Voluntary Design Standards, Mandatory Registration US heliport facilities, whether public or private, must register with the FAA.
WHEN THE FAA RELEASED ITS long-awaited revision to the heliport/ helipad/helistop design advisory circular in January 2023 (AC 150/5390-2D, Heliport Design), the agency stressed that the guidelines were voluntary for privately owned facilities and did not necessarily apply to vertiports. What the FAA did not emphasize, however, is that these facilities, whether publicly or privately owned, still must register with the FAA via the agency’s online Airport Data and Information Portal (ADIP) per 14 CFR Part 157. This process includes completing FAA Form 7480-1, which includes providing a city map, heliport layout plan, and landing-area sketch or US quadrangle map. The information must be provided to the FAA within 90 days of the construction, implementation, or modification of the airport/helicopter facility. These same requirements are expected to apply to vertiports. Kathryn Wright, VP at Heliplanners, an aviation planning firm, says a large percentage of the helicopter community remains ignorant of the Part 157 requirement. “If you polled a random sample of thousands of pilots and people in the industry, a very large percentage would have no idea this is required. It’s just an education issue,” Wright says. Wright, who serves as secretary of VAI’s Vertical Flight
Densely populated and congested metro areas such as Houston, Texas, home to Landry’s West Loop South heliport, are attractive markets for vertiport expansion. (Heliplanners Photo)
A conditional no objection letter generally will contain suggestions as to how to make the landing area safer, adding items such as signage and lighting. An objectionable finding is equivalent to the FAA finding the landing area unsafe but does not stop a private owner/operator from using the area. An objectionable finding would have consequences only
for a publicly owned/public-use facility, Wright says. Even in that case, the facility still could be operated, but it wouldn’t qualify for federal financial assistance, including the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program.
Infrastructure Sub-Working Group, stresses that any area considered for helicopter operations must submit to the Part 157 process, even if it’s just a parking lot next to a fire station with an encircled “H” painted on the pavement. Wright says complying with Part 157 entails three key steps:
■ The heliport facility submits the landing area to the FAA via the ADIP, including information such as its location and elevation and what the design looks like
■ The FAA conducts a study of both the landing area and the adjacent airspace, a process that generally lasts about four months, running through the FAA airports and standards divisions and district offices
■ The FAA issues an airspace analysis determination letter with one of three possible findings: no objection, conditional no objection, or objectionable.
Once the heliport is up and running, the owner must submit an airport master record to the FAA. That happens automatically when the owner accepts comments from the FAA and the agency issues a finding of either no objection or conditional no objection. Not having a determination letter from the FAA can have significant collateral consequences, Wright warns, especially in the event of accident-related litigation. “It just makes it easier for a jury to think you were doing something wrong.” And it is the pilots, as opposed to the owner of the heliport/ helipad, who often bear the brunt of the blame when things go sideways. “Most of the time, pilots are blamed for accidents caused by poor infrastructure design,” Wright says. “They aren’t trained in what to look for so that they know if it’s a good or bad landing site—and they need to be. But, again, many sites have no determination letter. At the very least, you should be submitting to the FAA and getting that determination letter.”
JUNE 2024 ROTOR 47
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