Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum in Domestic United States Airspace

8 August 2002 Docket Management System U.S. Department of Transportation Room Plaza 401 400 Seventh Street, SW Washington, DC 20590-0001 Via: Mail and http://dms.dot.gov Dear Sirs: The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) represents the aviation interests in the U.S., of nearly 7,000 companies that own or operate over 9000 general aviation aircraft (over 7,000 of which are turbine powered) as an aid to the conduct of their business, or are involved with some other aspect of the industry. NBAA Member Companies earn annual revenues over $5 trillion dollars – a number that is about half the U.S. gross domestic product – and employ more than 19 million people worldwide. In August of 2001, NBAA and GAMA submitted a letter to the FAA Administrator Garvey summarizing our stand on the FAA's proposed Domestic RVSM implementation plan; the letter can be found appended hereto as Attachment 1. Our positions and concerns have not changed from those stated in that letter; we still support a rational implementation of RVSM that can be reasonably supported by the resources of OEMs, avionics suppliers, installation centers, operators and the FAA alike. However, in light of the release of the instant NPRM, NBAA offers the following additional comments for the record: Operational Issues NBAA is concerned that the process of obtaining Operational Approval will be one that is less than familiar at the local FSDO level. The process of obtaining a Letter of Authorization (LOA) has long been a familiar one to international operators but will be new to both domestic operators and many of the Fight Standards (AFS) support personnel called upon to administer them. It is necessary that all involved be familiar with the requirements of AC 91-RVSM and the process for obtaining a D-RVSM LOA. Additionally a system as was established prior to the NAT implementation of FAA Flight Standards regional leads, as points of contact, needs to be in place in the near-term (i.e., before implementation begins). We make this request based on historical input from our membership that has experienced up to six month delays at the FSDO level after having complied with the requirements of AC 91-RVSM. Even when an operator has had one or more aircraft previously approved it has not been uncommon for many additional weeks to be required to add additional aircraft. Application Processes When an operator, seeking an LOA, submits an application with the required information and supporting documentation they need to have a high level of assurance that the AFS processes are in place to deal in a timely and accurate manner with their needs as required by the new regulation. Since many of the affected operators will have never before been required to obtain an LOA, coupled with the volume of requests that can initially be expected, and combined with the requirement for height monitoring flights, applications for LOAs are apt to initially result in delays in the issuance of operational approvals. NBAA requests that when a completed and compliant application has been received by the FSDO that the operator be allowed to operate "as compliant" and allowed to operate in RVSM airspace for a period of ninety days during which time the FAA can reject the application for cause (and duly notify the operator) or not, in which case the application would be considered, de facto, excepted (i.e., no comment from the FAA within 90 days and the application is automatically approved.) This would not be presidential as it is approximately how FAA processes FAR Part 91 operators' MELs today. If an operator obtains an aircraft that already has had an RVSM LOA and the new operator has also had such an LOA for other aircraft, the RVSM approved new aircraft, should be a simple addition to the operators LOA as opposed to having to obtain an entirely new issue. This should be the case regardless of which FSDO initially issued the aircraft's LOA. If an aircraft or operator has been…