Aviation
How the FAA is Getting it Right on Unmanned Aircraft
by David A. Cain, Esq. Reprinted with permission of the author. Originally appeared in Times of San Diego on February 19, 2015. What place do Unmanned Aerial Systems (“UAS”, commonly—if imprecisely—referred to as “drones”) have a place in our American skies? If you own or operate a small UAS, do you know where you can …
Unmanned Aircraft in the National Airspace System
From the Wild West to the National Airspace System: Roadmap for Integration of Unmanned Aircraft into the National Airspace System
By David Cain, J.D.1
- I. History of Aviation – Unde Vinimus
- A. Unmanned Aviation
- i. Early Unmanned Efforts: From Tethered Flight to World War I
- ii. The Golden Age: Unmanned Flight from World War I to World War II
- iii. From Radioplanes to Rockets: Unmanned Advancement in World War II
- iv. Beyond the New Horizon: Unmanned Flight from World War II to Present
- B. Regulatory History of Manned Aviation
- i. Over the Channel and Through the War: Blériot to the Air Commerce Act
- ii. The Aero Bramble Bush: Air Safety, Air Commerce, and the CAA
- iii. The First Giant Leap: World War II and the Coming of the Jet Age
- iv. Case on Point: The FAA and National Airspace Integration of Jet Aircraft
- C. National Airspace System – The Rise and Fall of Latency
- II. Current UAS Regulatory Landscape – Ubi Sumus
- A. Recent Unmanned Regulation Timeline
- B. RTCA Special Committee 203
- C. Unmanned as Exceptions to the Rule
- III. Roadmap for Regulatory Change – Quo Vadimus
- IV. Conclusion – Quo Potuimus Vadere
49 CFR 821.33 Stale Complaint Rule
In Administrator v. Armstrong, the NTSB relied upon its 2003 holding in Ramaprakash, restating Rule 33 which requires the FAA to provide notice of a proposed certificate action to the respondend within six months of an alleged incident or violation. The full text of the NTSB’s 2012 opinion follows. NTSB Order No. EA-5629 …
Will NTSB Release CVR Tapes?
Will the NTSB Release Cockpit Voice Recordings? by Dave Alden July 8, 2013 – Legal.com Following the crash of Asiana flight 214 while landing on runway 28L at San Francisco (KSFO) on July 6, 2013, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) conducted a series of briefings. Responding to questions from reporters about the availability of …
Pilot’s Bill of Rights
by Dave Alden
(Legal.com – August 8, 2012) President Obama signed into law the Pilot’s Bill of Rights which modifies the procedural steps that must be followed by the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) when conducting a legal enforcement (certificate) action against an individual who is the subject of an investigation relating to the approval, denial, suspension, modification, or revocation of an airman certificate. Among other things, the new law requires the FAA to