FAA Starts Paperless Transition

The FAA has announced it will no longer mail certain airworthiness-related documents to affected owners and operators as the first stage of its program to eventually distribute all of this kind of material electronically. According to Helicopter Association International, starting last Friday, the agency stopped mailing corrections to Airworthiness Directives that don’t trigger a new amendment number or AD number. The corrections will continue to be published in the Federal Register and on the FAA Web site. The agency is also trimming its postage bill by sending mailed copies of engine-related ADs only to those who have registered those engines and not to the aircraft owners and operators referred to in the AD. Emergency ADs will continue to be mailed and faxed but final rules relating to those ADs will not. No more Special Airworthiness Information Bulletins (SAIBs) will be mailed but you can receive them by e-mail by subscribing on the SAIB page on the FAA Web site.