Exem ption No. 10615

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION

WASHINGTON, DC 20591

In the matter of the petition of

SUNDANCE HELICOPTERS, INC. Regulatory Docket No. FAA-2011-1044

for an exemption from § 93.323

of Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations

GRANT OF EXEMPTION

By letter dated Septem ber 21, 2011, Mr. Kurt Barton, Director of Operations, Sundance Helicopters, Inc., (Sundance), 5596 Haven Street, Las Vegas, NV 89119, petitioned the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on behalf of Sundance for an exemption from § 93.323 of Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR). The proposed exemption, if granted, would relieve Sundance from the requirement to file a flight plan prior to conducting operations in the Grand Canyon National Park (G CNP) Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA).

The petitioner requests relief from the following regulation:

Section 93.323 prescribes that each certificate holder conducting a commercial SFRA operation must file a visual flight rules (VFR) flight plan in accordance with § 91.153. This section does not apply to operations conducted in accordance with § 93.309(g). The flight plan must be on file with a FAA Flight Servi ce Station prior to each flight. Each VFR flight plan must identify the purpose of the flight in the “remarks” section according to one of the types set forth in the “Las Vegas Flight Standards District Office Grand Canyon National Park Special Flight Rules Area Procedures Manual” which is available from the Las Vegas Flight Standards District Office.

AFS-11-469-E The petitioner supports its request w ith the following information:2

The petitioner contends that the filing of flight plans prior to operation within the GCNP SFRA is required for allocation use monitoring and not for safety of flight. The petitioner notes that no flight locating or following is afforded by the current daily flight plan submission requirement. Additionally, the petitioner states that the filing of referenced flight plans is an exact duplication of the information contained in quarterly GCNP operations reporting required by the “Las Vegas Flight Standards District Office Grand Canyon National Park Special Flight Rules Area Procedures Manual.”

The petitioner states that its demonstrated method of quarterly allocation use reporting, verification, and possible audit options provides for more than adequate oversight by the responsible agency. The petitioner notes these records are transparent, and allow for easy audit and validation of reported data at any time.

The petitioner notes that, although, to the untrained eye, there is no apparent benefit to the flying public, flight locating/following is conducted in-house using the satellite based tracking system “Spidertracks.” The petitioner states this system allows for constant reporting of aircraft locations, allowing Sundance to know exactly where all company aircraft are located at any given time. The petitioner states this method of flight locating provides superior safety when compared to the FAA flight plan method of flight following using a VFR flight plan, t hus affording a greater level of safety to the flying public.

A summary of the petition was published in the Federal Register on December 27, 2011 (76 FR 81010). No comments were received.

The FAA's analysis is as follows:

The FAA finds that a grant of exemption would be in the public interest and would provide an equivalent level of safety to that provided by the regulation.

The Issue of Safety

Sundance Helicopters is mandated by § 93.325 to report to the FAA the number and nature of each air tour operation that they conduct within the GCNP SFRA. In support of that rule, § 93.323 prescribes the filing of a flight plan for each GCNP SFRA operation for the explicit purpose of verification of compliance with § 93.325. As stated in its preamble, § 93.323 was never intended to serve a safety function. Instead, the sole purpose of § 93.323 was to serve as an auditing tool. Therefore, a grant of exemption would not adversely affect safety.

Consistency with the Intent of § 93.323

As discussed above, § 93.323 requires the filing of a flight plan for each GCNP SFRA operation. The requirement in § 93.323 was written into FAA regulations in 2000 to verify the accuracy of Grand Canyon flight allocation data reporting. However, in 2005 the FAA developed better methods of cross-checking air tour operator data to verify reporting.3

Because the FAA currently utilizes these other methods to verify data reporting, granting an exemption from the requirements of § 93.323 would not undermine the FAA’s data verification capabilities.

The Issue of Public Interest

The filing of individual flight plans by Sundance Helicopters for each of its many thousands of annual air tour flight operations over the Grand Canyon results in an extremely large workload for Sundance Helicopters and for the fli ght service station (FSS) that receives them. Continued processing of those administrative flight plans now incurs significant costs to both Sundance Helicopters and to the Federal Government without benefit. In the interim, the FAA has implemented more effective efficient alternate methods of auditing allocation compliance. The FAA finds that it is in the public interest to reduce this paperwork burden to both Sundance Helicopters and to the FSS.

The FAA will consider the information provided by Sundance Helicopters in future rulemaking.

The FAA’s Decision

In consideration of the foregoing, I find that a grant of exemption is in the public interest. Therefore, pursuant to the authority contained in 49 U.S.C. §§ 40113 and 44701, delegated to me by the Administrator, Sundance Helicopters, Inc. is granted an exemption from 14 CFR § 93.323 to the extent necessary to relieve Sundance from the requirement to file a flight plan prior to conducting operations in the Grand Canyon National Park Special Flight

Rules Area.

This exemption expires on August 31, 2014, unless sooner superseded or rescinded.

Issued in Washington, D.C., on August 27, 2012.

John M. Allen Director, Flight Standards

Service