"What the FAA did,” explains veteran pilot Richard McSpadden, “was suddenly decide --- and I do mean suddenly, not a word in the regulation changed --- they decided that now flight training would be classified under 'compensation for hire.'”
McSpadden, speaking on behalf of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Air Safety Institute, says that change is important because once a pilot is classified as “compensation for hire,” that requires a long to-do list that must be checked off and then approved by the same FAA.
In the history of the FAA, he says, flight instruction has never been interpreted that way and now comes a major rule change that dropped out of the sky and affects thousands of pilots.
McSpadden himself has logged more than 5,000 hours flying, beginning as a teenager.
When confronted about the new rule, the FAA announced would take two to three years for the federal agency to address the problem, a problem the FAA created.
"Over the last 25 years, we've dropped the fatal accident rate in general aviation by over 50%,” he tells American Family News, “and this year we set a record for aviation safety.”
2020 proved to be the safest year on record for pilots in the skies only for those pilots to witness the FAA introduce a bureaucratic rule that will remain in place for a long time.
Responding to the bureaucratic move, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) and Rep. Sam Graves (R-Missouri) have introduced legislation to push back on the FFA rule and defend pilots engaged in flight training.
