(a) The definitions in this section apply
throughout this article.
(b) "Aeronautics" means:
(1) transportation by aircraft;
(2) the operation, construction, repair, or maintenance of aircraft,
aircraft power plants and accessories, including the repair,
packing, and maintenance of parachutes;
(3) the design, establishment, construction, extension, operation,
improvement, repair, or maintenance of airports, landing fields,
or other air navigation facilities; and
(4) air instruction.
(c) "Aircraft" means any contrivance used or designed for
navigation of or flight in the air.
(d) "Public aircraft" means an aircraft used exclusively in the
service of any government or of any political subdivision of a
government, including the government of any state but not including
any government owned aircraft engaged in carrying persons or property
for commercial purposes.
(e) "Civil aircraft" means any aircraft other than a public aircraft.
(f) "Airport" means any location either on land or water which is
used for the landing and taking off of aircraft.
(g) "Department" refers to the Indiana department of transportation.
(h) "Landing field" means any airport which provides neither
facilities nor services other than an area designated for the landing and
taking off of aircraft.
(i) "Air navigation facility" means any facility other than one owned
or controlled by the federal government, used in, available for use in,
or designed for use in aid of air navigation, including:
(1) airports;
(2) landing fields;
(3) any structures, mechanisms, lights, beacons, marks,
communicating systems, or other instrumentalities or devices
used or useful as an aid, or constituting an advantage or
convenience, to the safe taking-off, navigation, and landing of
aircraft, or the safe and efficient operation or maintenance of an
airport or landing field; and
(4) any combination of any or all of such facilities.
(j) "Air navigation" means the operation or navigation of aircraft in
the air space over this state, or upon any airport or landing field within
this state.
(k) "Operation of aircraft" or "operate aircraft" means the use of
aircraft for the purpose of air navigation, and includes the navigation
or piloting of aircraft. Any person who causes or authorizes the
operation of aircraft, whether with or without the right of legal control
(in the capacity of owner, lessee, or otherwise) of the aircraft, is
considered to be engaged in the operation of aircraft within the
meaning of the Indiana statutes.
(l) "Airman" means any individual who engages, as the person in
command, or as pilot, mechanic, or member of the crew, in the
navigation of aircraft while under way and (excepting individuals
employed outside the United States, any individual employed outside
the United States, any individual employed by a manufacturer of
aircraft, aircraft engines, propellers, or appliances to perform duties as
inspector or mechanic in connection with the manufacturer's aircraft,
aircraft engines, propellers, or appliances, and any individual
performing inspection or mechanical duties in connection with aircraft
owned or operated by the individual) any individual who is directly in
charge of the inspection, maintenance, overhauling, or repair of aircraft
engines, propellers, or appliances and any individual who serves in the
capacity of aircraft dispatcher or air-traffic control-tower operator.
(m) "Air instruction" means the imparting of aeronautical
information by any aeronautics instructor or in or by any air school or
flying club.
(n) "Air school" means any person engaged in giving, or offering to
give, instruction in aeronautics, either in flying or ground subjects, or
both, for or without hire or reward, and advertising, representing, or
professing to give or offer to give such instruction.
(o) "Aeronautics instructor" means an individual engaged in giving
instruction, or offering to give instruction, in aeronautics, either in
flying or ground subjects, or both, for hire or reward, without
advertising such occupation, without calling the individual's facilities
an air school or anything equivalent thereto, and without employing or
using other instructors.
(p) "Flying club" means any person other than an individual, which,
neither for profit nor reward, owns, leases, or uses one (1) or more
aircraft for the purpose of instruction or pleasure, or both.
(q) "Person" means any individual, firm, partnership, corporation,
company, limited liability company, association, joint stock
association, or body politic. The term includes any trustee, receiver,
assignee, or other similar representative.
(r) "State airway" means a route in the navigable air space over and
above the lands or water of Indiana designated by the department as a
route suitable for air navigation.
(s) "Navigable air space" means air space above the minimum
altitudes of flight prescribed by Indiana laws or by rules of the
department consistent with Indiana laws.
(t) "Municipality" means any county, city, or town of Indiana and
any other political subdivision, public corporation, authority, or district
in Indiana which is or may be authorized by law to acquire, establish,
construct, maintain, improve, and operate airports and other air
navigation facilities.
(u) "Airport protection privileges" means easements through or
other interests in air space over land or water, interests in airport
hazards outside the boundaries of airports or landing fields, and other
protection privileges, the acquisition or control of which is necessary
to ensure safe approaches to the landing areas of the airports and
landing fields and the safe and efficient operation of airports and
landing fields.
(v) "Airport hazard" means any structure, object of natural growth,
or use of land, which obstructs the air space required for the flight of
aircraft in landing or taking off at any airport or landing field or is
otherwise hazardous to such landing or taking off.
(w) "CAB-certificated air carrier" means an air carrier which is
operating under a valid certificate of public convenience and necessity
issued by the Civil Aeronautics Board under Public Law 85-726, Title
VI, Aug. 23, 1958, 72 Stat. 754, 49 U.S.C. 1371 as amended.
(x) "Adverse impact on military operations and readiness" has the
meaning set forth in 32 CFR 211.3.
(y) "Energy facility" means any structure that provides for the
generation or transmission of electrical energy.
Formerly: Acts 1945, c.360, s.1; Acts 1963, c.229, s.1; Acts
1975, P.L.93, SEC.1. As amended by Acts 1980, P.L.74, SEC.308;
P.L.3-1989, SEC.69; P.L.18-1990, SEC.154; P.L.8-1993, SEC.147;
P.L.136-2018, SEC.98; P.L.71-2020, SEC.1.