Kerry Lynch stepped into the role of editor of the&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;monthly magazine in May 2022 after serving with&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;for eight years. She joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in December 2014 as a senior editor covering Washington and business aviation news. She has also served on Convention News teams, including as editor of&nbsp;HAI Convention News. Lynch previously spent 25 years with Aviation Week. During her time there, she reported for and later steered&nbsp;The Weekly of Business Aviation, oversaw business aviation content on the&nbsp;Aviation Week Intelligence Network, served on the&nbsp;Show News&nbsp;staff, and held roles as the Washington columnist for&nbsp;Business &amp; Commercial Aviation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Overhaul &amp; Maintenance&nbsp;monthly magazines. In 2021 she was honored with the National Business Aviation Association Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement in journalism and was the 2004 recipient of the National Air Transportation Association’s Aviation Journalism Excellence Award. She also has been a recipient of an Aerospace Media Award for business aviation (2022) and NBAA Gold Wing Award (2003, 2024). Lynch graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

Editor, AIN monthly magazine

Kerry Lynch

The U.S. Senate last night passed a measure in a&nbsp;national defense&nbsp;bill that&nbsp;eliminates a controversial requirement for pilots and instructors to obtain a letter of deviation authority (LODA) for flight training in experimental aircraft. The 4,000-plus page&nbsp;<a href="https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/BILLS-117HR7776EAS-RCP117-70.pdf">James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023</a>—named after the long-time lawmaker who is retiring this year—passed&nbsp;the House on December 8 and now heads to the White House for President Joe Biden's signature.
Section 5604 of the bill specifies that a lessor or lessee of an aircraft will not be required to obtain&nbsp;a LODA from the FAA to conduct or receive flight training, checking, and testing in an experimental aircraft if&nbsp;the flight instructor does not provide both the training and the aircraft; no person advertises the aircraft as available for training; and no person receives compensation for use of the aircraft for a specific flight involving training other than expenses of ownership, operation, and maintenance of the aircraft.
Backed by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the measure is designed to address concerns raised by <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/general-aviation/2021-07-15/nbaa-aopa-object-new-faa-policy-training">a July 2021 FAA directive</a> requiring certain aircraft owners and flight instructors that train in experimental aircraft to obtain LODAs. That directive had drawn fire from numerous organizations. AOPA said&nbsp;it&nbsp;disregarded “decades of precedent”&nbsp; and&nbsp;argued that it created a burden without a safety benefit. In fact, AOPA claims it had just the opposite effect, initially grounding some 40,000 pilots.
"The FAA legal office has turned the definition of flight training upside down and this provision is only the first step in getting us back to where we were and where we need to be,” said AOPA president Mark Baker. “Flight training is a safety issue and we don't need anything that impacts that in a negative way.”
AOPA credited a bipartisan coalition for the measure, including House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee leaders. Sam Graves (R-Missouri) and Rick Larsen (D-Washington.), along with Kai Kahele (D-Hawaii). The bill further had the support of &nbsp;Sen. Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), a staunch general aviation advocate and ranking Republican of the Senate Armed Services Committee, as well as Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi).

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Lawmakers Approve Measure to Eliminate Special Authorization for Experimental Aircraft Training | ainonline.com

A Congress[passed removing a mandate requiring a LODA for flight training in experimental aircraft addresses a July 2021 directive.

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