Yesterday, after Senate enactment last week, the House of Representative enacted the FAA reauthorization bill, H.R. 3935. The bill is now headed to President Biden’s desk for signature, which is expected to be completed no later than tomorrow. NAAA is pleased to announce, after much advocacy over the past two years to influence the bill to protect manned ag aircraft in low-altitude airspace, it has secured that FAA ensure the safety of low-altitude manned aircraft from drones, or uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) operating beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). In addition, the NAAA also secured language in the bill that within a year the FAA promulgate the marking and logging of towers in rural areas between 50-200 feet with a width of 10 feet or less—a provision that was included, again, from NAAA advocacy. That same timeline for the FAA to promulgate the tower marking and logging provisions was included back in the 2016 FAA Reauthorization Extension bill. The tower marking language in the agreed upon FAA Reauthorization reads as follows:
SEC. 355. TOWER MARKING NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULE MAKING.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall issue a notice of proposed rulemaking to implement section 2110 of the FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016 (49 U.S.C. 44718 note). (b) REPORT.—If the Administrator fails to issue the notice of proposed rulemaking pursuant to subsection (a), the Administrator shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress an annual report on the status of such rulemaking, including—(1) the reasons that the Administrator has failed to issue the rulemaking; and (2) a list of fatal aircraft accidents associated with unmarked towers that have occurred during the 5-year period preceding the date of submission of the report.
Last week during a meeting with FAA Deputy Administrator Kathryn Thomson, NAAA was informed that the FAA hopes to have the proposed marking and logging of towers out for comment by as early as this summer.
Last week at Ag on the Mall, NAAA CEO Andrew Moore provided Deputy Admin. Thomson with a photo and article showing an ag pilot's difficulty seeing unmarked towers while flying.
The protections of low-altitude airspace for manned aircraft from UAS operating BVLOS in the agreed upon reauthorization reads as follow:
§ 44811. Beyond visual line of sight operations for unmanned aircraft systems
(a) PROPOSED RULE.—Not later than 4 months after the date of enactment of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, the Administrator shall issue a notice of proposed rulemaking establishing a performance-based regulatory pathway for unmanned aircraft systems (in this section referred to as ‘UAS’) to operate beyond visual line of sight (in this section referred to as ‘BVLOS’).
(b) REQUIREMENTS.—The proposed rule required under subsection (a) shall, at a minimum, establish the following: (6) The safety of manned aircraft operating in the national airspace system and consider the maneuverability and technology limitations of certain aircraft, including hot air balloons.
(c) FINAL RULE.—Not later than 16 months after publishing the proposed rule under subsection (a), the Administrator shall issue a final rule based on such proposed rule.
NAAA wishes to thank Congressman Sam Graves (R-MO), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that has jurisdiction over the House bill, and Congressman Bruce Westerman (R-AR) and Rick Crawford (R-AR) for their hard work in ensuring these protections to manned aircraft were included in this bill, and to Senator John Thune (R-SD) for his work to include similar protections in the Senate.
