The FAA does not charge a fee for
certification of part 135 operators, but it is a slow and
tedious process and they have never handled the volume of
applications expected in the next few years. There may be
many possible solutions such as creating one or a number
of umbrella operations under which small partnership owner
operators could function. This would reduce the number of
applications the FAA must process but would make small
partnership operators subject to a higher organizational
structure. Advantages of this structure would be: Better
availability, Centralized control and shared risk.
Some of these advantages could be viewed as disadvantages.
Read through
this article by the Flight
Safety Foundation to get a sense for the kinds of issues an air
taxi or air charter company must deal with to pass an
audit. The two major players in aircraft auditing
are: www.aviationresearch.com
and www.wyvernltd.com.
Certification
Requirements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Precursor to
A008 - Notice
8400.83 - 6-10-06:
Operators seeking guidance on FAA inspections can refer to the
inspector handbooks, located in the Flight Standards Information
Management System (FSIMS). Airworthiness Inspector's Handbook (FAA
Order 8300.10), Air Carrier Operations Inspector's Handbook (FAA
Order 8400.10) and General Aviation Operations Inspector's Handbook
(FAA Order 8700.1) all were cancelled, and the information was
consolidated into FAA Order 8900.1. More
Info
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Information about Operational
Control published by FAA: Operations
Specification para A008
Operational
Control - Why are we here? - published by FAA
Excerpt from the document
above:
Cultural Change
-A008 is just a set of words (legal words, but just
words)
-What we are looking for is a cultural change (in response to
those words)
>
Certificate holder to establish and maintain absolute operational
control.
>
The customer makes requests for air transportation
service.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The
issues discussed in recent operational control notices surfaced
after the Darby Aviation/Platinum Jet Challenger
600 accident at Teterboro, N.J., in February
2005.
NTSB
report
More
accident reports
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Certification
information for operating under part
135.
How to get a
certificate
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
FAA - Automated Operations Specifications Subsystem (OPSS)
- This may help you understand what goes into an Operations
Specifications.
The FAA
indicated that a special
emphasis inspection program for operational
control will occur in the third and fourth quarters of Fiscal
Year 2007
(April -
September 2007).
Why did AMI
lose its certificate?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Assistance for gaining
certification
There are some companies that specialize in part
135 certification assistance. Taxijet is not affiliated with any of these services. We
make this information available to help Small Partnership Owner
Operators find more information about this important topic.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.aviationit.com/
www.135cert.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
www.charternovice.com -
focusses on the certification of the cirrus design for an air taxi
aircraft.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NBAA
Operational Control Checklist
NBAA
- FSDO relationships
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Practical advice about gaining
certification
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
process of
certification
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am a 40+ year aviation veteran and owner of a FBO,
Flight School, Aircraft Maintenance Facility and FAA Part
135 Certificate in the Atlanta Metro area. I have served as CEO,
COO, Senior VP of Operations, acting D.O., Director of
Safety/Security as well as Check Airman for the Major
Airlines including Delta, Transmeridian, and America West
as well as under Part 135 operations. I would be
interested in contracting with your company to provide your
franchisees flight operations, pilot training, maintenance
operations, dispatch, and Part FAA 135 consulting and
compliance nationwide. We would be interested in discussing
a turn-key package which would allow your franchisees
flexibility in choosing how much or how little they would want
hands-on participation in their Part 135
operation.
I would be glad to contract with you or individually
with your owners as part of the franchise package to assist
your owners in obtaining their FAA Part 135 Certification.
As you may know FAA Certification is a very time consuming
and costly process and requires a lot of expertise.
Obtaining Certification is only part of the process
however. The operations aspects of Part 135 are extremely
complex and can offer many pitfalls to the "experienced"
operator, and considerably more exposure to the
"unexperienced". I recommend that you carefully
consider franchise investors who are hands on in regard to
the marketing side and letting a single experienced FAA
Part 135 operator handle the FAA Part 135 operations of the
entire fleet. Our company can contract to do the
whole operation turn-key on a per unit basis from aircraft
conformity, pilot training and certification, maintenance,
fuel, FAA compliance, aircraft storage, etc.
Conformity inspection can be done for $3000 per aircraft,
Pilot training for about $6500 per pilot annually, Aircraft
storage at $650 per unit, and monthly FAA Compliance
management for $2000 per unit. We can provide aircraft
crew, maintenance, and fuel for $350 per flight hour
assuming an average retail fuel price of $3.50 per
gallon. The owner provides the aircraft and
insurance. We provide everything else turnkey.
The owner keeps all revenue produced less our hourly
operating cost and $2650 per month management and hangar
monthly fees. The conformity inspection fee is a one time
charge and paid upon agreement signing along with the pilot
first year training fees and first month management/hangar
fee. Proof of insurance must be shown to the FAA prior to
aircraft Conformity Inspection. We believe
your owners will greatly reduce their investment and
operating cost and greatly increase their chance of success
with our plan.
Best Regards,
Bob Riddell
Robert
(Bob) J. Riddell, Sr.
President/General
Manager
Dixie Jet Service, Inc. (FBO)
APS
Aerial Photography & Surveillance Co. (d/b/a AvJets Air Charter
International)
A.I.R. Flight
Academy
Maintenance-Georgia Flight Services,
Inc.
customerservice@avjets.net
http://www.avjetsaircharter.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I operate a company that
has specialized in FAR 135 certifications for over twenty five
years. I have recently become involved in the preparations for VLJ
operations, and would like to offer any assistance you may need to
facilitate these start-up air carrier operations.
There are many ways to
approach the process of applying for an air carrier certificate, but
many of the available options involve high risk of delay or failure
to obtain certification. It is very worthwhile to have access to
experienced professional people before, during and after applying
for and or obtaining a FAR 135 certificate.
I wish you much success
with your efforts in ramping up for the much-anticipated arrival of
the first VLJs, and look forward to the possibility of talking with
you in the months ahead.
I
wholeheartedly agree with your observations, and with your concerns
about the regulatory compliance process. As both a pilot and lawyer
(who does not practice in the traditional sense, but has many years
experience in the regulatory compliance and litigation support
arenas) I believe I can bring several decades of successful DOT and
FAA (and now, TSA) certifications to benefit new FAR 135 on demand
operations.
The
certification process can be daunting, and it’s not getting any
easier, but on the other hand, there is no point in “reinventing the
wheel” or going it alone, when there is qualified, experienced help
available.
I
completely agree with the concept of initiating the services under
the umbrella concept, and spinning off the entities onto their own
certificates once the process is complete, the equipment and
necessary FAR 119 personnel in place, and the local FSDO satisfied
in all respects. I would be happy to create the documents and
replicate the model into the turn-key solution you
desire.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have expertise in assisting operators in
gaining certification please send us an email so we can share your
information with prospective small owner operator teams.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Florida has incentive programs to assist businesses forming in
certain areas. Check out www.eflorida.com for more
information about their programs. You may be able to gain tax
incentives or rebates if you meet certain criteria. Some of
the criteria are:
1. Produce
10 jobs or
more.
2. Locate
your new business in certain areas (many airports are on their
list)
3. DON'T PRE-ANNOUNCE - If you
have already announced that you will base your operation somewhere
you are no longer qualified for the incentives. Be sure to
find out what incentives are available BEFORE you announce your
intentions to base your business anywhere.
Texas also has similar incentives.
Each state has their own rules about incentives to new
businesses. We'll try to get links for each state to show you
where to look for incentives but in the mean time you can find
them by asking the local chamber of commerce to point you in the
right direction.
If you know of the right web address for your state please email
it to info@taxijet.com and we
will post the link here.
