800 Independence Ave., S.W.

Washington, DC 20591

AFS-11-182-P

September 26, 2014

Mr. Jason Blair

Executive Director

National Association of Flight Instructors

730 Grand Street

Allegan, MI 49010

Ms. Kathryn Fraser

Manager of Operations

General Aviation Manufacturers Association

1400 K Street, NW, Suite 801

Washington, DC 20005

Ms. Kristine Hartzell

Manager, Regulatory Affairs

Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

421 Aviation Way

Frederick, MD 21701

Mr. David Oord 

Government & Advocacy Specialist

Experimental Aircraft Association

3000 Poberezny Road

Oshkosh, WI 54902

Dear Petitioners:

This is in response to your letter dated January 31, 2011, posted to the public docket (No. 

FAA-2011-0138), petitioning the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to initiate 

rulemaking to amend part 61 of Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR). In your 

request, you asked to remove the term “authorized instructor” from §§ 61.99(a), 

61.109(a), and 61.109(b). The proposed rulemaking, if granted, would allow the flight 

training time acquired from a certified flight instructor with a sport pilot rating to be used 

to meet certain aeronautical experience requirements for recreational and private pilot 

applicants. 
2

When the FAA responds to petitions for rulemaking, it must follow the requirements of 

part 11, particularly those guidelines for processing petitions for rulemaking found in 

§ 11.73. As stated in that section, the FAA uses the following criteria when making a 

decision whether to amend current regulations based on a petition for rulemaking:

1) The immediacy of the safety or security concerns you raise;

2) The priority of other issues the FAA must deal with; and 

3) The resources we have available to address these issues.

Proper certification of pilots operating in the National Airspace System constitutes a large 

part of maintaining the safe aerospace system in place today. The FAA also recognizes 

the potential for change to regulation and policy, when feasible, to ease any unnecessary 

burden on pilot applicants. 

For the reasons listed above the FAA was unable to take action on your petition until 

recently. The FAA initiated rulemaking to address necessary changes to part 61; several 

of these changes include expanding the existing opportunities for logging flight time. 

The proposed rule is titled “Part 61 and 91 Recommended Rule Changes (Retrospective 

Regulatory Review)”, and is included as a Department of Transportation (DOT) current 

rulemaking . The DOT provides information and status of non-significant rulemakings in 

the DOT semi-annual regulatory agenda, through the Office of Management and 

Budget’s (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affair’s (OIRA) Unified Agenda

(http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaMain). 

When the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) is posted to the public docket 

(http://www.regulations.gov), you can review the NPRM and comment on it. After the 

comment period closes, the FAA will evaluate and disposes of all received comments. 

For the reasons above, we are dismissing your petition for rulemaking in accordance with 

14 CFR § 11.73.

Sincerely,

/s/

John Barbagallo

Acting Deputy Director, Flight Standards Service