Safety

ATIS AVIATION
NEWS ROUNDUP
General Aviation Survey Needs Your Help
The 38th annual General Aviation and Part 135
Activity Survey (GA Survey) for reporting is now
underway. As always, your participation is important.
If you receive an invite to participate, please respond,
even if you did not fly your aircraft in 2015. The GA
Survey is the FAA’s primary source of information
about the size and activity of the general aviation
and on-demand Part 135 fleet. Previous years’ survey
results can be found at http://1.usa.gov/24QSfh7.
Please be assured that your responses are kept
confidential. The information collected will be used
only for statistical purposes and will not be released
in any form that would reveal an individual participant.
Tetra Tech is an independent research firm that
conducts the survey on behalf of the FAA. You can
contact them with questions at 1-800-826-1797 or via
email at infoaviationsurvey@tetratech.com.
Detecting Rogue UAS
Each month, the FAA receives more than 100
reports from pilots and others who spot what appears
to be an unmanned aircraft (UAS) flying close to an
airport or a manned airplane. It’s become a serious
safety concern for the agency, and a potential security
issue for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
In addition to the FAA’s ongoing outreach and
education efforts, an additional step toward a solution
is to detect and identify these “rogue drones”
and their operators. Recently, the FAA partnered
with DHS and CACI International to explore how
the company’s prototype detection technology
may help detect UAS in the vicinity of airports. The
main goal of the partnership is to safely explore
procedures and processes for deploying and operating
detection technologies in and around commercial
airports.
CACI’s proof-of-concept system employs radio
frequency sensors at strategic locations around an
airport in high, prominent locations. When the sensors
detect frequencies unmanned aircraft typically
use, it triangulates the signals and determines the
location of both the UAS and the operator.
From January 25 to February 2, the CACI system
was evaluated at Atlantic City International Airport
(ACY), the first UAS detection research in a commercial
airport environment. A total of 141 operations
were executed over five days — 72 with a UAS on the
ground and 69 with different small UAS in flight. In the
coming months, engineers from the FAA, DHS, CACI
and the University of Maryland will work together to
compile the data for a final report by August 2016.
These research efforts also may contribute to
keeping the skies safe from “bad actors” who want
to use unmanned aircraft for malicious purposes.
To that end, the agency signed a Memorandum of
Understanding with DHS to collaborate on the safe
integration of UAS into the U.S. aviation system.
New Student Pilot Application Requirements
The FAA issued a new rule that requires student
pilots to apply for, obtain, and carry a plastic pilot
certificate to exercise the privileges of the pilot
certificate. Additionally, it modifies the process by
which student pilots apply for a certificate; they must
now apply in person at a Flight Standards District
Office, through a Designated Pilot Examiner, with
an airman certification representative associated
with a part 141 pilot school, or with a CFI. Student
pilots who currently have a paper student pilot
certificate may continue to use it, or can request a
plastic replacement for $2. The plastic certificates
will not expire, which will give the student unlimited
time to complete training without having to apply
for another student pilot certificate. For more information
on the rule, which became effective April 1,
2016, go to https://federalregister.gov/a/2016-00199.
2 FAA Safety Briefing May/June 2016