Regulatory Roadblock Reduction

#FlySafe GA Safety Enhancement Topic

FAA Safety Briefing

Published in

Cleared for Takeoff

6 min readJun 11, 2021

Editor’s Note: This article was updated was on June 6, 2024.

An important component of reducing general aviation (GA) accidents is leveraging the rapid growth and evolution of technology in the aviation industry. The General Aviation Joint Steering Committee (GAJSC) believes that the FAA must continue to find ways to help reduce the cost to install safety enhancing technology. Installation of this technology can offer substantial safety benefits, often with minimal risk. The GAJSC also feels that the FAA needs to identify the appropriate level of certification for installation of risk-mitigating avionics. Successful integration of this technology may help the GA fleet reap the potential benefit of reward with a balanced risk approach.

Fly Safe illustration with AOA indicator. — Reducing regulatory roadblocks for emerging technology while balancing risk can improve pilot safety.

Breaking Barriers

The high cost of certification has traditionally been a significant barrier for the aviation industry over the years. However, the FAA has made important strides toward removing those roadblocks.

The Sport Pilot/Light-Sport Aircraft (LSA) rules in 2004 marked an important milestone in bringing new aircraft choices to the table. The rule allowed American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) consensus standards as a means of certification for LSA. In addition, the safety and technological advances these new designs brought to both airframes and avionics helped drive several more recent developments.

Among these are the simplified design approval requirements for angle of attack (AOA) indicators. This life-saving technology is showing up on new aircraft and is available in a number of more affordable options for retrofit as well. (For more on AOA, see our April 2021 Fly Safe topic). The success of this initiative also led the FAA to expand this approach to a broader range of equipment.

Angle of Attack Awareness

#FlySafe GA Safety Enhancement Topic

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Photo of AOA indicator. — An angle of attack indicator.

Seeing NORSEE

Published in July 2016, the FAA’s Non-Required Safety Enhancing Equipment (NORSEE) policy includes avionics, electronic instruments, displays, and mechanical equipment for Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) parts 23, 27, and 29 aircraft. Examples of NORSEE equipment include traffic advisory systems; terrain awareness and warning systems; attitude indicators; fire extinguishing systems, and autopilot or stability augmentation systems. There are also various life-saving carbon monoxide detectors and panel mounts that are now available through NORSEE. Equipment approved as NORSEE can enhance overall situational awareness and provide a range of information, such as:

Data beyond what is available aircraft primary system
Independent warning, cautionary, or advisory indications
Additional occupant safety protection.

See the list of NORSEE design approvals here.

🛩️ Seeing NORSEE Benefits — How This Innovative FAA Safety Enhancement Program Is Performing, FAA Safety Briefing, May/June 2019

Seeing NORSEE Benefits

NORSEE evolved from an earlier policy (AIR100–14–110-PM01) which uses ASTM standards (F3011–13), to make it easier for…

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Photo of 2 inch display. — The AV-20 provides angle of attack, G-meter, attitude, airspeed, and other information on a 2-inch display. Photo by Mike Collins, © AOPA (Used with permission.)

Part 23 Reform

On August 30, 2017, the final rule overhauling airworthiness standards for general aviation airplanes officially went into effect. The rule is a substantial overhaul of 14 CFR part 23, and with it, the FAA is enabling faster installation of innovative, safety-enhancing technologies into small airplanes, while reducing costs for the aviation industry. The rule applies to airplanes weighing 19,000 pounds or less and with 19 or fewer passenger seats.

The rule’s performance-based standards approach recognizes that there is more than one way to deliver on safety. It offers a way for industry and the FAA to collaborate on new and existing technologies and to keep pace with evolving aviation designs and concepts. This regulatory change is also a leading example of how the FAA is transforming its Aircraft Certification Service into an agile organization that can support aviation industry innovation in the coming years.

Part 23 regulations will continue to be used as a means of certification, but the administrator has deemed the ASTM standards to provide “at least the same level of safety as the corresponding requirements in part 23, amendment 23–64.”

ASTM Consensus Standards F3264 identifies the industry standards that, as determined by the FAA, demonstrate compliance to the requirements for Level 1, 2, 3, and 4 normal category airplanes. The FAA has accepted 35 published ASTM International consensus standards for certification of normal category part 23 airplanes. The new Means of Compliance (MOC) are, according to the FAA, “an acceptable means, but not the only means, of showing compliance to the applicable regulations in part 23 [and] provide at least the same level of safety as the corresponding requirements.”

What does the Change Mean for Me?

The big change in part 23 was the removal of the prescriptive requirements that had previously been at the heart of the rule. The FAA replaced them with desired, end-state criteria. This approach puts the emphasis on the airplane’s or system’s safety performance, not on how well it does in a series of pre-defined tests.

Photo of glass cockpit with terrain awareness and an angle of attack indicator.

This in turn is helping aircraft manufacturers streamline their certification process and reduce costs. It is also helping aircraft part and avionics manufacturers bring more innovative, cost-effective, and safety-enhancing products to the market.

Part 23 also promotes regulatory harmonization among the FAA’s foreign partners, including the European Aviation Safety Agency, Transport Canada Civil Aviation, and Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Authority. Harmonization may help minimize certification costs for manufacturers and operators who want to certify their products for the global market.

MOSAIC

Also worth mentioning is the FAA’s ongoing Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification (MOSAIC) rulemaking that will propose to amend numerous provisions concerning aircraft that hold special airworthiness certificates and airmen that operate and maintain those aircraft. This rule will include proposals to expand the scope of aircraft that may be certificated as light-sport category aircraft (LSA) to increase margins for incorporation of safety-enhancing designs, increase the overall robustness of LSA, enable a more useful load for fuel and passengers, enable electric propulsion, and enable other performance enhancements.