FAA Announces Revised Part 23 Regulations

As reported by AVWeb, see link below.  The FAA has released information on how it plans on streamlining the certification and approval process for general aviation aircraft under Part 23.  The idea is that it will allow airplanes to be certified faster and cost less (50% reduction in both) all while allowing for greater safety.  Allegedly this refined process will more easily allow manufacturers to install things like “angle-of-attack sensors, two-axis autopilots, glass avionics, and other important safety-enhancing systems that can aid the pilot”, which in the past has been extremely expensive to do for manufacturers and has driven the cost of new airplanes through the roof. 

While I’m a huge fan of anything that will reduce the costs of GA and help promote more flying, I fear that this will do very little for the consumer and instead provide more profit for the manufacturers.  As a previous Cirrus owner, it kills me to see the fleecing manufacturers provide on parts for their aircraft and all in the name of “certification.”  When a company demands $10,000 (soon to be $15,000, but that’s a whole different story) to repack a parachute, yet the actual manufacturer of the same chute will repack it for $3500, you have to ask yourself why?  Of course, Cirrus has made it so that no one else is allowed to repack the chute because of “certification” reasons, it’s a self licking ice cream cone for Cirrus and one of the reasons I sold my aircraft.  I loved the Cirrus and I think it’s easily one of the safest aircraft on the market, but they have followed the trail of Beechcraft and have absurd markups on all of their parts making owning one for the rich and famous only.  GA will not expand until the prices of the aircraft come down.  Especially in a horrible economy that this moron in charge has created, GA is barely hanging on as more and more manufacturers of planes and parts go out of business.

We can only hope that this new revision of Part 23, will change things for the better of GA, but regardless the results will probably take ten years to see if it actually makes a difference.  The new proposed revision is supposed to be complete by July of 2016.  Fingers crossed…

http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/FAA-Releases-GA-Certification-Action-Plan220342-1.html