July 26, 2023 - No. 031 In This Issue : Are You Ready for Remote ID? FAA Guidelines and Resources : Power Flow adds Maple Leaf fairings as an option : FAA reverses policy on counting homebuilt hours toward certificates : Aircraft Parking Amendment Dropped In House FAA Reauthorization : AirVenture 2023 : Garmin Introduces Radar ‘Height Advisor’ : PENTAGON JOINS ELON MUSK’S WAR AGAINST PLANE TRACKING : New FAA Reauthorization Bill Would Prohibit Removing 100LL From Airports (Corrected) : FAA approves SureFly dual electronic ignitions for certified aircraft Are You Ready for Remote ID? FAA Guidelines and Resources Posted By: Miriam McNabb July 16, 2023 Are you ready for new FAA regulations? The FAA has released a document outlining compliance measures with the Remote ID rule, otherwise known as Part 89, which requires all drones be equipped with new Remote ID recognition and tracking technology in order to further integrate UAVs into the National Airspace System (NAS). Beginning on September 16, 2023 all pilots who are required to register their UAS must follow the new rule, which requires drones to either have a native Remote ID or be fitted with a Remote ID broadcast module like a portable transmitter. If the drone has a broadcast module, the FAA website says that the drone must be operated within visual line-of-sight. If your drone is NOT Remote ID compliant or equipped with a Remote ID broadcast module, you may only fly in designated FAA-recognized identification areas (FRIA), sponsored by “community-based organizations (CBOs) or educational institutions,” such as AMA flying fields. While Remote ID rules are only now being applied to pilots, the industry has been preparing for the new regulations since it was published in 2021. Manufacturers were required to comply as of Sept. 16, 2022, meaning that all new drones sold should have Remote ID technology. To make sure that you’re good to fly, check the Public DOC list, published by the FAA, and filter by RID to confirm that your UAV or broadcast module is in compliance with the rule. What is Remote ID? Not sure what Part 89 is, or how it may impact you? Remote ID, which broadcasts both the location and key information about its attached UAV, has been compared to a “digital license plate.” Remote ID makes it easier for regulators to identify drones that may be breaking the rules to encourage compliance and enable safe commercial drone flight at scale. You can learn more about the policy, and the requirements for manufacturers, in our article here, and on the FAA website at the links above. Is FAA’s Remote ID Rule for Drones Constitutional? The Court Ruling Power Flow adds Maple Leaf fairings as an option By General Aviation News Staff July 12, 2023 This Cessna 182Q is equipped with Power Flow’s new High Performance Exhaust System and the specialized set of Exhaust Fairings developed in cooperation with Maple Leaf Aviation. (Photo courtesy Power Flow Systems) Power Flow Systems has teamed with Maple Leaf Aviation to design dual exhaust system fairings for Cessna 180, 182, and 185 airframes. Canada’s Maple Leaf Aviation has offered an exhaust fairing for the single tailpipe configuration of the original Cessna-designed exhaust system for several years, according to Power Flow officials. The fairing improves the airflow through the cowling, reducing engine CHTs by 10° to 15° Fahrenheit. With the advent of the dual-exhaust pipes on Power Flow’s new design, Maple Leaf’s customers wanted to retain the clean looks and performance benefits they enjoyed with their Maple Leaf upgrades. Power Flow tuned exhaust systems, which are FAA approved via an STC, provide an immediate increase in top speed capability of 4-7 mph, or the ability to fly at current cruise speeds saving up to 2.2 GPH, plus an additional 100-250 feet per minute in climb, and an increase of 2,000 feet to 5,000 feet in service ceiling. The new fairings required the design teams at Power Flow and Maple Leaf to collaborate throughout a months-long development effort, according to company officials. The compound curves and tight quarters of the cowling meant that several iterations of the additional fairing were required before the optimal fit and finish could be achieved, they reported. During the process, it was determined that the most cost-effective solution was to replace the current, single fairing configuration with a completely new dual fairing kit optimized specifically for the Power Flow system, company officials determined. Maple Leaf will produce the new set of exhaust fairings, while Power Flow will offer the specialized set at a “combined package price” to its tuned exhaust system customers, company officials said. For more information on Power Flow tuned exhaust systems, visit PowerFlowSystems.com. FAA reverses policy on counting homebuilt hours toward certificates By General Aviation News Staff July 17, 2023 The FAA will soon reverse a policy that barred homebuilders from counting time spent building an aircraft toward a maintenance rating, such as Airframe and Powerplant certificates, according to a new report from the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA). In late 2019 the FAA changed Order 8900.1 to exclude time spent building any aircraft, including homebuilts, from the types of practical experience eligible to count toward a maintenance certificate. No reason was given for this change, and officials with EAA say they have been advocating for it to be rescinded. In a meeting at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2022, the FAA agreed to change the policy back, however the publication of an amendment remains forthcoming. The FAA released an interpretation letter July 7 in response to a “well-written and pointed request for interpretation” by EAA member Brenton Ellis. The letter “confirms that not only is the current exclusionary policy not logical, it is also contrary to regulation that clearly states aircraft construction counts as experience toward maintenance ratings,” EAA officials said. The letter also states that the policy change is “imminent.” “We have talked to several homebuilders who wanted to use their experience to earn their maintenance ratings,” said Tom Charpentier, EAA government relations director. “In an era with a shortage of A&Ps, and particularly A&Ps willing and able to work on amateur-built aircraft, this policy made no sense and we are happy to see that this letter confirms that relief is at hand.” Aircraft Parking Amendment Dropped In House FAA Reauthorization By Russ Niles Published: July 18, 2023 Updated: July 19, 2023 An amendment to the House’s FAA reauthorization package that would have guaranteed reasonably priced parking for transient aircraft at public use airports did not survive the markup process. The House Rules package was stripped of that and several other GA-related amendments before it heads to the House floor for a vote. AOPA has been lobbying for transient parking areas to allow pilots who don’t need fuel or other services to avoid the fees charged by some FBOs who have exclusive parking rights at some airports. The measure made it into the early versions of the House package as the Obernolte-Cartwright Amendment. The National Air Transportation Association fought just as hard against the amendment, saying it favored “one class of aviation user at the expense of airports, aviation businesses and [Part] 135 operators.” The Senate still has similar language in its rules package and NATA says it’s going to fight against it there. NATA and GA groups were on the same page when it came to stripping the House package of several other amendments that would have had significant impact on GA. They included amendments banning 100LL, privatizing ATC, restricting public charter and changing noise regulations. AirVenture 2023 (Video) The AirVenture Schedule of Events is sponsored by Cleveland Wheels & Brakes/Stratoflex/Parker. Jul 24, 8:00 PM – Jul 25, 3:00 PM Jul 25, 3:00 PM – Jul 26, 2:30 PM Jul 26, 2:30 PM – Jul 27, 2:30 PM Jul 27, 2:30 PM – Jul 28, 2:30 PM Jul 28, 2:30 PM – Jul 30, 4:45 PM Garmin Introduces Radar ‘Height Advisor’ By Russ Niles Published: July 18, 2023 Updated: July 19, 2023 Garmin has introduced its take on the radar altimeter for small aircraft with the GHA 15 “height advisor.” The device, which is now available for experimental and light sport aircraft, starts measuring the aircraft’s AGL altitude at 500 feet and displays the information on G3X Touch displays in non-certified aircraft. It sends hundreds of radar signals every second to the ground or water below and gives a constant readout of altitude. It also gives audible altitude callouts that can be adjusted to suit the pilot’s preferences. “Knowing precise height AGL can be helpful to pilots during landings and flying in areas where limited barometric altimeter setting information is available—such as backcountry flying,” the company said in a pre-AirVenture news release. The hardware is a little bigger than a deck of cards and attaches to the belly of the aircraft. It weighs less than a pound and Garmin says the installation is simple. It costs $1995.00. PENTAGON JOINS ELON MUSK’S WAR AGAINST PLANE TRACKING The U.S. military’s elite special operations command doesn’t want its planes tracked, according to a procurement document. Sam Biddle July 18 2023, 10:49 a.m. A TECHNOLOGY WISH LIST circulated by the U.S. military’s elite Joint Special Operations Command suggests the country’s most secretive war-fighting component shares an anxiety with the world’s richest man: Too many people can see where they’re flying their planes. The Joint Special Operations Air Component, responsible for ferrying commandos and their gear around the world, is seeking help keeping these flights out of the public eye through a “‘Big Data’ Analysis & Feedback Tool,” according to a procurement document obtained by The Intercept. The document is one of a series of periodic releases of lists of technologies that special operations units would like to see created by the private sector. The listing specifically calls out the risk of social media “tail watchers” and other online observers who might identify a mystery plane as a military flight. According to the document, the Joint Special Operations Air Component needs software to “leverage historical and real-time data, such as the travel histories and details of specific aircraft with correlation to open-source information, social media, and flight reporting.” Armed with this data, the tool would help the special operations gauge how much scrutiny a given plane has received in the past and how likely it is to be connected to them by prying eyes online. “It just gives them better information on how to blend in. It’s like the police deciding to use the most common make of local car as an undercover car.” Rather than providing the ability to fake or anonymize flight data, the tool seems to be aimed at letting sensitive military flights hide in plain sight. “It just gives them better information on how to blend in,” Scott Lowe, a longtime tail watcher and aviation photographer told The Intercept. “It’s like the police deciding to use the most common make of local car as an undercover car.” While plane tracking has long been a niche hobby among aviation enthusiasts who enjoy cataloging the comings and goings of aircraft, the public availability of midair transponder data also affords journalists, researchers, and other observers an effective means of tracking the movements and activities of the world’s richest and most powerful. The aggregation and analysis of public flight data has shed light on CIA torture flights, movements of Russian oligarchs, and Google’s chummy relationship with NASA. More recently, these sleuthing techniques gained international attention after they drew the ire of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man. After he purchased the social media giant Twitter, Musk banned an account that shared the movements of his private jet. Despite repeated promises to protect free speech — and a specific pledge to not ban the @ElonJet account — on the platform, Musk proceeded to censor anyone sharing his plane’s whereabouts, claiming the entirely legally obtained and fully public data amounted to “assassination coordinates.” The Joint Special Operations Air Component’s desire for more discreet air travel, published six months after Musk’s jet data meltdown, is likely more firmly grounded in reality. THE JOINT SPECIAL Operations Air Component provides a hypothetical scenario in which special forces need to travel with a “reduced profile” — that is to say, quietly — and use this tool. When determining if the planned movement is suitable and appropriate,” the procurement document says, “the ‘Aircraft Flight Profile Management Database Tool’ reveals that the aircraft is primarily associated with a distinctly different geographic area” — a frequent tip-off to civilian plane trackers that something interesting is afoot. “Additionally, ‘tail watchers’ have posted on social media pictures of the aircraft at various airfields. Based on the information available, the commander decides to utilize a different airframe for the mission. With the aircraft in flight, the tool is monitored for any indication of increased scrutiny or mission compromise.” he request is part of a broad-ranging list of technologies sought by the Joint Special Operations Command, from advanced radios and portable blood pumps to drones that can fly months at a time. The 85-page list essentially advertises these technologies for private-sector contractors, who may be able to sell them to the Pentagon in the near future. “What will be interesting is seeing how they change their operations after having this information.” The document — marked unclassified but for “Further dissemination only as directed by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Joint Capability and Technology Expo (JCTE) Team” — is part of an annual effort by Joint Special Operations Command to “inform and influence industry’s internal investment decisions in areas that address SOF’s most sensitive and urgent interest areas.” The anti-plane-tracking tool fits into a broader pattern of the military attempting to minimize the visibility of its flights, according to Ian Servin, a pilot and plane-tracking enthusiast. In March, the military removed tail numbers and other identifying marks from its planes. “What will be interesting is seeing how they change their operations after having this information,” Servin said. From a transparency standpoint, he added, “Those changes could be problematic or concerning. New FAA Reauthorization Bill Would Prohibit Removing 100LL From Airports (Corrected) By Paul Bertorelli - Published: July 20, 2023 Updated: July 23, 2023 The just-passed House FAA Reauthorization Bill would prevent airports from removing 100LL or offering unleaded fuels in lieu of leaded avgas under penalty of losing airport improvement grants. If the language remains in the Senate version of the bill, it would raise a nearly insurmountable barrier to fielding competitive unleaded fuels because many airports can’t afford or don’t want dual tankage for both leaded and unleaded fuels. The bill requires any fuel being sold on Oct. 5, 2018—the date of the previous reauthorization bill—to remain available to aircraft operators. (See correction at end of story.) George Braly of General Aviation Modifications Inc., the only U.S. company with an FAA-approved 100-octane fuel, said the bill will “almost certainly stop dead” early efforts to develop an unleaded market in California and other parts of the West. “Our position on the bill is that if it’s adopted into law, it will be impossible for anybody, GAMI or Swift or anybody, to deliver a high-octane unleaded fuel,” says Braly. “There’s not enough money to put in additional tanks and it would be years to get them installed.” GAMI has been in discussions with several airports to replace 100LL with its G100UL, retaining just one set of tanks. A previous amendment that would have further blocked G100UL required an industry-standard approved fuel and was removed from the bill last week. Despite having STC approval for all spark ignition engines in the FAA database, distribution of G100UL has been problematic. Avfuel, which signed on to manufacture and distribute G100UL, has made little progress in marketing it, according to GAMI. The House version of the bill now goes on to the Senate where similar language would allow unleaded fuels to replace 100LL when the former is “widely available.” That determination would be made by the Secretary of Transportation. EAGLE, the industry consortium to promote approval of an unleaded fuel, has set the end of 2030 as its deadline. The consortium has pushed back against G100UL, claiming it needs more testing and that an ASTM-approved fuel is a better alternative. It’s not clear if the House version will run afoul of the 2014 consent decree between the Center for Environmental Health and a group of California FBOs that specified 100LL would be replaced with the lowest lead alternative when it became available. Braly said the only way for G100UL—or any unleaded fuel—to become widely available is for it to be allowed to replace 100LL. CORRECTION: The office of California Rep. Jay Obernolte, which drafted amendments to the 2023 reauthorization bill, told us the intent of the language was to allow fleet-wide adoption of unleaded fuel without requiring STCs. “Nothing in section 431 prohibits an airport from offering an unleaded fuel (or even exclusively offering an unleaded fuel), they just can’t stop selling 100LL until there is an unleaded alternative that can be used by all aircraft requiring avgas,” said Obernolte’s communications director, Emily Carlin. “The amendment specifically included obtaining an ‘industry consensus standard’ as that would allow fleet-wide adoption without the need for STCs,” she added. As we have reported, General Aviation Modifications Inc.’s G100UL is approved for all spark ignition engines in the FAA database via STC. But it does not have a consensus standard from ASTM, as 100LL does. There are currently no 100-octane unleaded aviation gasolines with ASTM approval. The industry’s EAGLE initiative has set 2030 as the deadline for reaching that goal. GAMI’s Braly says the bill, if passed, is still a potential showstopper. He argues that G100UL’s testing was reviewed by two separate FAA boards and that these reviews are the functional equivalent of an ASTM evaluation. GAMI initially submitted its fuel for ASTM approval but Braly said delays and misappropriation of intellectual property led them to withdraw the application. FAA approves SureFly dual electronic ignitions for certified aircraft By General Aviation News Staff July 24, 2023 SureFly SIM4P from the front. On opening day of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023, SureFly Partners reported it has received an FAA Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) that permits the replacement of both mechanical magnetos on certified four- and six-cylinder Lycoming- and Continental-powered aircraft with dual SureFly Electronic Ignitions. The STC allows the installation of two SureFly Ignition Modules (SIMs) per engine on most piston engine aircraft, company officials said. “Today is a historic day and the culmination of years of working with the FAA to enable the replacement of both magnetos on certified aircraft,” said Jason Hutchison, general manager at SureFly Partners. “Aircraft owners, operators, manufacturers, and engine builders have been asking for an easy to install certified electronic magneto replacement for both magnetos and today SureFly is the first to deliver a solution that is as simple as replacing both magnetos.” SureFly SIM4P from the back. More than 8,000 customers are already using a single SureFly SIM on their FAA certified piston aircraft, company officials noted. The new approval permits the replacement of both magnetos, eliminating ignition maintenance, as well as eliminating 500-hour magneto inspections, while improving starting and providing available variable timing that can save an average of one gallon per hour for many aircraft owners, officials explained. “Installation is as easy as replacing a magneto with the simple addition of a power wire,” company officials said in a press release. “Owners of dual electrical bus aircraft can install two SIMs with no other additions. Owners of single electrical bus aircraft must provide a secondary source of power independent of the primary aircraft battery for the second SIM.” SureFly SIMs are available for purchase at SureFly.aero. Prices range from $1,755 to $2,085. Curt Lewis