04/01/2026
This came across my email today. This is legit. This requires urgent action or we may get blindsided with new rules.
No this is not an April fools joke.
The FAA has published the final report from its “141 Modernization” effort in a 471-page paper today that is now on the federal register at https://www.regulations.gov/comment/FAA-2024-2531-0293.
The document is posted as a comment from the National Flight Training Alliance (NFTA), which was the lead organization for the FAA to provide this document. This comment, posted by them, is not an official document from the FAA, but is being considered the official report submitted and being used to guide FAA regulatory changes for the 141 regulations. It is important to know that the changes here will affect ALL training providers because limitations on what can be provided under part 61 are also proposed as some of the changes.
While there is good work that has been done in this report with input from industry representatives and participants, there are also a number of potential concerns, issues, workarounds, carve-outs for special interests, and attempts to turn our pilot training process away from external validation through entities such as DPEs by pushing internal self-examining authority in many places. There is also potential to cut down the total experience requirements required to enter into airline service below the current R-ATP minimums for “qualifying training providers”.
The FAA has done something very abnormal here; it has offered only a 10 DAY COMMENT PERIOD on this report, with the window closing on April 10th, 2026. This diverges from standard practices where regulatory comment periods are 30, 60, or even more days for impactful changes. This should certainly apply to what is being proposed here.
I am attaching the final document to this email, and asking that you and others in the training industry review this content and provide real, detailed review and comments on what is being proposed. But I know this will take time.
In the interim, I am asking you to do something very critical, today or tomorrow.
Please enter a request in the comments for this effort to extend the comment period.
That might look like this:
“In consideration of the impactful nature of the proposed changes to flight training regulations under the report as proposed by the National Flight Training Alliance on April 1, 2026, and the fact that the document is 471 pages long, I formally request that the comment period for Docket ID FAA-2024-2531 be extended for a minimum of 60 days to allow meaningful review of the content and comment from the aviation training industry. The FAA's allowing only a 10-day comment period is a significant divergence from standard regulatory comment period practices and is not in line with the importance of the content being proposed in this case.”
Comments can be posted here:
https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FAA-2024-2531-0280
I sincerely appreciate any help you may be able to offer as many commenters to this fact as possible to push the FAA to allow an appropriate review of the proposals offered.
I also offer that if you are inclined, forwarding a similar request to your local representatives in the U.S. House and Senate would be warranted, asking for them to step in and request additional time from their offices.
Your help is appreciated,
–Jason Blair
