Articles for the Professional Airline Pilot

› Pilot Certification and Qualification Requirements for Air Carrier Operations:
Effective immediately, compliance required by Aug. 1, 2013
—A second in command (first officer) in domestic, flag, and supplemental operations must now hold an airline transport pilot certificate and an airplane type rating for the aircraft to be flown. Pilots with fewer than 1,500
flight hours may qualify for a restricted privileges airline transport pilot certificate beginning at 21 years of age if they are a military-trained pilot, have a bachelor’s degree with an aviation major, or have an associate’s degree with an aviation major.

This restricted privileges airline transport pilot certificate allows a pilot to serve
as second in command in domestic, flag, and supplemental operations not requiring more than two pilot flightcrew members.

This rule also retains the second-class medical certification requirement for a second in command in part 121 operations.

› Flightcrew Member Duty and Rest Requirements; FAA Clarification- MAR. 2013
—On April 5, 2012, the FAA published a notice explaining the procedures for submitting clarifying questions concerning these flight, duty, and rest regulations.1 Since then, the FAA received numerous questions concerning the new regulations. This is a response to those questions.

› Prohibition of personal devices on the flight deck
The proposed rule would prohibit flightcrew members in operations under part 121 from using a personal wireless communications device or laptop computer for personal use while at their duty station on the flight deck while the aircraft is being operated. This rule, which conforms FAA regulations with recent legislation, is intended to ensure that certain non- essential activities do not contribute to the challenge of task management on the flight deck or a loss of situational awareness due to attention to non- essential tasks.

Pilot's Bill of Rights - Requires National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) proceedings for the review of decisions of the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to deny, amend, modify, suspend, or revoke an airman's certificate to be conducted, to the extent practicable, in accordance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Federal Rules of Evidence. Requires the Administrator to:

(1) advise the subject of an investigation involving the approval, denial, suspension, modification, or revocation of an airman certificate of specified information pertinent to the investigation; and (2) provide him or her with access to relevant air traffic data.

Allows an individual to elect to file an appeal of a certificate denial, a punitive civil action, or an emergency order of revocation in the U.S. district court in which individual resides, in which the action in question occurred, or the district court for the District of Columbia. Allows an adversely affected individual who elects not to file an appeal in a federal district court to file such appeal with the NTSB. Directs the Administrator to begin a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) Improvement Program to improve the system of providing airmen with pertinent and timely information before a flight in the national airspace system.

Makes Flight Service Station briefings and other air traffic services performed by Lockheed Martin or any other government contractor available to airmen under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Requires the Administrator to review the FAA system for the medical certification of airmen in order to:

(1) revise the medical application form,
(2) align medical qualification policies with present-day qualified medical judgment and practices, and
(3) publish objective medical standards to advise the public of the criteria determining an airman's medical certificate eligibility.