Young Eagles Fuel Exemption

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11-10-2013, 06:45 PM
Mike M

Young Eagles Fuel Exemption

EAA national's article on page 12 of the November 2013 issue of "Sport Aviation" magazine reporting on the "Young Eagles fuel exemption" is confusing to me. Many chapters are incorporated. EAA national is incorporated. National requested the exemption. FAA issued it to EAA national. Chapters aren't mentioned in it. So it doesn't apply to chapter YE flights anyway, right?

Secondly, FAA indicates YE rallys should be under the Air Tour rules unless exempted. So FAA issued an exemption. But it doesn't match what was requested. So EAA national chooses not to operate under the exemption? Does that mean no more EAA national YE rallies, or no more EAA national YE flights, or no more EAA national coordination of events like YE days?

Thirdly, now that national has asked and FAA has responded, we all are on notice (again) that the FAA considers logging flight time to be compensation for the flight. Can any aviator log flight time on any YE flight without complying with the Air Tour rule? Or will that idiotic misinterpretation (flight time itself is compensation) finally be reviewed and corrected? Not holding my breath.

Right now, we have individually incorporated chapters with long-time members refusing to participate in chapter YE flights, and some who won't fly YE any more at all, because of the mess that was stirred up by this exemption issue. And for what? The previous system was working fine. Many members didn't even know about the Air Tour rule because it was obvious it did not apply to flights freely donated, and most didn't care about getting free gas. The FAA wasn't showing up at rallies with badges and ticket books. Some FAA folks were participating on their off-duty time!

Great job.

Your mileage may vary.
11-23-2013, 06:14 AM
Mike M

OK, no replies. I get it. Don't ask, don't tell. Don't criticise Headquarters, even gently. Ignore the feds, they'll go away. Stay quiet, NSA is watching you. Shut up Muetzel, you're over reacting again.

Fact remains. Some long-term YE pilots have decided to abandon the field over this. Your mileage may vary. God bless.
11-23-2013, 06:58 AM
WLIU

Not sure why pilots would not fly Young Eagles. At our airport, we had more pilots participating this year than last year. Our local FBO provides space on the ramp, sells the YE pilots fuel at a good discount, and the airport eatery gives the kids a free ice cream and participating pilots a burger at no charge. Falls well below the threshold of the regulations of both the FAA and IRS who no longer have a budget to work on Saturday and Sunday anyway.

My reading of EAA's application and the FAA's response is that our umbrella organization made a reasonable request and we got to see how silly the application of rules by federal bureaucrats can be. If you did not observe that our "friends" in the FAA are more concerned with applying the letter of the regulations in the manner that avoids actual decision making and risk of applying those rules in a manner that might cause questions from risk averse management, than those folks are interested in the success of the activity that they regulate, then you are blind.

So we do what works at the local level. Plenty of options. No excuses, go fly.

Best of luck,

Wes
N78PS
11-23-2013, 06:49 PM
Mike M

Quote:

Originally Posted by WLIU

Our local FBO ... sells the YE pilots fuel at a good discount, and the airport eatery gives ... participating pilots a burger at no charge....

all of which are "compensation" in the twisted world of FAA-land.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WLIU

My reading of EAA's application and the FAA's response is that our umbrella organization made a reasonable request and we got to see how silly the application of rules by federal bureaucrats can be.

CONCUR FULLY. but. they are one identity, incorporated chapters are another. what national gets will not apply to separately incorporated chapters unless the FAA says so, and nobody asked them to do that. my guess is, since nobody asked, they won't. so logging flight time etc will continue to be verboten for incorporated chapter rally participants, even if national someday got what they asked for. which turns out to be not enough, anyway, to be logical and meet what's really going on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WLIU

If you did not observe that our "friends" in the FAA are more concerned with applying the letter of the regulations in the manner that avoids actual decision making and risk of applying those rules in a manner that might cause questions from risk averse management, than those folks are interested in the success of the activity that they regulate, then you are blind. So we do what works at the local level. Plenty of options. No excuses, go fly.

Concur fully. but. the danger of a government which passes idiotic rules that nobody expects to be followed, that nobody wants to follow, that nobody wants to enforce is - someday they get enforced. against political rivals, against people that don't know they exist because nobody talks about them, or somebody just plain P.O.'s a rogue nitpicking nutcase bureaucrat with an authority fixation. i naively think it would be better to head off the problem ASAP, get it out in the open, get it off the books before somebody gets a paper cut to the throat.