FAA/MILITARY/TRANSPORTATION: “As part of efforts to make it easier for U.S. military aviators to become commercial airline pilots, the Federal Aviation Administration has found a strategy around White House mandates to eliminate two existing regulations for each new rule that is proposed.
Seeking to permit additional current and former military flyers to claim civilian credit for hours spent behind the controls while in uniform, the agency on Friday [11-24-17] formally proposed revising current regulations spelling out experience requirements for new commercial captains and co-pilots. The goal is to help alleviate shortages of entry-level pilots, an undersupply that particularly is dogging certain regional carriers.
But it is also the first major safety rule to come out of the FAA this year without simultaneously identifying any regulations that are slated be scrubbed.
The document published in the Federal Register—previously reviewed by officials at the Transportation Department and White House Office of Management and Budget—explicitly indicates the proposed rule falls outside the scope of President Donald Trump’s executive order demanding a 2-for-1 trade-off between existing and future regulations. The reason, according to the FAA, is that the initiative is ‘a deregulatory action’ because the proposed changes ‘result in cost savings’ rather than additional financial burdens.”
-Andy Pasztor, “FAA Seeks Rule Changes to Ease Transition of Military Pilots Into Airliner Cockpits,” The Wall Street Journal online, Nov. 25, 2017 07:00am