Last December, the Small Aircraft Revtalization Act directed the FAA to implement the recommendations of the Part 23 ARC study. In addition to trying to fix Part 23 to make it easier to design, certified and produce new aircraft (<19,000 lbs), the study also made the extraordinary recommendation to permit an owner to convert their Certificated Aircraft to essentially an Experimental aircraft. This would create what is called the Primary NonCommercial Aircraft.
PNC (pink?) aircraft would have to be at least 20 years old, up to date on AD compliance, in annual but could then converted to the PNC catagory. At that point, the PNC aircraft (PNCA) could no longer carry persons for hire or rental,but the owner could effectively treat it as an Experimental-Amateur Built aircraft, making Mods as the owner saw fit.
Also, PNCA Owners could get a Repairmans certificate allowing them to perform maintenance.
Also, the ARC Study includes a provision where the pickle could be turned back into a cucumber. PNCA could be returned to Certificated status by removal of the Modifications.
See Section 3.3.5 (page39) and Appendix G4 of the study at
http://www.faa.gov/regulations_polic...NAL.Report.pdf
There are a lot of other good items like easier Field Approvals for Certificated aircraft, improvements for owner performed preventative maintenance and lower barriers to making avionics for Certificated aircraft.
Thoughts?
We need to get smart on this ARC study so that we are prepared for the NRPM.