Aircraft Licensing
When licensing your aircraft, there are two things to
consider.
First item is the aircraft itself. Aircraft radio
systems include all types of radio transmitting equipment
used aboard an aircraft, including two-way radiotelephones,
radar, radionavigation equipment, and emergency locator
transmitters (ELTs). The primary purpose of aircraft
radio equipment is to ensure safety of aircraft in flight.
An Aircraft license authorizes this equipment.
The second item is the pilot.
If you are making trips outside of the United States and its
protectorates, you will need to obtain a
Restricted Radiotelephone
Operator permit. This is not
required if you are only flying domestically.
Requisites for obtaining an operator's permit are:
The pilot must be able to hear and talk.
The pilot must be a US citizen or must hold
a pilot certificate from the Federal Aviation Authority
(FAA) or must hold an FCC radio license in
another radio service.
If a pilot is not a citizen, a non-resident alien may be
still licensed if they can provide an FAA pilot license
or can provide a valid pilot license from
another country that has reciprocal agreements with the
United States or if they can provide a copy
of their FCC license in another radio service.
RLS can assist you in obtaining both of these licenses.
Contact us for more information.
Unacceptable Aircraft Radios
Since January 1, 1997, every VHF aircraft radio used on a
U.S. aircraft must be type-accepted by the FCC as meeting a
30 parts-per-million (ppm) frequency tolerance. The
vast majority of aircraft radios that have been
type-accepted under the 30 ppm frequency tolerance utilize
25 kHz spacing and have 720 or 760 channels. Every
aircraft radio should have a label with an FCC ID number on
the unit to certify this.
If you are not certain if your equipment meets the
current standards, contact your radio dealer.
