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More than 19,000 AOPA members have signed up to receive the association’s newest online newsletter, Drone Pilot. These certificated pilots and enthusiasts are learning about the latest news, regulations, training, and gear in the drone world every other week. Drone Pilot joins a growing list of media offerings that AOPA has created to keep members informed and entertained.

Have you visited the AOPA Hangar? Join fellow pilots and aviation enthusiasts in the AOPA Hangar online community to share, search, discover, connect, and enjoy the world of aviation. Join discussions on current aviation and industry news, meet new friends, learn about upcoming events, and discover great places to fly.

Editor Ian J. Twombly and Associate Editor David Tulis host a fun and informative podcast every other week, which showcases subjects from recent AOPA Pilot stories, industry news, and discussions on the latest regulations and policies and how they affect general aviation. Tune in to Hangar Talk.

Our weekly web-based news program brings AOPA Senior Vice President Tom Haines and AOPA Government Affairs Vice President Melissa Rudinger into your home with the latest GA news and stories on AOPA Live This Week, broadcast each Thursday afternoon. AOPA’s engaging video producer Paul Harrop takes his unique look at the world of general aviation in his periodic web-based show FlyBy.

These and many other newsletters, video compilations, and podcasts from every area within AOPA are offered free to members.

Along for the ride

New accident case study explores vacuum failure in IMC

By Machteld Smith

A vacuum pump failure on a sunny day is no big deal, but in instrument meteorological conditions—and especially without backup instrumentation—it’s a serious emergency. Not being adequately prepared can test our proficiency and hamper our ability to grasp the gravity of the problem when it’s most needed.

The May 3, 2016, flight was on an instrument flight plan en route from South Carolina to Connecticut. It concluded a long weekend getaway for the Beechcraft Bonanza pilot and his two friends. Shortly after 3 p.m.—about two hours into the flight—the pilot, flying above an overcast south of Long Island, contacted New York Tracon with a troubling report: His aircraft had lost its only vacuum pump, and without a backup system, he was now forced to fly partial panel. Although the pilot realized the importance of staying in visual meteorological conditions, he did not effectively inform air traffic control of the dire situation. When the controller asked the nature of the emergency and whether the pilot needed assistance, the pilot responded, “We’re, ah, partial panel sir. We’re fine. We’re VFR over the top right now, and we’re…just want to make sure that we don’t have a whole bunch of, uh, time in the clouds, partial panel to get down below the clouds.”

With widespread instrument conditions blanketing the destination and alternate airports, the situation was deteriorating rapidly—the minutes and seconds just ticking away—to that final point when the aircraft became uncontrollable.

How could this accident have been prevented? The AOPA Air Safety Institute’s Accident Case Study: Single Point Failure reviews the flight and the pilot’s decision-making process, including actions the pilot should have taken before he was forced to deal with an impossible dilemma in instrument meteorological conditions.

As pilots, we want to enjoy every flight, improve our skills, and share the fun of flight with others. But we should also take a moment and think of how we can be better prepared for each flight before we hop into the cockpit. Please share the video with others so they too can learn from the mistakes that were made on this flight.

Machteld Smith is an aviation technical writer for the AOPA Air Safety Institute.

Tips from PIC

Flying UAS

Obtaining a Part 107 remote pilot certificate

By Patrick Timmerman

I’ve been flying little quadcopters around my house for years, but it wasn’t until I had the opportunity to fly a larger one that I really appreciated the need to fly it responsibly and professionally—and I got serious about obtaining a remote pilot certificate.

There are two ways to do this. First-time pilots must pass the Remote Pilot-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems knowledge exam at an FAA-approved knowledge testing center. Existing pilots who do not have a current flight review also need to pass this test. Then, complete an 8710 certificate and/or rating application either through the FAA’s IACRA website or by using a paper application. I suggest going the IACRA route because you can do everything on your own and you can print a temporary remote pilot certificate. If you choose to complete a paper application, you’ll need to meet with a designated pilot examiner (DPE), an airman certification representative (ACR), or an FAA-certificated flight instructor (CFI) for his or her approval and signature. That person will not be able to issue you a temporary remote pilot certificate.

If you are an existing pilot with a current flight review, all you need to do is complete the online training course “Part 107 small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) ALC-451,” which is available at the FAASTeam website (www.faasafety.gov). Print the completion certificate, then complete an 8710 certificate and/or rating application either through the FAA’s IACRA website or by using a paper application. You must have a CFI, ACR, DPE, or a FSDO representative validate and sign your application. An ACR, DPE, or FSDO representative will be able to issue you a temporary certificate; a CFI will not be able to do that. If you complete the application through IACRA, though, you can print a temporary certificate.

For more information, check out AOPA’s Guide to Remote Pilot Certification (www.aopa.org/go-fly/aircraft-and-ownership/drones/guide-to-remote-pilot-certification).

Patrick Timmerman is the senior aviation technical specialist for the AOPA Pilot Information Center.Questions? Call the AOPA Pilot Information Center Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m to 6 pm. 800-USA-AOPA (872-2672).

AOPA INSURANCE

Little words, big difference

When piloting aircraft in controlled airspace, certain key words have a significant impact on the operation. Examples include “Cleared into Class B airspace,” “Cross Runway 18,” and, the most exciting, “Cleared for takeoff.” While the whole sentence has importance, the key words are what pilots are expecting to hear.

When it comes to asset protection, one of the most important key words in aviation insurance relates to the sublimit in most liability policies—and it is person or passenger. It’s simple, yet when we explain the difference, most are shocked how one word can dramatically change coverage.

AOPA insurance carriers’ sublimits read like this: $1 million per occurrence, with a $100,000 per passenger sublimit. If you have a sublimit, this language is the broadest available and only limits liability payments to those onboard the aircraft.

On the other hand, there are policies that read very similarly: $1 million per occurrence, with a $100,000 per person sublimit. With this type of sublimit, everyone now has their protection limited—everyone, both inside and outside the aircraft.

If I take a friend flying and he is injured while inside the airplane, the coverages are identical. However, if I hurt that same friend while he is outside the aircraft, the per person only gives him a potential recovery of $100,000, while AOPA carriers’ policies with a per passenger give him the full $1 million as a potential recovery. So in this example, one small word difference changed coverage by $900,000.

So, pilot to pilot, please ensure you know what you are buying. You may ask, doesn’t this additional coverage from AOPA’s carriers cost more? Quite frankly, and in probably 95 percent of the cases, no.

If you have a sublimit on your policy, read it carefully, or better yet, call AOPA Insurance. We welcome the opportunity to help—and if you want a sublimit, we’ll ensure you only get one that is “per passenger.”

Pilot Protection Service

Medically speaking

Special issuance can take time

By Gary Crump

Medicine is a conservative discipline, and regulatory civil aviation medicine is, too. The FAA’s medical certification policy goal is to allow medical certification for as many pilots as possible, as long as it can be done safely. For that to happen often takes time—and in some cases, a lot of time.

Special issuances for many of the complex and complicated medical cases seen by the FAA can take many months because of the amount of data required to assess the potential risk for incapacitation. That review process often involves a specialty consultant or one of the federal air surgeon’s consultant panels of physicians. The pathway to medical certification, then, is often long and costly, but the result is frequently a special issuance authorization for the happy pilot.

However, over the past several years an off-ramp to the special issuance medical certificate has evolved. Conditions AMEs Can Issue are medical conditions the FAA used to approve as special issuance conditions. Previous federal air surgeons, dating back 10 or more years, were (and still are) hounded by pilot advocates who complain about those long delays in making certification decisions and getting deferred medical applications and subsequent medical certificates into pilots’ hands. That probably won’t change in the foreseeable future because of federal regulatory process requirements, federal manpower in the FAA, and the complexity of those medical cases mentioned.

Fortunately, the FAA regulators are reasonably open minded and always looking to make processes and policies easier for pilots and the government to implement without compromising safety. The CACI program is the most recent iteration of relaxation of bureaucracy born from another special issuance abbreviation called the AME Assisted Special Issuance (AASI) that has been around for many years. The AASI allows an aviation medical examiner to reissue a previously granted special issuance authorization to pilots for several “lower risk” medical conditions. The CACI now takes that one step further, and takes some medical conditions from the special issuance category completely, allowing office issuance by the AME. The FAA is employing a common pilot tool, a checklist (or worksheet), with a list of requirements that the pilot obtains from the treating physician for these CACI conditions. If the worksheet has all the boxes checked in the right way, the AME can issue a normal-duration medical certificate to the pilot at the time of the examination.

Currently, there are 18 medical conditions included as CACIs. It’s a diverse group of conditions, too, from arthritis to breast cancer to migraine headaches to testicular cancer. Although the number of CACIs isn’t increasing quickly, it is increasing, and under the new FAR Part 68 medical regulations from which BasicMed was born, the FAA is charged with increasing the number of CACI conditions—so we can expect to see more of them coming, sometime in the future.

Gary Crump counsels members about medical certification through AOPA Pilot Protection Services. www.aopa.org/pps