via NAAA
It is no secret that applicants for Part 137 Certification have been subject to long wait times for the processing of their application. This is, however, not unique to Part 137.
Until this year, certification applicants were added to the Certification Services Oversight Process (CSOP) National Applicant List as soon as the FSDO received their application. In short, they were put in line to await available FAA personnel/resources to process their application.
Early this year, FAA issued Notice 8900.687, noting an increased trend of certification applicants who were not ready to begin the initial certification process, typically due to a lack of prerequisite paperwork. These unprepared applicants have tied up FAA resources, slowing down the process for all.
A new process has been initiated by FAA, seeking to remedy this situation. An Applicant Readiness Checklist has been created, outlining all required items to submit to (and be accepted by) the FSDO before an applicant is placed on the CSOP National Applicant List.
In an additional effort to alleviate FSDO personnel workload and reduce wait times for applicants, FAA has charged industry organizations and associations, like NAAA, with providing education to applicants on what is needed for a successful initial certification process.
NAAA recently released a new guide, Starting a Part 137 Operation, which serves this function and provides prospective operators with a more comprehensive overview of the Part 137 certification process. This guide also covers some of the murkier topics specific to Part 137, such as Chief Supervisor vs. Pilot-In-Command Knowledge & Skills and adding additional aircraft to an operator’s Letter of Authorization (LOA) A003.
Prospective and Current Part 137 operators will also be interested in the new guide for its list of Part-137-specific titles of the Flight Standards Informational Management System (FSIMS), essentially the Aviation Safety Inspector’s handbook on certification, airworthiness, Knowledge & Skills and Surveillance. It can be quite handy, when in a debate with your FSDO over an issue, to point them to their own guidance for an answer.
The new guide, Starting a Part 137 Operation, can be found in the Career page of the NAAA website, or directly linked here.
