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CONTENTS

I. Background

II. The Current Regulatory and System Safety Environment for General Aviation

III. Emerging Changes in System Safety Philosophy

IV. The Impact of an Evolving NAS on General Aviation Flight Operations

V. A Modernized Approach to General Aviation Flight Training

VI. Obstacles to Improved Flight Training Policies and Procedures

VII. A New Approach to Training Standards Development and Application

VIII. A Strategy for Evolutionary but Responsive Change

I. BACKGROUND

General aviation constitutes the vast majority of the civil aircraft fleet in the United States and performs a variety of critical functions ranging from flight training for most pilots to medical evacuation and law enforcement. Increasingly, general aviation is also providing a viable air transportation complement to the air carrier “hub and spoke” system. Corporate aviation and on-demand air taxis have provided such service for some time and new forms of general aviation are expanding these alternatives.

General aviation safety has been improving continuously for nearly 25 years and accidents continue to decrease even as activity increases. It appears, however, that the fatal accident rate may have reached a plateau. The leading causes of general aviation fatal accidents are related to weather and loss of control. If general aviation growth becomes even more pronounced, a major challenge for the community will be to decrease accident rates to maintain and increase public acceptability of general aviation as a form of air travel.

Many new developments have taken place that will have a pronounced effect on general aviation flight operations and, consequently, general aviation training. The complexity of the airspace will increase as the NAS is modernized and the FAA’s Operational Evolution Plan (OEP) takes effect. These changes will be magnified as new cockpit