The National Agricultural Aviation Association ("NAAA") worked with the Federal Aviation Administration ("FAA") to develop an expedited policy to allow installation of hidden battery cutoff switches on agricultural aircraft. The FAA determined that this procedure is a minor alteration that, once installed, can be recorded with a maintenance record entry and does not require an FAA Form 337 nor a field approval.

Establishment of this policy is another action NAAA has been working on to show the public how seriously the agricultural aviation industry is working to address security issues.

Ag operators are encouraged to notify their local FAA FSDOs of this new FAA policy.

Special thanks goes to NAAA members Frankie Williams of Southern Field Aviation in Georgia and Rod Thomas of Thomas Helicopters in Idaho for their efforts in this matter.

Click here to see the Memorandum from the FAA establishing this policy in PDF format. (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader). This may take several minutes to open, please be patient.