On Dec 30, 6:38*pm, Mike Schumann
wrote:
On 12/29/2010 6:20 PM, ContestID67 wrote:





Maybe this has come up before, if so I appologize. *I know that we
have had a thread on the need for an airport to have an FCC license.
This came up when one of the gliderports was fined for having an
expired license. *This was useful, and timely, information for other
glider ports.

So there are now two followup questions;

- Does an FCC license for your airport cover the use of handhelds for
ground operations such as talking to the winch operator, the wing
runner to the guy logging flights on the "board", telling the guy on
the mower that someone is landing, etc? *I would think that if the
communications are operationally necessary, the answer is no a license
is not required.

- Is an FCC license needed by myself when I am flying my glider? *I
have been told no, but heard some conflicting information which was
more related to corporate pilots.

Can someone quote chapter and verse?

Thanks, John

This is an area where the SSA could be very helpful. *The current FCC
rules, the way I understand them, exempts radios that are used in
aircraft (permanently installed and portables) from requiring a license.
* All other radios need to be licensed.

One problem is that the license system for ground based aeronautical
radios assumes that the radio is going to be used at a single location,
so that the license specifies a particular frequency to be used (usually
the CATF frequency).

There doesn't seem to be any provision for licensing a portable radio
for use by a retrieve crew, where the crew would alternately use 123.3
or whatever local CATF frequency is appropriate for a remote airport
that the glider may be landing at.

There seems to be a mechanism in the FCC rules to get radios licensed
that don't fit into the standard FCC regulatory framework. *The SSA
should take advantage of this to get a blanket license for all SSA
members using ground based radios.

Not only would that solve a legal black hole that probably affects the
majority of glider pilots at some point or other, but it would also
provide a powerful incentive for people to become SSA members, so they
can be covered by the blanket license.

--
Mike Schumann- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I'm not aware of someone in the SSA structure that is well versed in
this. Perhaps you could volunteer your
expertise. Steve Northcraft and Cindy Brickner do a lot on the FAA
side and no doubt would be happy for help
on something like this.
Happy New Year
UH