by
Darryl Phillips
The best news aviation has seen in a long time happened this year, scarcely noticed by most of the press. Of the three things we need to redefine the future of flying, the FAA has approved one of them.
First, we need quiet airplanes, so we are acceptable in society. Second, we need government to treat us as car drivers are treated, using rules based on common sense and enforced in accord with our rights as citizens. Hopefully this will come when we quiet our machines and stop sounding so offensive. Third, we need protection so we don't automatically die when an aircraft problem develops.
Midair collisions don't usually kill. That happens when we hit the ground. Same for airframe failure, pilot disorientation or incapacitation, unrecovered spins, extreme icing, fuel exhaustion, engine failure at night, the list goes on. None of those things are deadly, it's the abrupt arrival at terra firma that gets us.
After more than a decade supplying parachutes for ultralights and experimentals, and spending more than $1.5 million to convince the FAA, approval has been granted to Ballistic Recovery Systems, Inc. (BRS) to market a parachute system that will lower Cessna 150/152s to earth. During the time FAA was resisting the idea, BRS chutes saved a documented 69 lives in ultralights and kitplanes. (That number continues to grow, in July BRS spokesman Dan Johnson listed 72 people who are alive today because of their aircraft parachutes.) Another 52 lives have been saved by recovery chutes supplied by Second Chantz, the other major player in this field.
Safety is the job of the FAA, and they should be working to make it happen rather than creating expensive barriers. But in this case the federal barrier wasn't sufficient, and 22,000 airplanes are now eligible for this life-saving protection. Cost to the aircraft owner? Less than $6000 per plane. And if the insurance companies get their act together, that amount should be saved in premiums within a few years.
BRS plans a two-pronged approach to include the rest of us who fly certificated aircraft. On the one hand, they are attempting to get the feds to consider the two place tube and fabric aircraft as one class. This would include the Cub, Aeronca, Taylorcraft, and several others. If the FAA can be convinced that these planes are substantially alike, one approval could cover the lot. This opens the market to another 47,000 aircraft. In many ways these planes are more like the ultralights that have been protected for years, hopefully the FAA will see it that way. If so, it can be accomplished by next summer.
At the same time, BRS plans to take what they've learned in the C150/152 and apply it to the 172 and 182. That may take a couple of years.
The two principle factors in parachute recovery systems are weight and airspeed. Weight is well understood, the military delivers tanks by parachute and NASA recovers 58,000 pound rocket motors that way. Airspeed is another matter, and as BRS moves into higher-speed aircraft they are working on ideas to reduce the cost of testing. Of course the designs must be tested, it's just a shame that government agencies with the proper equipment and expertise can't help. Like the military-only golf courses, the capability belongs to us all, but only the choice few can benefit.
As BRS struggled thru the years trying to convince FAA that safety was a good idea, I'm sure they must have looked around at all the money being made by companies like Intel or Microsoft, prospering in fields that aren't regulated to death. Everyone in aviation owes these developers a debt of gratitude for hanging in there. You can reach BRS at 612-457-7491.
And what about all the Piper, Beech, Mooney and other models out there? When will this life-saving technology be available? Nobody knows, it depends in part on the feds, and in part on revenue generated from sales. It may not happen as soon as we would prefer, but it is happening, and that's good news.
On another front, we are seeing real progress in the struggle to simplify the certification processes for light aircraft. Right now there are at least four avenues the FAA has opened which show promise. Don't expect $2500 Cubs to reappear, but there seems to be a real effort on the part of the feds to correct the approval procedures that have become so complex.
One might wonder if the FAA has finally began to realize that general aviation (and that represents MOST of aviation) is dying. And if aviation dies, where will that leave the FAA? Oh, sure, there will still be the airlines, about 6000 aircraft at last count. But it's going to be hard to support 50,000 FAA employees on the air carriers alone. If the FAA is to keep it's size and budget, it had better keep little airplanes flying.
That's what it comes down to in a bureaucracy, size and budget. Compared with some other agencies, FAA is doing fine.
Consider the National Institutes of Health. Responsible for keeping us alive and well. All 250,000,000 of us, suffering from everything from diaper rash to dementia. The NIH has a budget this year, to support their research on cancer, heart disease, hypertension, and a multitude of other killers including AIDS, of $6.2 billion. Excuse me, I promised never to say the "B" word again, the NIH budget is 6200 million dollars. Multiply that by 1.5, and you have the FAA budget of $9200 million.
Just think, NIH has 357 times as many people to worry about, yet they get just two thirds as much money! And the FAA only has to worry about us while we're flying planes (or fixing planes, or standing near the airport fence watching planes) while the NIH has us 24 hours a day.
Or what about the FBI. Elliot Ness and J. Edgar and all those heroes. Fighting crime and preserving the American dream. Total staff of the FBI is 22,000 people. That includes field agents, secretaries and support people, scientists and technicians, even the Director's bodyguard. 22,000 total. One FBI employee for every 11,363 Americans.
At the same time, FAA has 50,000 employees. Like the FBI, this includes controllers and technicians and clerks and so on. These FAA people watch over 700,000 pilots, or one employee for every 14 pilots. That means that 14 pilots are as much a threat to society as 11,363 normal people. Simple division makes each of us 811 times more likely to sin than your typical farmer or attorney or assembly line worker. Or your typical Mafia hood or drug dealer or Sheik what's-his-name.
Or, if you and I are not any worse than the average Joe, it means that the FAA is 811 times bigger than it should be. Now that is a thought to ponder.