Calef Letorney writes:

I've been working with USHPA to get an FAA ruling on whether or
not we can enter class E extensions to controlled airspace without ATC
authorization.

The USHPA lobbied the FAA and we got a favorable response. No ATC authorization
is needed on class E extensions.

This really opens up some XC routes in the northeast. We still need to avoid E2
(class E designated airports), but not class E extensions to B,C,D airspace.

Big thanks to Tom Lanning, Alek Jadkowski, and several others who pushed the
issue to the forefront.

Around Burlington there's class E extension that we bumped into this year and it
ended XC flights. Also the one around Hannover NH has been messing with the
Burke XC route.

Those dashed magenta boxes around the controlled air space used to be No-Go, now game on.

Why is the letter from the FAA marked 2018? Calef writes:

Martin Palmaz said "A pilot brought it to our attention in late 2018. I reached
out to the FAA, but it got lost in the government shutdown till we circled back
around with them. That took some time to contact the right folks, they do the
research and get a response."

So I guess they made the decision in 2018, but without having communicated it,
it might as well not have happened as nobody knew and we would not be able to
site this memo. Indeed, before we contacted USHPA to lobby the FAA, we searched
high and low for a memo/decision of this nature and found nothing. Now it's out
in the world and part of our collective understanding.

Cool to see that other pilots also had issue with this nuance and wanted it
fixed.

Turns out even my response was a little off. What we got today was a letter
today from the FAA saying the above attached memo does apply to us (Part 103)
even though it was written for Part 107.