Comment Submitted by James Goldman

The proposed rule requires that a pilot include the flight's transponder code in the manifest of information to be transmitted to DHS one hour prior to departure. This requirement is not possible to follow because a transponder code is never (or rarely) assigned more than one hour prior to departure of a flight. DHS should consult with the ATC arm of the FAA on this point. "CBP anticipates that most pilots of private aircraft will use the eAPlS web portal as the transmission method of choice because of the ease and availability of internet access." Not so fast. Many smaller airports, and especially those in "outback" territories and in remote regions of Alaska and Canada do not now, and are unlikely to have in the near or intermediate term future, internet access. Supporting this claim is the fact that cellular telephone service coverage, though much more widely available than internet access, is still not universal even in the continental 48 states. "The pilot may choose to authorize an agent to transmit the data if internet access is not available at the pilot's location or for other reasons of convenience. The pilot remains responsible for the timing and accuracy of the transmission." If the agent chosen by the pilot is approved or otherwise vetted by DHS, then the agent and/or DHS should rightfully share responsibility for the information's timely and accurate transmission to DHS. The regs should be ammeded such that the "best efforts" of the pilot to provide the required information to an authorized agent in a timely manner should shield him/her from proscution if a failure point elsewhere in the system should be beyond his/her control.