My searches on federal websites found four petitions by universities seeking R-ATP authorization without a required part 141 ground school certificate.
The petitioners are, in alphabetical order: Eastern Michigan University, Jacksonville University, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and Purdue University.
Letters and documents filed by these universities seem to be routine. I will point out also that the Jacksonville petition included a copy of the university’s rejection letter from the FAA dated December 2013.
While the FAA is not currently accepting comments on these petitions, I would like to offer my encouragement. The FAA should authorize these universities as rapidly as possible, recognizing they are accredited institutions that offer 4-year degrees with aviation concentrations. This is the purpose and intent of the R-ATP program, after all.
Details and reference numbers are listed below, in chronological order.
Metropolitan State University of Denver
- Docket: FAA-2013-0743
- Petition Date: 9 August 2013
- Federal Register Publication: 13 September 2013
- Comments Due: 3 October 2013
- R-ATP Authorization: None
- Part 61 Exemption Status: Denied, 11 July 2014
Purdue University
- Docket: FAA-2013-0769
- Petition Date: 24 August 2013
- Federal Register Publication: 21 January 2014
- Comments Due: 31 January 2014
- R-ATP Authorization: 31 March 2014
- Part 61 Exemption Status: Granted, 8 July 2014
- Graduates Exempted: 1 January 2009 through 31 December 2016.
Eastern Michigan University
- Docket: FAA-2013-1042
- Petition Date: 20 November 2013
- Federal Register Publication: None
- Part 61 Exemption Status: Denied, 7 August 2015
- R-ATP Authorization: 13 July 2016
Jacksonville University
- Docket: FAA-2014-0064
- Petition Date: 28 January 2014
- Federal Register Publication: None
- Part 61 Exemption Status: Withdrawn, 1 September 2016
- R-ATP Authorization: 17 September 2016
Updates
Baylor University petitioned 28 April 2014 in docket FAA-2014-0300. Exemption denied 31 December 2014. R-ATP authorized 18 February 2016.
Chandler-Gilbert Community College petitioned 5 June 2014 in docket FAA-2014-0377. Exemption denied 10 November 2017.
Auburn University petitioned 12 September 2014 in docket FAA-2014-0716. Exemption granted 2 November 2015. Graduates Exempted: 1 August 2010 through 31 December 2016.
The above four Universities are well known for turning out great aviators that have been an asset to the aviation community. It is outrageous that graduates from these schools would need more flight experience than graduates from community colleges. If the FAA was to audit the commercial and instrument ground schools at these four excellent universities, I am sure they could not find justification to require 500 HOURS more flight experience needed to make these graduates better pilots than graduates of a ground school that were 141. The FAA gives an exam to become a commercial and instrument rated pilot often as part of these courses. I feel certain that students of the above four schools students did not score less than a school with a 1,000 exemption!
The FAA needs to rule soon because there are excellent pilots from these schools being passed over every day and these pilots will suffer in seniority for the rest of their careers for no good reason. The hiring boom has started and these graduates are being damaged over a lack of thought in giving this wavier.