FAR Revisions to Fix the “LODA Problem”

The FAA has published a glut of rule changes affecting CFR Part 1, 11, 61 and 91 regulations that affect, among other things, pilot privileges across a wide range of activities. But for owners of Experimental/Amateur-Built aircraft, the best news is the rescinding of the so-called LODA rule. Recall that in 2021, the FAA changed its stance on owners getting flight instruction in their own homebuilts, which resulted in the need for a “letter of deviation authority.” The FAA, to its credit, quickly came up with a system to issue LODAs to owners and flight instructors, but the underlying requirement flew in the face of precedent.

The FAA takes this explanation further in today’s ruling published in the Federal Register and to become effective December 2, 2024. “Previously, §§ 91.315, 91.319, and 91.325 generally prohibited flight training, checking, and testing when compensation is provided. In 2020, the FAA issued Warbird Adventures, Inc. an emergency cease and desist order restricting the operation of aircraft that held special airworthiness certificates carrying people for compensation or hire.  The operator brought a petition for review of the emergency order before the court. On April 2, 2021, the court dismissed the petition for review of the cease and desist order.  Following the court’s dismissal, several aviation industry groups sought clarification from the FAA on how the decision affected flight training in experimental aircraft since the prohibitory language of § 91.315 for limited category aircraft is the same as that in § 91.319 for experimental aircraft (notably, the same prohibitory language exists in § 91.325 for primary category aircraft). As a result of this court case, in the NPRM, the FAA proposed to clarify prohibitory language and to explicitly enable flight training, checking, and testing under certain conditions in aircraft holding special airworthiness certificates.”

That clarification is here. The new rules include a “self-implementing provision that amended the operating rules to permit certain flight training, testing, and checking in experimental aircraft without a letter of deviation authority (LODA). Likewise, section 814 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 (Pub. L. 118-63) directed that, under certain conditions, flight training, testing, and checking in limited, experimental, and primary category aircraft do not require a LODA from the FAA. The NPRM proposed to modify §§ 91.315, 91.319, and 91.325 to clarify prohibited operations, as well as direct stakeholders to a newly proposed regulation, § 91.326, that provided instruction on conducting certain operations for compensation or hire.” Incidentally, since the rules are not yet in force, you will not find a copy of FAR 91.325 online.

Finally, there is some cleanup work around ELSAs. “Lastly, on October 24, 2018, the FAA published an NPRM titled ‘Removal of the Date Restriction for Flight Training in Experimental Light Sport Aircraft.’  For the reasons provided in the document withdrawing the ‘Removal of the Date Restriction for Flight Training in Experimental Light Sport Aircraft’ NPRM, the FAA withdrew the NPRM and, instead, developed this rule to resolve the discrepancy more broadly for all experimental aircraft.” Meaning ELSAs are to be lumped in with other Experimentals in this category.