Part 117 & Scheduling: FAA Releases More Interpretations

The FAA has issued four new legal interpretations in response to independent requests to clarify the application of Part 117 to specific situations. These new interpretations address, among other things: checking of schedules during rest, fitness for duty certification, short-call reserve duty limits, flight-duty period (FDP) extensions, and split-duty assignments.

The McFadden interpretation clarifies that a contractual requirement to check a schedule terminates Part 117 rest at the time the contractual obligation begins, even if the schedule is not actually checked until later. That interpretation also clarifies that a “fitness for duty certification” made prior to learning of the need for an FDP extension is not “sufficient as a concurrence” in an extension because “a person cannot concur with something that he or she does not know about.” The FAA concluded the same rationale applied whether the extension needed was 30 minutes or less, or more than 30 minutes.

The Foltz interpretation provides that the short-call reserve duty limitations in 117.21(c) are not an exception to the FDP limits of 117.13 and 117.17 (Tables B & C). The FAA held that the reserve and FDP limits of both sections apply—and the more stringent limits will control. For example, an unaugmented reserve pilot who starts reserve duty at 0400 and accepts a five-segment FDP assignment beginning at 0530 will have more stringent duty limits under section 117.13 than under the reserve section, 117.21.

In a previous interpretation issued in the context of a pilot who was originally scheduled to fly additional legs, but had those legs canceled, the FAA determined that termination of an FDP requires an affirmative intent for no further aircraft movement which is “lacking when the certificate holder is unsure whether there will be another flight” by the same flightcrew member. The newly issued Anderson interpretation applies the earlier interpretation to a situation in which a pilot has completed all originally scheduled flight segments. The FAA concluded that “if a certificate holder does not have an affirmative intent for no further aircraft movement at the conclusion of a flightcrew member’s last-scheduled segment, then that flightcrew member’s FDP has not ended.”

The Borozenets interpretation provides that split duty may be assigned to pilots on airport standby reserve. The FAA concluded that although airport standby reserve counts as FDP under Part 117, 117.15(c)’s requirement that split-duty rest be scheduled before an FDP starts does not “become pertinent” until a flight assignment is made. The FAA found that so long as a reserve pilot knows prior to the first segment when the split duty rest is to be taken, the intent behind 117.15(c) is met.

If you have any questions about Part 117 interpretations, please contact ALPA’s Legal Department at Legal@alpa.org or 703-689-4326.