Over the last century, GA airports have evolved from unpaved landing strips to aviation hubs. This in-depth analysis highlights the pivotal role GA airports play in our society, economy, and the entire aviation system. The FAA has conducted previous commercial service airport studies, and now has analyzed both aviation segments with the completion of this GA study.

This strategic tool will help the FAA, state aeronautical agencies, and airport sponsors make planning decisions. The FAA worked with aviation-industry stakeholders including state aeronautical agencies, aviation associations, aviation user groups, airport directors, airport authorities, airport planners, academia, other federal agencies, and local councils of government.

GA airports can serve many different functions and advance the public interest, ensuring that Americans nationwide have access to medical flights, search and rescue, disaster relief, aerial firefighting, law enforcement, community access, commercial and industrial activity, flight instruction, and air cargo. The study also aligns the 2,455 GA airports based on their existing activity levels - national, regional, local, and basic.

The categories reflect the current aviation activity at the airport, such as the number and type of based aircraft, number of passenger boardings, and the type of flights.

• national airports give communities access to national and international markets
• regional airports connect communities to statewide and interstate markets
• local airports provide access to intrastate and interstate markets
• basic airports link communities with the national airport system and support general aviation activities

The FAA plans to further study some GA airports to better understand their role. The FAA will begin working in the fall of 2012 with airport sponsors and state aeronautic divisions to identify the activities these 497 airports support, and how they serve the public interest.

The study does not affect an airport sponsors' eligibility to receive federal funding, and does not remove any airports from the federal five-year planning document called the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems.

The FAA will incorporate findings of the study into existing GA airport guidance. The United States has the largest and most diverse network of airports in the world and general aviation is a critical component. GA airports do more than relieve congestion at other airports, and in 2009 contributed $38.8 billion to the economy.

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• Child Safety Website

Most recently, the agency has been working to ensure the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the NAS. The FAA's sole mission and authority as it focuses on the integration of unmanned aircraft systems is safety.

Already, the agency has achieved the first unmanned aircraft systems milestone included in the 2012 FAA reauthorization - streamlining the process for public agencies to safely fly UAS in the nation's airspace.

Federal, state and local government entities must obtain an FAA Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA) before flying UAS in the NAS. Now, under the FAA Reauthorization bill, the agency must to find a way to expedite that COA process within 90 days of enactment, which is May 14, 2012.

The COA Process
The FAA has been working with its government partners to streamline COA procedures as part of the effort to ensure UAS are safely integrated into the NAS. In 2009, the FAA, NASA and the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security formed a UAS Executive Committee, or "ExCom" to address UAS integration issues. The ExCom established a working group that developed suggestions to expedite the COA process and increase transparency into those activities.

The FAA implemented recommendations, including establishing metrics for tracking COAs throughout the process and improving the on-time rate for granting an authorization.

The agency also developed an automated, web-based process to streamline steps and ensure a COA application is complete and ready for review. The agency already has expedited procedures in place to grant one-time COAs for time-sensitive emergency missions such as disaster relief and humanitarian efforts.

Starting on March 29, 2012 the FAA introduced another improvement by changing the length of authorization from the current 12-month period to 24 months.

If the FAA disapproves a COA, the agency quickly addresses questions from the applicant and tries to provide alternative solutions that will lead to approval.

First Responders
Another part of the reauthorization bill directed the FAA to "allow a government public safety agency to operate unmanned aircraft weighing 4.4 pounds or less" under certain restrictions. The bill further specifies these UAS must be flown within the line of sight of the operator, less than 400 feet above the ground, during daylight conditions, inside Class G (uncontrolled) airspace and more than five miles from any airport or other location with aviation activities.

The FAA and the Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice have established an agreement that meets the congressional mandate. Initially, law enforcement organizations will receive a COA for training and performance evaluation. When the organization has shown proficiency in flying its UAS, it will receive an operational COA. The agreement also expands the allowable UAS weight up to 25 pounds.

A New Office for New Technology
The FAA continues to move aggressively toward the safe, timely and efficient integration of UAS into the nation's air transportation system. In March 2012, the agency created a new UAS Integration office, headed by a single executive, which brings together specialists from the aviation safety and air traffic organizations. The office serves as the FAA's one-stop portal for all matters related to civil and public use of unmanned aircraft systems in U.S. airspace.

Upcoming UAS Activities
Work for several other important milestones is underway in 2012. The FAA received more than 200 comments after asking for public input on the process for selecting six UAS test sites mandated by Congress. In July, the agency expects to request proposals to manage the test sites in order to make the selections in December. These sites are important because they will provide valuable data to us safely integrate UAS into the nation's airspace by 2015 as required by the 2012 FAA reauthorization.

And later this year, the FAA expects to release a proposed rule that will establish policies, procedures and standards for a wide spectrum of users in the small UAS community. This class of UAS will likely experience the greatest near-term growth in civil and commercial operations because of their versatility and relatively low initial cost and operating expenses.

For more on how to improve your weather knowledge, check out the new issue at: http://www.faa.gov/news/safety_briefing/.

In addition, the issue's Nuts, Bolts, and Electrons department (pg. 27) looks at the newly released versions of the Aviation Maintenance Technician (AMT) Handbooks, and Vertically Speaking (pg. 29) reviews minimum safe altitudes and VFR weather minimum for rotorcraft operations.

• Flight Advisory (PDF)

• Flight Advisory (PDF)

http://www.ustda.gov/news/pressreleases/2012/LAC/Brazil/USBrazilAviationPartnership_040912.asp

The FAA is now verifying costs and pricing for AeroNav products to help develop a final proposal. Although the FAA has not set any dates for completion of the final proposal or a timeline for implementation, the agency will keep the aviation community informed about its progress.

With the growth of the world-wide-web and advances in personal computing devices, pilots have relied increasingly on digital aeronautical products rather than traditional paper charts. However, some digital products the FAA made available were replicated and resold without authorization. In some cases, this was done in a way that did not preserve the integrity of the original product, which created a potential unintended risk to aviation safety. In addition, the FAA's cost recovery for digital products has not kept pace with changing technology.

The FAA has been producing aeronautical charts and products since the Aeronautical Charting Program was transferred to the FAA from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in October 2000. Public Law 106-181, dated April 5, 2000 gave the FAA the legislative authority to charge fees to recover the cost of producing paper and digital products. That authority was codified in Title 49, United States Code, section 44721. The FAA now develops aeronautical products and sells them through a network of about 400 authorized aeronautical chart agents, as well as through direct sales to the public.