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Under a new rule released by the FAA, student pilots will no longer get their student pilot certificate from an aviation medical examiner.  Instead, they can apply in person at a FSDO, through a designated pilot examiner, with a Part 141 flight school or a CFI.  The TSA will vet the application, and then a plastic certificate will be sent to the student by the Civil Aviation Registry.

Student pilots who already have a paper certificate can continue to use it until it expires, according to the new rule which began with an NPRM issued in November 2010.  The FAA received about 470 comments on that proposal.

The FAA is considering a request from the 180th Fighter Wing of the Ohio Air National Guard to establish the Stinger Temporary Military Operations Area (MOA).  This new MOA would provide airspace support for rapid ingress and egress of clean configured aircraft into and out of the area for Exercise Solemn Stinger.

The proposed temporary MOA would be effective from June 7 to August 6, 2016, five days per week, not to exceed 45 days total, from 0930-1100 and 1330-1500, Tuesday through Saturday by NOTAM four hours in advance.

Execution of missions will be from Toledo Air National Guard Base (KTOL) in Swanton, Ohio. A maximum of eight F-16 sorties per day will be performed during the exercise from 6,000 feet MSL up to, but not including, 18,000 feet MSL. 

Members who wish to comment on the proposal may send them to 9-NATL-CSA-Public-Notice-Airspace@faa.gov.  Comments must be received on or before February 1, 2016.

The FAA will be applying additional flight restrictions to the Washington, D.C. Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA) and Flight Restricted Zone (FRZ) for President Obama’s State of the Union address on January 12.  Click the image for an interactive map of the changes.

Pilots in the Washington, D.C. area are urged to read the flight advisory issued by the FAA, which describes the additional restrictions in more detail.

Official airport, navigation and chart data for the FAA's 28-day cycle beginning 1/7/16 became current today as of 09:01Z.  This includes updated georeferenced data for airport diagrams and instrument approach procedures available in iFlightPlanner for iPad.

Anytime you access iFlightPlanner.com or mobile.iFlightPlanner.com you can be confident that you are seeing the most current and accurate data available.  To ensure that iFlightPlanner for iPad is current, simply tap "Check for Updates" in the upper-left corner of the Downloads tab.  The app will quickly tell you which packages need to be updated!

The iFlightPlanner Crew
PLAN. FLY. LOG.

The January/February 2016 issue of FAA Safety Briefing focuses on the FAA’s new Compliance Philosophy and what its foundational concepts mean to the general aviation community. Articles in this issue discuss how the agency and aviation community can identify a problem in the NAS, use the most effective tools to correct that problem, and monitor the situation to be sure it stays fixed into the future.

Feature articles include:

• How do You do Safety? – Developing Sound Risk-Based Decision Making Practices in Aviation
• In Data We Trust: Does Flight Data Monitoring Hold the Key to Improving GA Safety?
• Compliance Philosophy with General Aviation – FAA’s Evolving Culture on Aviation Safety

Get your fully compatible PDF, ePub for iOS, Nook and Android, or MOBI file for your Kindle of this issue at faa.gov!

iFlightPlanner for iPad users may now download airport and navigation data as well as aeronautical charts, georeferenced airport diagrams and terminal procedures for the FAA Data Cycle that goes into effect on January 7, 2016.  Simply tap the button in the upper-left corner of the Downloads tab to "Check For Updates".

Pilots using iFlightPlanner.com or mobile.iFlightPlanner.com from their smartphones will see the iFlightPlanner Cloud automatically make the transition to the new data at 9:01Z on January 7.