Federal Aviation Administration January 19, 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This action proposes to modify the San Francisco, CA, Class B airspace area to contain aircraft conducting instrument flight rules (IFR) instrument approach procedures to San Francisco International Airport (SFO), San Francisco, CA. The FAA is taking this action to improve the flow of air traffic, enhance safety, and reduce the potential for midair collision in the SFO Class B airspace area while accommodating the concerns of airspace users. Further, this effort supports the FAA's national airspace redesign goal of optimizing terminal and enroute airspace to reduce aircraft delays and improve system capacity. This notice does not constitute either a final decision of the FAA or a re-opening of the FAA's August 6, 2014, final decision for the Northern California (NorCal) Optimization of Airspace and Procedures in the Metroplex (OAPM) project.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, FAA invites public comments about our intention to request the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval to renew an information collection. The Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period soliciting comments on the following collection of information was published on November 3, 2017 (82 FR 51331). The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 mandates that all helicopter air ambulance operators must begin reporting the number of flights and hours flown, along with other specified information, during which helicopters operated by the certificate holder are providing helicopter air ambulance services. The helicopter air ambulance operational data provided to the FAA is used by the agency as background information useful in the development of risk mitigation strategies to reduce the helicopter air ambulance accident rate, and to meet the mandates set by Congress. In response to the November 3, 2017 notice and request for comments, the FAA received two comments. One comment from an individual and one comment from the Air Medical Operators Association (AMOA). The individual commented that the hourly burden per average response estimate has increased since the last notice was published on July 29, 2014 (79 FR 44083) and asked for the reason for the change in estimated burden. In response, the FAA clarifies that none of the requirements have changed, but operator data have changed. The overall number of operators has decreased. Additionally, the number of large operators (to which we attribute a higher hourly burden) has increased and the number of small operators (to which we attribute a lower hourly burden) has decreased. Therefore, in the aggregate, the average hourly burden increased from six (6) hours to eleven (11) hours per operator. The AMOA commented that they strongly supported the intent of the data collection requirement, but also noted that the original collection requirement should have been the subject of notice and comment rulemaking. The FAA notes, as indicated in the August 12, 2013 Requests for Comments; Clearance of a New Approval of Information Collection: Helicopter Air Ambulance Operator Reports (78 FR 48925), that prior to issuance of the first information collection notice, representatives from the Flight Standards Service, Office of Accident Investigation and Prevention, and the Office of the Chief Counsel met with representatives from AMOA to discuss the FAA's approach to this data collection. Meetings were held on October 15, 2012 and May 17, 2013. On June 28, 2013 AMOA submitted a response to the FAA discussing its view of the method to collect the data being pursued by the FAA. A copy of that letter was placed in the docket (FAA-2013-0684) and was considered by the agency. AMOA also commented that the FAA has underestimated the hourly burden for both large and small operators. Although AMOA did not provide any specific data to support its comment, in response the FAA has increased the estimates of hourly burden for both large and small operators in this notice and request for comments. AMOA also requested information from the FAA's Office of Accident Investigation and Prevention and commented on the FAA's implementation of certain provisions of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, which are both beyond the scope of this clearance of a renewed approval of information collection.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Dassault Aviation Model FALCON 7X, FALCON 2000EX, and FALCON 900EX airplanes. This AD requires revising the airplane flight manual (AFM) and minimum equipment list (MEL) to incorporate new limitations. This AD also provides an optional terminating action that removes the AFM and MEL limitations. This AD was prompted by a report indicating that, during approach, an airplane had an unexpected change of barometric settings on both the pilot and co-pilot sides, which also impacted certain display and navigational systems. We are issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.