunning testimony before Congress-she said that the FAA was going to miss its December 2015 deadline for the rewrite of FAR Part 23 to simplify small aircraft certification by at least two years. As would be expected, the aviation community expressed its fury. Members of Congress sent letters to the FAA demanding that it comply with the law-and it wasnt just any law. In 2013, a time of massive acrimony between the political parties in Congress, the Small Airplane Revitalization Act was passed unanimously by both houses and was signed by the president. It recognized the massive delays and costs-without any safety benefits-caused by the FAAs hidebound aircraft certification regulations and practices and directed the FAA to rewrite Part 23 of the FARs to streamline certification of smaller aircraft. It gave the FAA a hard deadline-the end of December 2015. Members of Congress and the aviation industry expressed anger that the FAAs internal dysfunction was so bad that it not only couldnt meet FAR deadlines, it couldnt meet one specifically mandated by law; that failure is expected to cost the industry millions. When this writer asked FAA Administrator Huerta at his EAA AirVenture press conference why FAA offices seem incapable of acting within deadlines established by either the FARs or Congress, Huerta refused to answer other than to say that it was important to get things right the first time and praised the hard work of FAA employees.
Since July, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), Congress and industry have continued to press the FAA to act within the law. In an interview with Pete Bunce, president of GAMA, yesterday, Bunce said that GAMA, manufacturers and Congress are not going to let the issue rest. He said that the Part 23 rewrite was mandated in a stand-alone bill, not something tacked onto other legislation at the last minute-its important that the FAA take it seriously and get it done. He pointed out that the legislation is clear that the rewrite will improve safety, which is precisely what the FAA is supposed to do. Bunce said that the industry has done its part and delivered all that the FAA needs to publish a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) just after first of next year. Bunce also said everyone recognizes that the FAA will have to get the revised Part 23 through the rule-making process, which takes time, and that means the FAA must get the NPRM out right after the first of the year.
