Frequently Asked Questions
Find answers to your FAA questions.
You can find aircraft accident and incident information on the National Transportation Safety Board website.
You can find preliminary accident and incident information on our website.
You can also find other aircraft accident and incident databases on the FAA's National Aviation Safety Data Analysis Center website.
Please visit our Business Opportunities website to learn more.
There may be a variety of circumstances that result in a community meeting, including airspace changes, airport projects, and other situational changes that would require the FAA to meet with local communities to discuss issues surrounding an airport.
To find out if there is a regularly scheduled roundtable or Noise Advisory Committee meeting, please contact your local airport for more information or contact your Regional Ombudsman: https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/apl/noise_emissions/airport_aircraft_noise_issues/noise_ombudsman/.
To find out what about Community Engagement meetings and other happenings in your area, check out your region's Community Engagement webpage: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/community_engagement/.
In addition, please monitor our social media feeds and look for announcements in the press.
FAA Social Media:
Twitter - @FAANews
Facebook - Federal Aviation Administration
Instagram - FAA
- Follow the requirements in the Small UAS rule (Part 107)
- Obtain an exemption under the Special Authority for Certain Unmanned Systems (U.S.C. 44807).
- Obtain an airworthiness certificate for the aircraft
While FAA sets minimum certification requirements for air carriers (commercial certificate with instrument rating), each airline sets its own minimum experience requirements. For example, FAA requires 250 total hours for a commercial pilot certificate. However, few, if any, airlines use that amount of flight time as their own minimum standard. They may require 1,000 or 2,000 hours or more. Also, market conditions (supply of pilots and demand for air travel) influence what minimum experience airlines require.
Also, different air carriers may consider some types of flight time more important than others. Some prefer more jet or turbine experience, while some may prefer more time in a particular type of aircraft. Many airlines also consider whether the applicant has a college degree.
There are aviation job-search companies that research hiring requirements and trends of all U.S. air carriers. You can find these companies through an internet search and through advertisements in flying magazines.
You can get information about FAA requirements for all pilot certificates (14 CFR Part 61) on the Government Printing Office Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. Be sure to select Part 61.
The requirements to get a mechanics certificate are on our website.
The requirements to get a mechanics certificate are on our website.
You can find procedures for replacing a lost test report on our website. For additional information email our Civil Aviation Registry.
You can find procedures for replacing a lost test report on our website. For additional information email our Civil Aviation Registry.
If you are in the U.S. at the time you apply, you will need a letter from your country’s Civil Aviation Authority attesting that your training and experience level meets the U.S. requirements.
If you are not in the U.S. at the time you apply, you must show proof that you need the certificate to maintain U.S.- registered aircraft. Procedures for providing proof are located in FAA Order 8900.1, Flight Standards Information Management System, Volume 5, Chapter 5, Section 3, Certificate Foreign Applicants Located Outside the United States for Title 14 CFR Part 65, Mechanic Certificate Rating.
If you are in the U.S. at the time you apply, you will need a letter from your country’s Civil Aviation Authority attesting that your training and experience level meets the U.S. requirements.
If you are not in the U.S. at the time you apply, you must show proof that you need the certificate to maintain U.S.- registered aircraft. Procedures for providing proof are located in FAA Order 8900.1, Flight Standards Information Management System, Volume 5, Chapter 5, Section 3, Certificate Foreign Applicants Located Outside the United States for Title 14 CFR Part 65, Mechanic Certificate Rating.
The process for sound insulation begins with your local airport conducting a Part 150 Study (also referred to as Airport Noise Compatibility Planning). This Part 150 Study then generates a noise contour map that identifies the homes that fall within the 65 or greater DNL (Day-Night Average Sound Level). These homes are the ones that will be considered for sound insulation. Please contact your local airport to find out the status of a Part 150 Report for you community.
To search for airports around your specific location, use the FAA Airport Mapping Application, or visit the FAA's Office of Airports page..
Read "The Airport Noise Program" article in the newsroom to learn more.
Still can't find what you are looking for? Please feel free to contact the UAS Support Center for general questions and comments.
You can find information to locate a medical examiner in your area on our website.
Once you receive an e-mail confirmation that your account has been created, you can return to the FAA MedXPress login page and use your e-mail address with the temporary password supplied in the confirmation e-mail to access the site.
An FAA-designated Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) must examine you.
You must contact an AME of your choosing, schedule an appointment, complete an official FAA application form via MedXPress, and undergo a physical examination by an AME. If you have any medical conditions or take any medication, ask the AME office what records you need to bring to your appointment. If you meet the appropriate medical standards, the AME will issue you a medical certificate.
To facilitate your inspection, it is important that your Designated Employer Representative (DER) can describe and discuss your company’s federal testing program and provide the documentation requested by the FAA’s drug and alcohol compliance and enforcement inspector. The FAA’s drug and alcohol testing program inspection process and authority is described in Drug and Alcohol Compliance and Enforcement Surveillance Handbook Order 9120.1. We encourage you to review the Order prior to your inspection to understand how the process works and contact the inspector assigned to your company if you have any questions. To start the process of an announced inspection, the FAA’s Drug Abatement Division will send you a Letter of Notification, Point of Contact (POC) form, and a list of documents to make available for inspection. Our inspection guide, available in Order 9120.1 and on our Sample Forms and Policies webpage, will describe the questions we ask and records we review. To facilitate our inspection, we request that you return the POC form with your contact information and the information about your service agents (e.g., Medical Review Officer, collection personnel, Substance Abuse Professional, and Consortium/Third Party Administrator). If our inspection will include a review or visit with your service agent (including your Medical Review Officer, collection facility, Substance Abuse Professional, and Consortium/Third Party Administrator), the inspection lead will let you know. We appreciate your assistance in facilitating our visit(s).
In accordance with 49 CFR § 40.331, you and your service agent must release all written, printed, and computer-based records and reports, files, materials, data, documents/documentation, agreements, contracts, policies, and statements related to your drug and alcohol program. During our inspection, our inspector may also need to review some of the following types of records:
- Employment records for each safety-sensitive employee (e.g., records of hire, transfer or termination, and applications or resumes)
- Documentation of your safety-sensitive positions (e.g., position descriptions)
- Documentation of an employee’s performance of a safety-sensitive function (e.g., flight logs, duty records, timesheets, work orders, invoices, receipts, and other maintenance records)
At the conclusion of our inspection, we will conduct an outbriefing and advise you of the result of our inspection. If your inspection results in no findings, we will conclude our inspection and send you a formal closeout letter. If we discover any issues that indicate a deviation from 14 CFR part 120 or 49 CFR part 40, we will send you a Report of Inspection (ROI). The ROI will give you an opportunity to provide a detailed description of your corrective actions to return to full compliance and avoid recurrence, as well as providing documentation of the actions you took. Although your timely and sufficient response is not required, it is critical to demonstrating your willingness and ability to comply under our Compliance Program (outlined in FAA Order 8000.373 and Order 2150.3).
As a best practice, we encourage you to use our inspection guide to conduct your own program audits, including your service agent(s), on an annual or bi-annual basis to ensure continued compliance with 14 CFR part 120 or 49 CFR part 40. If you find discrepancies in your program, we encourage you to consider submitting a voluntary disclosure report in accordance with Advisory Circular 120-117.
If you have any further questions or need additional guidance that is more specific to your situation, please contact the FAA Drug Abatement Division at (202) 267-8442 or drugabatement@faa.gov.
Please visit our website to learn more about our program.
Applicable Regulations:
An instructional kit is available at most flight schools to help prepare the knowledge exam. Video tapes are also available (with closed captioning) to assist student pilots studying for the exam. Many flight schools also conduct ground instruction in a regular classroom scenario, but you would have to advise the flight school that it would have to locate and arrange for interpreters under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The IDPA or local deaf advocate organizations would be able to assist the flight school in locating interpreters. Again, check with your local FSDO for flight schools in your area.
You can find information on how to record an aircraft claim of lien on our website.
If you are scanning the information, typically reducing the resolution to 150-200 dpi should keep the document legible while keeping the file size small.
If the document is already saved as PDF, try reducing the file size of a PDF simply by using the File > Compress a PDF, or File > Save As Other > Reduced Size PDF. (See Adobe's Saving PDFs )
It’s a good idea to check the device (scanner, cell phone, etc.) or application you are using to see if there is a way to establish settings that will make all documents and images smaller.