Enforcement

Since passage of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, responsibility for carrying out enforcement proce­dures for violations of the FARs has resided with the FAA. Enforcement options open to the FAA in any given case are normally dictated by consider­ations already well-established within the agency, and are generally handled either as administrative dispositions (warning notices and letters of correc­tion) or by certificate action (suspension or revo­cation). Occasionally, civil penalties are assessed in lieu of certificate action (historically against corporations or against working pilots where cer­tificate suspension is deemed too harsh).

Operations

The FAA is charged with the operation and main­tenance of a vast array of facilities and equipment within the aviation system. We will briefly review the major categories of FAA responsibility.

Air Traffic Control

The АТС system includes airport control tow­ers, air route traffic control centers (ARTCC), terminal radar approach control (TRACON), and flight service stations (FSS).

The FAA estimates that it will lose 10,291 controllers, or about 70 percent of the controller workforce, between 2006 and 2015 due to retire­ments. The large percentage loss is due to the unlawful PATCO strike in 1981, when President Reagan fired almost 11,000 controllers. From 1982 through 1991, the FAA hired an average of 2,655 controllers each year. These controllers will become eligible for retirement during the next decade.

In 1982, the FAA began a program of out­sourcing operation at a limited number of VFR towers. As of 2006, 231 towers in 46 states par­ticipate in the FAA’s Contract Tower Program.

In 2005, the FAA entered into a contract with Lockheed Martin to operate the 58 Flight Service Stations located in the contiguous United States.

Radio Aids to Navigation

These facilities include VORs, VORTACs, instrument landing systems (ILS), and micro­wave landing systems (MLS). The Global Positioning System (GPS) is operated by the Department of Defense, and Loran C is operated by the United States Coast Guard.

In 2003, the FA A inaugurated the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) as a precursor for a new and extremely accurate navigation system. WAAS augments, or enhances, the Global Posi­tioning System in order to provide the additional accuracy, integrity, and availability necessary for its use by the civilian aviation community. Previ­ously, GPS data were unable to provide naviga­tion capability for use in precision approaches. Through WAAS, precision approaches are con­ceivable for all 5,400 public use airports in the United States without local airport ground sup­port facilities.

WAAS is an integral part of the FAA plan to replace ground-based Navaids entirely with satellite-based navigation capability, thus elimi­nating VORs, VORTACs, ILS, and MLS. (See Chapter 35 for the Next Generation Air Trans­portation System plan.)

National Airports

The FAA no longer is responsible for the two major airports located in and near Washington, D. C., Reagan National and Dulles, since their operation has been assigned to the Washington Metropolitan Airport Authority.