Local flight instructor wants FAA to free up small planes for commercial transport.

An Augusta flight instructor wants federal regulators to loosen restrictions on small planes to help provide commercial transport service during the coronavirus pandemic.

Current Federal Aviation Administration regulations prohibit flight instructors from using training aircraft to charge for transporting supplies, equipment or people.

David Dobbins, the owner of MVP Aviation, said the FAA should allow small operators to help distribute supplies to rural regions not served by traditional charter services, which use small- to medium-sized turboprop planes.

Dobbins said smaller craft such as his Cessna 172 can make cost-effective short-haul trips using runways of just 1,500 feet.

"The Cessna 172 is arguably the safest small aircraft ever produced," Dobbins said in an open letter to the FAA. "It is a waste of assets to allow them to sit idle in a time of national crisis."

Earlier this month the Federal Motor Carrier Administration – which, like the FAA, is under the Department of Transportation – relaxed regulations on commercial vehicle drivers transporting emergency relief supplies.

Dobbins said relaxing the rules on pilots providing flight instruction, aerial tours, photography and pipeline inspection services could fill in transportation gaps in rural areas. Certified flight instructors’ aircraft already are inspected by the FAA every 100 hours and are flown almost daily.

Dobbins said his Cessna 172 Superhawk has a 600-pound payload.

"We just want to work and be part of the solution," Dobbins said.

Dobbins, an Army veteran who worked for the U.S. Secret Service during the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush presidencies, is also the founder of on-demand aerial photography service Civicus Media LLC.

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