The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently extended the deadline U.S. Part 91 operators to receive authorization for Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC), a technology that allows nonverbal communication between aircraft and air traffic control on non-emergency issues.
Part 91 operators are small, non-commercial aircraft. Operators who want to take advantage of a North Atlantic Track System track will still have a deadline and will have performance-based communications and surveillance standards.
The FAA said in December that current authorization would be given by March 29 to align with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s mandate on communication and surveillance standards.
The new FAA deadline is Sept. 30.
“This is a rapidly evolving process, and already we’ve seen many changes making the A056 (data link) authorization easier for operators to receive,” Brian Koester, National Business Aviation Association manager of operations, said. “For example, the FAA’s compliance guide has been updated to allow operators to demonstrate alternative means of compliance for their aircraft to meet the TSO C-160a standard through statements of compliance from the manufacturer or showing their aircraft is equipped with VDL M2 (tunable to multiple frequencies) that includes integrated avionics that allows flight crew to automatically load uplinked messages in to the flight management system.”