Department of Transportation May 16, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with theprocedures governing the application for, and the processing of, exemptions from the Department of Transportation's Hazardous Material Regulations (49 CFR part 107, subpart B), notice is hereby given that the Office of Hazardous Materials Safety has received the application described herein. This notice is abbreviated to expedite docketing and public notice. Because the sections affected, modes of transportation, and the nature of application have been shown in earlier Federal Register publications, they are not repeated here. Request of modifications of exemptions (e.g., to provide for additional hazardous materials, packaging design changes, additional mode of transportation, etc.) are described in footnotes to the application number. Application numbers with the suffix ``M'' demote a modification request. Their applications have been separated from the new application for exemption to facilitate processing.

This notice publishes the FMCSA decision to renew the exemptions from the vision requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations for 31 individuals. The FMCSA has statutory authority to exempt individuals from vision standards if the exemptions granted will not compromise safety. The agency has concluded that granting these exemptions will provide a level of safety that will be equivalent to, or greater than, the level of safety maintained without the exemptions for these commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers.

Federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS) No. 109, New pneumatic tires, specifies performance requirements for certain types of passenger car tires. Three paragraphs of regulatory text related to tire testing procedures have been inadvertently removed through administrative error. This document corrects this inadvertent removal.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announces the availability of final policy that updates existing certification policy on Sec. 25.785(a), Amendment 25-64, for side-facing seats.

This action amends the regulations governing air taxi operators and commuter air carriers to eliminate the requirement that commuter air carriers file initial and amended registration forms. The information provided on such forms is duplicative of information that commuter air carriers are separately required to file under other regulations. Accordingly, this amendment simplifies the process of applying for and maintaining commuter air carrier authority. This action also makes conforming amendments to other rules affected by the amendment, as well as to make other minor administrative, editorial, clarifying, and organizational changes to rules applicable to air taxi operators and commuter air carriers.

Pursuant to FAA's rulemaking provisions governing the application, processing, and disposition of petitions for exemption part 11 of Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR), this notice contains a summary of certain petitions seeking relief from specified requirements of 14 CFR, dispositions of certain petitions previously received, and corrections. The purpose of this notice is to improve the public's awareness of, and participation in, this aspect of FAA's regulatory activities. Neither publication of this notice nor the inclusion or omission of information in the summary is intended to affect the legal status of any petition or its final disposition.

This notice announces the availability of and requests comments on a proposed advisory circular that sets forth an acceptable means, but not the only means of showing compliance with Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR), part 23, for two new concepts in small airplanes. The two concepts are: (1) Synthetic Vision (SV), and (2) pathway depictions displaying the navigation course on the primary flight display. This AC covers airplanes in the normal, utility, acrobatic, and commuter categories approved to fly under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). This notice is necessary to give all interested persons an opportunity to present their views on the proposed AC.