I know this is not going to answer all the questions, but;

The proposal in question was prepared by an Ad-Hoc committee at the request of AMA safety committee chairman Don Lowe. The committee was composed of 6 high flight time turbine pilots, three of Don Lowe’s choosing and three of mine, of whom one was me. The proposal was based on our experience, ideas from many others, and a few discussion right here on RCU found their way into it. Terry Nitsch and myself presented the proposal to the AMA safety committee on Oct 31. The safety committee spent the better part of a day going through it. During this process some parts where deleted which actually made things a bit more liberal, and a few thing where added which made it a bit more conservative, but on balance it was still pretty much what we where aiming for. The following day we presented it to the EC. It was discussed at length there, and a few modifications where made, mostly grammatical (did you know a CD is a person and not a thing?). A vote was taken and the proposal was accepted as the new regulations.

Now at this point there was no intention to keep things a secret. The regulations were still having corrections from the EC meeting added, and a common announcement was being drafted. It was about a week before the regulations had past their final proof reading along with the announcement. I was operating under the information that the EC minutes, which would include the new regulations, would be posted Monday night/Tuesday morning which of course has not happened. I felt that trying to discuss the new regulations without them being available for every one to review would simple be to confusing.

On Monday I found out that the announcement and posting of information was on hold, and I was asked to hold off on posting the new regulations ( I don’t even have the finial version) and the announcement on the JPO website. This request came from someone who is as confused as to what is going on as the rest of us. The reason I still do not want to post the new regulations is the folks at Muncie have been very friendly and very supportive of this effort and I do not want to do something that might make their life harder. Being Veterans Day, the AMA was closed today, and the guy I really need to talk to about this is not going to be in until Thursday. So please be patient.

I will comment that some of the reports floating around in discussions here as to what the regulations are, are out in left field.

Now it appears that some are wanting to change what has been done. The new regulations, as they are right now, have several increases in pilot requirements, but it was felt that the reductions in airframe restrictions more than offset this. The net result being a safer set of regulations that are more fun for the pilots and better for all. My concern is that if more conservative airframe requirement are added to the increase in pilot requirements, the end result will simply be more restrictive regulations. This was not the goal, and if it does come to this I am truly sorry for having gone down this path.

Steven Ellzey
President, Jet Pilot’s Organization