Summit Aviation Blog – Federal Aviation Regulations

Here are the titles of documents that have been modified in the last two weeks:

New or Updated Publications:

1. Airworthiness Directives and associated AD Preambles. Updated through June 19, 2010.
2. 2 AC 20-140A, Guidelines for Design Approval of Aircraft Data Link Communication Systems Supporting Air Traffic Services (ATS), dated 4/7/10.
3. AC 20-142, Eligibility and Evaluation of U.S. Military Surplus Flight Safety Critical Aircraft Parts, Engines, and Propellers, dated 2/25/00.
4. AC 21-42, Transition Document for 14 CFR Parts 1, 21, 43, and 45, dated 10/16/09.
5. AC 33-7A, Guidance for 30-second and 2-minute One-Engine-Inoperative (OEI) Ratings for Rotorcraft Turbine 111 Engines, dated 6/11/09.
6. AC 45-2D, Application for U.S. Airworthiness Certificate, FAA Form 8130-6, dated 10/16/09.
7. AC 150/5300-13, Airport Design. Incorporated Change 15, dated 12/31/09.
8. AC 150/5345-54B, Specification for L-884, Power and Control Unit for Land and Hold Short Lighting Systems, dated 9/30/2009.
9. AC 150/5380-9, Guidelines and Procedures for Measuring Airfield Pavement Roughness, dated 9/30/2009.
10. SAFO – Safety Alert for Operators. Added new SAFOs.
11. TSO-C196, Airborne Supplemental Navigation Sensors for Global Positioning System Equipment Using Aircraft-Based Augmentation, dated 9/21/09.

Need more than just the titles?

It can be simple to make sure you’re in compliance with all FAA Regs AND MORE at all times with

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The Summit Aviation Digital Reference Library
a series of FAA regulation updates conveniently captured on DVD and automatically sent to you as often as every two weeks.

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• More than just the regs! The Digital Reference Library contains thousands of regulations, documents and publications indexed with the award-winning Folio search engine and our exclusive Query Wizard. Look it up in seconds, make decisions faster, and sleep better at night!
• You can look up any word, number or phrase to be sure you’re in compliance, without spending hours at the office or hiring additional people to do research.
• You can add bookmarks, highlighters and notes to any publication, annotating topics that interest you, and create your own collections of just the publications you use most. All of these customizations will remain active even as you install new issues.
• A new, complete DVD will be sent to you as often as every two weeks. Each new issue includes a “What’s New” feature to show you exactly what has changed or been added since the previous update. (In addition, you’ll see all changes in context, since they’re integrated and annotated.)

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Life in aviation without the Summit Aviation Reference Library would scarcely be worth living. For over 10 years the library has been my single most important resource. Even the FAA salivates when they see how fast we can do research! Thanks much for a great product.
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Joshua Weinshank
Director of Operations Xtra Airways

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Here’s What You Get With Your Order:

Each DVD includes a complete, comprehensive and current collection of FAA publications, and other regulations pertinent to aviation:

• The Federal Aviation Regulations, (FARs) (14CFR Parts 1-1199)
• Air Commerce (19CFR Part 122), EPA (40 CFR Part 87), FCC (47 CFR part 87), selected parts of 49 CFR (HAZMAT, NTSB and TSA).
• Over 750 Advisory Circulars
• A complete Airworthiness Directives library (over 16,000  all ADS since 1941)
• Dozens of FAA Orders  including the massive Order 8900.1 (FSIMS)
• Many FAA Forms
• Hundreds of Legal Interpretations.

Long ago, we gave up counting the equivalent number of hardcopy pages involved, but years ago it totaled over 35,000 – there are nearly 5,000 pages in Order 8900.1 alone.

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Click here for Subscription Options.

Summit Aviation has been in business 20 years.  When people hear that, they ask us a lot of questions.  We thought we’d share some of the answers here.

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How Did Summit Aviation Get Started?

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In 1990, Jon decided to pursue his life-long desire to learn to fly and, of course, the first step was to by the latest FAR/AIM book and begin studying.
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He immediately noticed that there was no index in the book and only a basic table of contents. Being a serious student, that was a frustration.

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About this same time we became familiar with a word search program called Word Cruncher that indexed and searched every word and number in the scriptures and it caused him to think,

“Wouldn’t it be great if we could combine this software with these regulations and the AIM?”

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Note - back then it was called the Airman’s Information Manual – some women in aviation pointed out that not only men were pilots and had were able to have it changed to Aeronautical Information Manual – but that’s another story.)

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A quick phone call confirmed that we could indeed license the software, but it was much more difficult to find out if the regulations were available electronically from the government.

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It was pretty much out of the question to type almost a 1000 pages of regulatory material! In a day when virtually ever thing we want is available electronically, it stretches the imagination that we had to make several phone calls to various government agencies and ask precisely the right question before we found out that yes, they were available – on 9 track tape! At that was the beginning of Summit Aviation.

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And by the way, ironically, due to beginning a new business, it was several more years before Jon could actually begin his flying lessons!

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What’s kept us in business for 20 years is the fact that our Digital Reference Library is relied upon by many, many aviation companies, and have been there for them through many changes in the industry, and in regulations.  We enjoy working in an industry where people are resourceful and find ways to get things done.

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See for yourself what’s kept us in business for 20 years!  Try the Summit Aviation Digital Reference Library in your business. If you don’t agree that it’s worth every penny, we’ll refund your purchase price.

2009 was a year of big changes in aviation regulations!
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Incidents in the news often result in changes to FAA, TSA, EPA and other regulations. And there was no shortage of incidents in 2009!

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Here’s a quick rundown of the numbers:

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• 505 changes in the FARs
  (Federal Aviation Regulations)
• 8 changes in 19 CFR
  (Code of Federal Regulations)
• 232 changes in 49 CFR
  (Code of Federal Regulations)
• 120 changes in the AIM
  (Aeronautical Information Manual – Formerly Airman’s Information Manual)
• 21 changes in the PCG
  (Pilot/Controller Glossary)
• 435 changes in the ADS
  (Airworthiness Directives)
• 381 changes in the Orders
  (Technical Standard Orders, Miscellaneous Orders, etc.)

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After reading this list, you may be thinking about which legal publications you will need to purchase this year.  Why not consider instead a subscription to the Summit Aviation Digital Reference Library?

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• Unlike a book, you don’t lose your bookmarks, highlights and favorites.
• Unlike a book, the Library is continuously updated. (You get a complete new DVD as often as every two weeks.)
• Unlike a book, the Library includes a “what’s new” section and annotates the original documents.
• Unlike a book, the Library allows you to search for any particular word, phrase or number in seconds.

I love books as much as the next person. You can carry a book on the bus, read it in the bathtub, mark it with highlighters and stick tabs and bookmarks into it. You can even fold down the pages.
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As much as we may love books, the Digital Reference Library is a much more practical (and green!) method for aviation professionals to research FAA reference materials.
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Did you know that on paper, the Summit Aviation Digital Reference Library would require hundreds of thousands of pages and overflow a bookcase fifteen feet wide and five feet high?
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Most of the volumes on the shelves of that bookcase would need to be replaced frequently – although often newly printed publications are only released once a year, the documents within them can change on any working day.
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So, maintaining this physical aviation library would require printing thousands of documents a year, finding the right place in these books, and pasting in the changes daily, and throwing away phone-book sized volumes and replacing them frequently.
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Summit Aviation’s Digital Reference Library allows you to do most of the same things with the digital versions of documents that we like to do with books – We mark books with highlighters, sticky tabs and bookmarks into it and fold down the pages. Unfortunately, all that goes away when next year’s book comes out and we have to buy a new one. Unlike a physical book, when you highlight and bookmark sections and paragraphs in your Digital Reference Library, your highlights and bookmarks will stay where you put them forever, even when you get the updated version twice a month!
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Besides that, you can search the contents in a flash, you can cut and paste parts into other documents or emails, and you can carry this whole bookshelf with you in your ever-diminishing carry-on luggage, and use it anywhere you find a PC.
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So, probably the only thing you CAN’T do with it is read in the bathtub. (You could, but laptop computers are expensive and really hate water.)

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The Digital Reference Library offers two alternatives for installation. You can install it on the hard drive of your computer, or you can run it from the DVD.

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In either case, the Digital Reference Library installation creates a small file on your computer that stores your highlighters, notes, bookmarks and custom collections. This means that all of your preferences will be there for you when you install a new update.

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This video is designed to get you comfortable using the Digital Reference Library in the shortest amount of time.
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If you’re not able to view flash videos, you can see the text version here.
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Video – Why Should I Buy the Digital Reference Library when Most FAA Publications Are Available for Free?

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Just because something is “free” doesn’t mean it’s not costly – in terms of time and efficiency.
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In this demo, we explain how our software actually saves you money. We show you some of the publications in our Library and demonstrate some basic searching and organizing options.

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This is just a quick example of how the Digital Reference Library can save you time, and therefore, money. The best way to find out for yourself is to try it in your business. We offer a full refund of your purchase price if you’re not completely satisfied.

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