Small Airplane Revitalization Act

[rfinch]

Quoting an AOPA blurb:

Just as many were headed out of Washington, D.C., to begin the Thanksgiving holiday, the general aviation community found one more reason to be thankful as the long-awaited Small Airplane Revitalization Act (SARA) was signed into law Nov. 27.

The measure sets a Dec. 31, 2015, deadline for the FAA to reform and streamline Part 23 of the federal aviation regulations, which governs the certification of many new general aviation aircraft as well as affecting how modifications are made to older airplanes. The planned changes to Part 23 were designed to create “twice the safety at half the cost,” making it more affordable to make safety improvements to the existing fleet while reducing the cost of bringing innovative new designs to market.

Currently Dynon and similar makers of non-certificated avionics target the experimental aircraft market only.  My question is, will this new law allow Dynon and others to target the certificated aircraft market? If so, does Dynon know how much their products might have to change?

And most important to me, will this allow Dynon to sell a much cheaper legal-IFR Skyview for my experimental aircraft? I'd love to make my RV-9A IFR legal, but not at another $10K expense like now for a certified GPS that is inferior in use, capability, and display to the Dynon Skyview.

 

[Dynon]

The goal behind the law is in part to remove some of the cost burden in certifying avionics. The FAA's stated goal is to double safety while halving the costs in GA. A lofty goal, and one that will take a lot of work by both the FAA and industry before there's a more concrete road to take. We're very interested in where it goes though. In fact, we were actually on the Part 23 Advisory Rulemaking Commitee (ARC) that led up to the congressional mandate, and we're working on the ASTM committees that are developing the standards for The Future. As for any particular product plans - we don't have anything to discuss at the moment. But it's definitely an exciting time for all of GA, not just Dynon!

 

[cmarbach]

Why, may I ask is your Skyview NOT IFR legal? The Skyview itself should not be the problem, maybe you are referring to the GPS not being certified of IFR navigation?

 

[Dynon]

To be clear from our end, yes, you can absolutely use SkyView in an IFR-equipped aircraft in an experimental, for practically everything BUT GPS navigation. To use a GPS for legal IFR navigation, you do need an IFR-certified GPS providing the guidance.