Narrative:

The FAA issued an airworthiness directive (ad) to restrict flight to FL300. Many including the transport canada; pratt and whitney; eclipse and owners told the FAA that such a restriction would be dangerous because of turbulence; vastly shorter range at that altitude and weather. The FAA predictably ignored this information. I flight planned to the south with stops in tennessee and new mexico to avoid convective weather in the center of the country. Turbulence at FL300 was light to moderate until texas when it became mostly moderate. Winds on the surface increased to 50 mph and turbulence at all levels was moderate increasing to severe below FL180 although not forecast as such. When I checked weather at my destination and became apparent that landing in 50 mph winds would be risky given the fuel consumption at the FAA mandated lower altitude I learned that wichita falls was only gusting to 30 KTS. On my descent; the turbulence was so bad as to disconnect my autopilot and roll the airplane to 90 degrees. I recovered and landed uneventfully at sheppard AFB. While I do not think there was any violation by me of any rule or regulation; I had warned the FAA that the precipitous and unsubstantiated issuance of an ad that limited the eclipse to FL300 would result in a potential weather related disaster and fuel reserves that were the legal minimums instead of more than that. This flight was the direct result of FAA hubris that created danger where there was none and inconvenience and expense that was and is unnecessary. Had the earlier restriction to FL370 been retained; the decision to overfly my destination could have been made to a safer landing and where the mid level turbulence was less. Had a disaster occurred; it would have been at the hands of the safety agency for aviation.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: When complying with an AD restricting altitude to FL300; an EA500 pilot encountered turbulence and restricted range which he considered hazardous and a direct result of the compliance.

Narrative: The FAA issued an Airworthiness Directive (AD) to restrict flight to FL300. Many including the Transport Canada; Pratt and Whitney; Eclipse and owners told the FAA that such a restriction would be dangerous because of turbulence; vastly shorter range at that altitude and weather. The FAA predictably ignored this information. I flight planned to the south with stops in Tennessee and New Mexico to avoid convective weather in the center of the country. Turbulence at FL300 was light to moderate until Texas when it became mostly moderate. Winds on the surface increased to 50 MPH and turbulence at all levels was moderate increasing to severe below FL180 although not forecast as such. When I checked weather at my destination and became apparent that landing in 50 MPH winds would be risky given the fuel consumption at the FAA mandated lower altitude I learned that Wichita Falls was only gusting to 30 KTS. On my descent; the turbulence was so bad as to disconnect my autopilot and roll the airplane to 90 degrees. I recovered and landed uneventfully at Sheppard AFB. While I do not think there was any violation by me of any rule or regulation; I had warned the FAA that the precipitous and unsubstantiated issuance of an AD that limited the Eclipse to FL300 would result in a potential weather related disaster and fuel reserves that were the legal minimums instead of more than that. This flight was the direct result of FAA hubris that created danger where there was none and inconvenience and expense that was and is unnecessary. Had the earlier restriction to FL370 been retained; the decision to overfly my destination could have been made to a safer landing and where the mid level turbulence was less. Had a disaster occurred; it would have been at the hands of the safety agency for aviation.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.