Mark J Kolber Attorney at Law

04/11/2025

Talking about aviation legal issues...

Learn more: https://pilotworkshop.com/products/pilots-legal-guide-pfm/Flying comes with freedom—and responsibility. Join aviation attorney and CFI, Mark Kolb...

05/12/2024

Recognizing that applications for Part 135 certification face a significant backlog, the FAA requesting comments to expand the Designee program to add Part 135 certification tasks. Comment period closes February 3, 2025.

In today's (12/5/2024) Federal Register.

27/09/2024

On September 25, 2024, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals published a decision which discusses illegal charter operations. It reaffirms that "holding out" can be based on reputation alone, that "compensation" does not mean "profit," and that the pilot not knowing the company they work for is setting up improper flights is not a defense. Bonnet v. FAA may be read here.
https://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/sites/ca1/files/opnfiles/23-2094P-01A.pdf

Send a message to learn more

07/09/2023

Doing a program on illegal charter operations.
https://www.faasafety.gov/SPANS/event_details.aspx?eid=124049

14/07/2023

DOT Inspector General Report on FAA handling of mental health issues. Good procedures in place, but opportunities exist to further mitigate safety risks.
Summary: "FAA's ability to mitigate safety risks is limited by pilots' reluctance to disclose mental health conditions. According to FAA and aviation industry organization officials, primary factors that discourage pilots from reporting their mental health conditions are the stigma associated with mental health, potential impact on their careers, and fear of financial hardship. Addressing these barriers is critical for FAA to mitigate potential aviation safety risks."

The full report here:

30/12/2022

FAA Aircraft Registry update:
"The FAA Registry is now offering limited online aircraft registration services here. Individual aircraft owners can complete self-guided aircraft registration applications, upload legal and supplemental documents, receive auto-generated notification, request aircraft registration N- Numbers, use modernized online payment options, receive instant notification of payment, and digitally sign Aircraft Registration Applications. Services will be continuously improved. "

I browsed around. I'm sure there will be rollout issues but the project will have benefits. Once can even look up an aircraft's registration and airworthiness history (see photo), something that otherwise requires ordering a CD.

Access the new web page at

10/12/2022

Making the ACS Regulatory

The FAA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the December 12, 2022 Federal Register. The Proposed Rule is to make the PTS/ACS "regulatory." While they have (almost) always been treated as regulatory, they technically are not. Since their inception, there have periodically been arguments raised that they do not always have to be followed. At least one has been successful.

The Proposed Rule would add a new FAR 61.14. As proposed, it incorporates the testing standards into the FAA regulations by reference. Several other certification and currency rules would also be amended for consistency.

The Proposed Rule may be viewed at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2022-12-12/pdf/2022-26762.pdf. The comment period ends January 11, 2023.

22/11/2022

BasicMed and Safety Pilots

As many already know, the BasicMed Congressional legistlation created an anomaly. As originally created, BasicMed only applies to pilots acting as PIC. That meant one could only act as a 91.109 safety pilot under BasicMed when in command of the flight but needed a third class medical if they were *not* in command.

Informally announced earlier this week, the FAA published a Final Rule on November 22, 2022 to correct this. As of December 22, 2022, "A private pilot may act as pilot in command **or serve as a required flightcrew member** of an aircraft..." under BasicMed.

The fix was part of a larger amendment which increased the medical requirements for commercial balloon pilots who, as of May 23, 2023, will need a second class medical.

The full text of the rule can be read at

Due to aggressive automated scraping of FederalRegister.gov and eCFR.gov, programmatic access to these sites is limited to access to our extensive developer APIs.

22/11/2022

Aircraft Registrations Extended

On November 22, 2022, the FAA published a Direct Final Rule which changes the current 3-year aircraft registration expiration to seven years. Absent a substantial objection, it goes into effect January 23, 2023. It will apply to all registrations valid in January, whether issued before or after the effective date. For example, if your registration was issued in March 2020 and expires March 2023, the expiration date is automatically extended to March 2027. You do not have to obtain a replacement registration, but those who travel out of the country may want to avoid validity questions by requesting an updated duplicate.

Also going away are the 90-day extensions of temporary registrations which have become ubiquitous due to delays at the FAA Registry. Instead, your temporary registration (the copy of your application) is valid for 12 months.

The rule can be viewed in today's Federal Register.

Due to aggressive automated scraping of FederalRegister.gov and eCFR.gov, programmatic access to these sites is limited to access to our extensive developer APIs.

07/11/2022

Yesterday I played the role of the presiding judge in a round of a mock trial competition. Some of you may be familiar with the program. The American Mock Trial Association is the governing body of an annual collegiate mock trial competition. It's not just for potential lawyers. Both lawyers and witnesses are also scored on the quality of their presentation. So we get a fair share of budding actors as well. One witness in the round I heard, a simple fact witness, created the backstory of being of a fortune teller. The competition also attracts students who find this more valuable for developing certain skills than debating teams.

So, what's the aviation connection?

Well, this year's case is Felder v. Koller Campbell Air, LLC. It's a wrongful death case brought by a surviving spouse. In the scenario, Morgan Felder joined VFR-only private pilot Reese Campbell (one of the owners of Koller Campbell Air) for an evening flight over a lake. The airplane ended up crashing into a nearby mountain, killing both pilot and passenger. The primary issue as presented by the teams in the round I judged, was whether the accident was caused by Reese flying in deteriorating weather conditions or by a catastrophic engine failure.

It was fun watching the teams deal with the aviation issues. None of them (not even the "experts") were pilots so there were gaps even a newbie private pilot could fill in but an excellent job overall. I was particularly impressed with an argument between the attorneys about the scope of the NTSB report exclusionary rule.

Best witness was D.B. Gelfand, a show pilot, who testified for the plaintiff that Reese made bad weather decisions which led to the crash. The student who played the role came complete with flight suit and the swagger of the self-styled greatest pilot and remained in character throughout.