FAA Proposes Removing Obsolete Part 61 References — A Regulatory Cleanup Affecting Just Four Pilots

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The Federal Aviation Administration published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on June 26, 2026, proposing to remove and reserve two obsolete sections of Part 61 — § 61.7 (Obsolete certificates and ratings) and § 61.11 (Expired pilot certificates and reissuance) — because they refer to airman certificates issued more than 50 years ago and apply to a tiny remaining population of pilots. According to the FAA’s Airman Certification Branch, only four airmen currently hold the obsolete free-balloon pilot certificates referenced in § 61.7(a), and zero pilots hold the expired certificates referenced in § 61.11(b)–(e). Public comments are due by July 27, 2026.

This isn’t a substantive rule change. It’s regulatory housekeeping — but it’s housekeeping with an interesting backstory and a few worthwhile lessons about how the FAA’s rulebook accumulates barnacles over the decades.

What the FAA Is Actually Proposing

The NPRM, formally titled “Removing Obsolete References to Twentieth-Century Airman Certificates” (Docket No. FAA-2026-7163, Notice No. 26-10), proposes two specific changes to Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

Remove and reserve § 61.7. This section currently establishes the obsolescence of free-balloon pilot certificates and pilot certificates with certain category ratings that lack an associated class rating. The FAA’s Airman Certification Branch has confirmed that only four airmen hold the obsolete free-balloon certificates under § 61.7(a), and that all four already hold subsequent certificates and ratings with equivalent operating privileges. No airmen hold the obsolete category ratings under § 61.7(b).

Remove and reserve § 61.11. This section addresses expired pilot certificates and the reissuance process. Paragraph (a) is redundant — § 61.2(a)(1) and § 61.19(a)(1) already prohibit anyone from exercising the privileges of an expired certificate. Paragraphs (b) through (e) refer to airman certificates issued before 1949 or certificates issued after 1949 containing an expiration date. The FAA Airman Certification Branch has verified that no remaining pilot certificate holders fall under § 61.11(b)–(e).

In both cases, the FAA is removing language that no longer has any practical effect. The NPRM states explicitly: “FAA does not anticipate these changes would affect the privileges of any airman currently holding a valid pilot certificate.”

The Four Free-Balloon Pilots

The most colorful detail in the NPRM is the population it affects: four people. Specifically, the four airmen who still hold obsolete free-balloon pilot certificates under § 61.7(a).

Here’s why they don’t lose anything. The FAA’s analysis notes that all four free-balloon certificates were issued as paper certificates — and under § 61.19(g), paper-certificate holders may no longer exercise the privileges of those certificates. The FAA stopped issuing paper certificates in July 2003, requiring all pilot certificates to be transitioned to plastic certificates with security features. The deadline for converting paper certificates to plastic ones expired years ago.

That means the four remaining free-balloon certificate holders cannot legally exercise the privileges of those specific certificates regardless of what § 61.7 says. They’ve also already obtained subsequent certificates and ratings with equivalent operating privileges, so removing § 61.7 doesn’t strip them of anything they’re actually using.

The result: a Part 61 cleanup that affects literally zero operating pilots.

Why This Matters Beyond the Numbers

A rulemaking affecting four people might seem like an odd use of FAA resources. But the proposal is part of a much broader deregulatory effort the Trump administration kicked off in early 2025.

Executive Order 14192, “Unleashing Prosperity through Deregulation,” issued on January 31, 2025, directed agencies to identify regulations that could be modified or repealed without compromising safety. Executive Order 14219, “Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementation of the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Deregulatory Agenda,” issued on February 19, 2025, gave the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) broader authority to oversee that work across agencies.

The Department of Transportation published a request for information on April 3, 2025, asking the public to help identify obsolete regulations. Today’s NPRM is one of the results — a focused, surgical cleanup of Part 61 that removes language no longer needed without changing anything substantive.

Similar housekeeping actions have appeared elsewhere recently. AVweb reported on June 26 that the FAA is also proposing Part 25 certification updates to fold frequently used approvals into transport-category standards. The pattern is consistent: identify regulations that have become obsolete, then remove them in standalone NPRMs to keep the rulebook current.

What Comments the FAA Is Soliciting

Although the proposal is non-substantive, the FAA is following standard Administrative Procedure Act process. Anyone may submit comments on the proposed rule by July 27, 2026, via:

Federal eRulemaking Portal: regulations.gov (Docket No. FAA-2026-7163)
Mail: Docket Operations, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building, 5th Floor (W58-213), Washington, DC 20590
Fax: (202) 493-2251

The FAA is particularly interested in comments from anyone who might be affected by the removal — for instance, an airman who believes they hold a free-balloon certificate not captured in the agency’s analysis, or any pilot who believes the proposed changes would alter their certification status.

In practical terms, no comment is likely to change the outcome. The Airman Certification Branch’s analysis shows that no operating pilots rely on the sections being removed. But the public comment process is a legal requirement for rule changes — even ones with no practical effect — and the FAA is following it.

What the Proposal Is Not

It’s worth being clear about what the NPRM does and does not do:

It does not affect any current pilot’s privileges. Every active certificate holder retains the same privileges they had before. This is explicitly stated in the rulemaking.

It does not affect balloon pilots generally. Modern balloon pilot certificates (issued under current Part 61 standards) are completely separate from the obsolete “free-balloon pilot certificate” referenced in § 61.7(a). Active commercial balloon operators, sport balloon pilots, and CFI-Balloon instructors are unaffected.

It does not change expired certificate rules. The substantive prohibition on exercising the privileges of an expired certificate remains intact under § 61.2(a)(1) and § 61.19(a)(1). The NPRM only removes the redundant statement in § 61.11(a).

It does not change certificate issuance for student or current pilots. Standard certification under Part 61 — Private, Commercial, ATP, Sport Pilot, Recreational, and the corresponding instructor certificates — continues unchanged.

The Cost Analysis

In a regulatory environment where the cost-benefit framing matters more than ever, the FAA’s economic analysis of this proposal is appropriately brief.

The agency states the proposal “involves non-substantive amendments. FAA does not expect any additional costs to the public or the Federal Government because none of the changes in this proposal would change existing regulatory requirements. FAA anticipates minor administrative cost savings due to efficiencies for both industry and FAA by eliminating outdated language.”

In other words: nobody pays anything to comply, and there’s a small efficiency dividend from a cleaner rulebook.

Why Clean Rulebooks Matter

The FAA’s regulatory framework spans thousands of pages across Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Over decades, sections accumulate that reference obsolete equipment, vanished certificate categories, or transition periods that ended generations ago. The result is a rulebook that’s harder to navigate, harder to teach, and harder to apply consistently.

Cleanup NPRMs like this one address that drift. For pilots studying for written exams, for AMEs and DPEs interpreting Part 61 requirements, and for aviation attorneys parsing regulatory text, every removed paragraph of dead language is one less source of confusion.

It also has cumulative value. The June 26 cleanup is one of many such actions in the works. AVweb’s June 26 coverage flagged the Part 25 update as a parallel effort. The Federal Register has carried multiple FAA NPRMs in 2025 and 2026 cleaning up obsolete language — most of them passing with little public attention because they don’t change anything substantive.

What Pilots Should Do

For the overwhelming majority of pilots, the answer is: nothing.

The proposal does not require any action from current certificate holders. It does not affect ongoing training, checkride preparation, currency requirements, or medical certification. It does not change any operational privileges.

Pilots curious about the regulatory cleanup process can review the NPRM on the Federal Register website or follow the docket on regulations.gov. Comments are open through July 27, 2026, but the FAA’s analysis suggests the proposal will pass without controversy.

For the four free-balloon pilots, the impact is also minimal — they cannot exercise the privileges of their obsolete paper certificates anyway, and they hold subsequent certificates with the same operational privileges.

The Bottom Line

The FAA’s proposed removal of obsolete twentieth-century airman certificate references is a small, surgical regulatory cleanup. It affects no operating pilots, removes no privileges, and changes no certification standards. Its purpose is to make Part 61 cleaner and more navigable by eliminating language that hasn’t been operationally relevant in decades.

For the broader pilot community, the proposal is mostly an interesting footnote — a reminder that the FAA’s rulebook contains layers of regulatory archaeology, and that occasionally the agency cleans house. The cleanup itself is unobjectionable; the broader deregulatory push that produced it is part of a larger conversation about federal regulation that pilots will continue to see play out across multiple agencies and rulemakings.

For now, comments close July 27. Then the rulebook gets a little shorter — and four free-balloon certificates that were never going to be used again get formally retired.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the FAA proposing in the June 2026 NPRM on twentieth-century airman certificates? The FAA is proposing to remove and reserve two obsolete sections of 14 CFR Part 61: § 61.7 (Obsolete certificates and ratings) and § 61.11 (Expired pilot certificates and reissuance). The sections reference airman certificates issued more than 50 years ago and apply to a very small remaining population — only four airmen hold the obsolete free-balloon certificates under § 61.7(a), and zero pilots hold the expired certificates under § 61.11(b)–(e). Comments are due by July 27, 2026, on Docket No. FAA-2026-7163.

Does this NPRM affect current pilot privileges? No. The FAA states explicitly in the rulemaking that the proposal “would not affect the privileges of any airman currently holding a valid pilot certificate.” It is a non-substantive cleanup that removes language no longer relevant to modern certificate holders.

Does this affect modern balloon pilots? No. Modern balloon pilot certificates issued under current Part 61 standards (Sport Pilot, Private, Commercial, and CFI Balloon) are completely separate from the obsolete “free-balloon pilot certificate” referenced in § 61.7(a). Active balloon operators are unaffected by this NPRM.

Why is the FAA proposing this rule change now? The proposal is part of a broader deregulatory effort under Executive Order 14192 (“Unleashing Prosperity through Deregulation,” January 31, 2025) and Executive Order 14219 (“Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementation of the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Deregulatory Agenda,” February 19, 2025). The Department of Transportation sought public input in April 2025 on identifying obsolete regulations to be modified or repealed.

How do I submit comments on the NPRM? Comments must be submitted by July 27, 2026. Submit through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at regulations.gov (reference Docket No. FAA-2026-7163), by mail to Docket Operations at the U.S. Department of Transportation, by hand delivery to the West Building at 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE in Washington, DC, or by fax to (202) 493-2251.

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