Pilot's Bill of Rights and the AOPA

Old Geek

Old Geek

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Old Geek
So where's a thoughtful and complete analysis of perhaps the most important GA legislation in the last 50 years?

I've listened a certain AOPA husband and wife lawyer team talk in detail about how to deal with FAA entanglements ever since I've been a member. And their answer is usually ends in a plea to buy the AOPA legal protection plan. It seems that the best service they could perform right now would be to go over the Bill of Rights in a detailed manner for all of us.

They have certainly had a long time to look at it...
 
It would be nice, it certainly is a big deal. I'd like to see AOPA legal offer to back the legal challanges to some of the more silly aspects of the bureaucracy. I have low expectations of them though...
 
Nice write up in this month's (October) EAA Sport Aviation Magazine.
 
Pilot's Bill of Rights is a direct response to Sen. Inhoff's decision to land at a closed runway (with construction workers on it) and not check Notams. I like it, but it is really just a way for him to exact some revenge against the FAA...however they (the FAA) probably needed some reeling in...They are getting too Sheriffy.
 
Maybe AOPA needed to meet to pick out the wine club wines first . . .

I can do this for you now . . .

If you want to invoke your rights under the Pilots Bill of Rights you will need to inform the FAA within moments of having them question you about anything - even if you don't know what its about - and if want them to talk to you about anything you will need to sign a waiver of those rights.

If you go for a medical this year - you will be presented with a waiver of those rights in order to apply . . .
 
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comanchepilot said:
Maybe AOPA needed to meet to pick out the wine club wines first . . .

I can do this for you now . . .

If you want to invoke your rights under the Pilots Bill of Rights you will need to inform the FAA within moments of having them question you about anything - even if you don't know what its about - and if want them to talk to you about anything you will need to sign a waiver of those rights.

If you go for a medical this year - you will be presented with a waiver of those rights in order to apply . . .
Click to expand...

Do you have a copy of that waiver?

The legislation appears to me to allow a pilot to decline to fill out the medical form (8500-8) or any waiver and not suffer any negative consequences, such as loss of use of their certificate. This is because the statute reads (after eliding material not relevant to the point):
"... the Administrator ... shall provide timely, written notification to an individual who is the subject of an investigation relating to the approval ... of an airman certificate....

The notification ... shall inform the individual ... that no action or adverse inference can be taken against the individual for declining to respond to a Letter of Investigation from the Administrator;"​
So because the FAA is now treating medicals as investigations (see their new "written notification" http://www.faa.gov/other_visit/aviation_industry/designees_delegations/designee_types/ame/amcs/media/PBR%20Notification.pdf) it appears to my non-lawyer reasoning that they can't make you fill out the medical form anymore and deny you your right to use your certificate for said failure.

So I wonder if someone invokes their rights above while declining to answer any questions on the medical, to what extent that would pass muster im court? Since this is a statute and not a regulation, the FAA doesn't get any direct hand in interpreting it.
 
Nate, having not had a chance to study it at this point, no opinion on the PBR as a whole but are you responding to jasper's comment? He's correct. The linked form is not a waiver of the PBR. It's merely an acknowledgement that you've been informed about it.

Get a home loan and refuse to acknowledge that you received the Truth-in-Lending (or the many other disclosures in that transaction) and see how fast you get the money.

It may well turn out that continuing with the medical application is in fact giving permission to the FAA to investigate your medical qualification to hold that certificate. But that doesn't sound to me to be either unreasonable or against the intent of anything.
 
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Red Air Rambo said:
Pilot's Bill of Rights is a direct response to Sen. Inhoff's decision to land at a closed runway (with construction workers on it) and not check Notams.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Aside from the merits of the law, I think one of the reasons so few pilots are discussing this legislation is that many of us are embarrassed by the way it was enacted.

Even when it's in our favor, legislation that is passed in retaliation for discipline that was, by all accounts, deserved, leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
 
Any of the AME's have copy . . . I have one but just don't know where it is . . . and its more than simply notice of the rights - but no signature - no medical processing.

The PBOR is a good thing - no matter how it was enacted - it really should put to an end the constant stream of "the FSDO contacted me should I get a lawyer" threads because now you KNOW what they want when they first contact you. . . . and that lets YOU decide if the inquiry is sufficiently significant to warrant your contacting a lawyer before responding to the FAA . . . .

A US Senator got to experience the wrath of an agency without many constraints on how it operates and what it concludes as to an airman - and how its opinions used to be gospel in any administrative proceeding.
 
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Just NOW had my medical - I'm so old I thought I did it just two weeks ago, but then I forget...
No signing of anything other than filling out the application with signature as well as the new 3rd class certificate he printed up after the examination
(man, the bottom line on the eye test gets smaller every time)...
 
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