FAA to Modify Rules for Use of Surface Moving Maps

FAA Administrator Marion Blakey announced that the FAA is going to modify its rules for using cockpit moving maps that display the aircraft's GPS location on an airport.

In a March 23^rd statement, Administrator Blakely said that while some new aircraft already provide this function, others could now use devices such as an EFB (electronic flight bag) to navigate on the ground.

While noting that, "We've had standards for a device like this in place for four years.... [but those] standards anticipated use of this technology on the ground and in the air," and since inflight navigation has more rigorous requirements the certification process was too expensive. "The application I'm talking about today is for use only on the airport surface," Ms. Blakey said. "With this limitation, our certification engineers are satisfied that this device is ready.  I'll say it plainly: it needs to be in the cockpit."

The FAA says this move could reduce the cost of surface navigation by roughly 90 percent, down to somewhere around $20,000 per device.

Agency officials said new policies for certifying the systems should be in place by late April.  03-26-2007.

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