Aero-Tips!
A good pilot is always learning -- how many times have you heard
this old standard throughout your flying career? There is no truer
statement in all of flying (well, with the possible exception of
"there are no old, bold pilots.") It's part of what makes aviation
so exciting for all of us... just when you think you've seen it
all, along comes a scenario you've never imagined.
Aero-News has called upon the expertise of Thomas P. Turner,
master CFI and all-around-good-guy, to bring our readers -- and us
-- daily tips to improve our skills as aviators, and as
representatives of the flying community. Some of them, you may have
heard before... but for each of us, there will also be something we
might never have considered before, or something that didn't
"stick" the way it should have the first time we memorized it for
the practical test.
It is our unabashed goal that "Aero-Tips" will help our readers
become better, safer pilots -- as well as introducing our
ground-bound readers to the concepts and principles that keep those
strange aluminum-and-composite contraptions in the air... and allow
them to soar magnificently through it.
Look for our daily Aero-Tips segments, coming each day to you
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always welcome, as are additions or discussion of each day's tips.
Remember... when it comes to being good pilots, we're all in this
together.
Aero-Tips 03.17.06
There was a time not long ago when every airplane, and each
individual pilot, was required to be licensed for radio use.
FCC-ing You
One thing we had to do
before the first solo flight “back in the day” was to
become licensed as a radio station operator. The Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) kept close tabs on persons that
could transmit via radio over more than about a mile’s
distance (note: part of the popularity of short-range CB radio in
the 1970s was the lack of an FCC license requirement). Pilots,
almost all having access to “long-range” radio
transmitters, had to have a Third Class Radiotelephone Operators
permit. It was a paperwork affair; get the form from your
instructor, fill it out and send it in -- I don’t recall
there was even a fee for the third class permit. It was a lifetime
certificate and if I looked hard enough I’m sure I could
still find mine because (as my wife says) I never throw away such
things. Eventually the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) got
together with the FCC and agreed any FAA pilot certificate (from
Student on up) counts as a third-class FCC permit as well.
Presumably the FAA sends a list of pilot certificate holders to the
FCC to this day.
Radio Station
Airplanes, in the FCC’s view, are radio stations (that
happen to fly). Until fairly recently all civil airplanes were
required to be licensed with the FCC. Radio station permits were
valid for five years, if I remember correctly, and were so commonly
overlooked that as an instructor in the 1990s I carried a stack of
renewal applications in my flight bag. It was legal to keep part of
the form in the airplane as a temporary certificate when you mailed
the rest to the FCC. Many times I had to give a form to a client
and see him/her mail it in before I could legally conduct a lesson.
Eventually this too went by the wayside, with all N-numbered
airplanes being automatically considered legal transmission
stations within U.S. borders. U.S.-registered airplanes flown
outside the U.S. still need an FCC radio station license, but
apparently either the FCC doesn’t care about airplanes within
the U.S., or the FAA automatically updates the FCC with aircraft
registration information behind the scenes.
Aero-tip of the day: In most cases the FCC
considers pilot certificates and aircraft registrations valid
permits for radio transmission. Remember for that flight outside
the U.S., however, that your airplane needs an FCC radio station
license.