At a recent Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) Air Safety Forum in Washington, D.C., Richard Prosek, manager of flight technologies and procedures in FAA\u2019s UAS Integration Office, offered airline pilots assurances that air vehicles piloted from the ground will be introduced safely and incrementally to the U.S. national airspace system (NAS)\u2026 \u201cWe\u2019re doing this in an organized and structured fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FAA reauthorization bill signed into law in February sets a deadline for the integration of unmanned aircraft in the NAS \u201cas soon as practicable, but not later than September 30, 2015.\u201d Mr. Prosek sought to clarify the bill language by saying, \u201cThe language does not say full integration of UASs into the NAS by that date. It says safe integration.\u201d<\/p>\n
American Eagle Capt. Bill de Groh, chairman of ALPA\u2019s design and operations group expressed ALPA\u2019s position that \u201cpersons controlling the unmanned aircraft be pilots, not operators\u201d, and said, \u201cOur view is that to be granted equal access to the NAS, the pilot-in-command must be trained and licensed to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rich Hanson
\nAMA Government and Regulatory Affairs<\/p>\n