The agency will allow Hayden L. “Jim” Sheaffer to reapply for his pilot’s certificate in 10 months instead of the original 12-month restriction imposed after the May 11 incident.

In a brief interview this morning, Sheaffer said the FAA agreed to the reduced penalty on the condition he drop his appeal of his license revocation and say little about the incident.

“They asked me not to go out, in essence, and badmouth them,” Sheaffer said.

Sheaffer, through his attorney, has repeatedly said that he and Akron resident Troy Martin, who was flying the plane, tried unsuccessfully to make radio contact with authorities, contrary to the FAA’s initial report.

In revoking Sheaffer’s license last month, the FAA said he showed “either a complete disregard or lack of understanding of basic requirements for the safe operation of aircraft.”

The new agreement was reached on Tuesday, a day before Sheaffer’s attorney was expected to challenge the license revocation before the National Transportation Safety Board.

Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the FAA, declined to say why the government agreed to the new penalty. “All I can say is that those were the terms of the agreement,” she said.

“He has to pass the same threshold as he would have at 12 months. He can apply sooner. But he has to pass all the tests,” she said.

Like any other person seeking a pilot’s certificate for the first time, Sheaffer will be required to pass written, oral and practical tests before regaining his license.

Sheaffer’s local attorney, Stephen Gibble of Lititz, said: “Mr. Sheaffer and the government are both interested in the promotion of the public good and public safety. We don’t want this to ever happen again. We want to help other people so that this never happens again. We’ve decided to go through retraining and requalify as soon after 10 months as possible.”

Gibble and McDermott said the FAA has agreed to look into the communication problems between Sheaffer’s plane and the Black Hawk helicopter that intercepted him near Washington.

“What the FAA has conceded is that the helicopter was not receiving the radio transmission,” McDermott said. “For some reason it wasn’t received by helicopter even though it was transmitted by the airplane.

“The problem was not with the radio in my pilot’s plane or the way in which he was operating it.”

That issue has caused some friction between Sheaffer and the FAA. The government initially did not acknowledge the communication problem, and blamed Sheaffer for not responding to authorities.

Before today, Sheaffer has spoken publicly about the incident only once, on NBC’s “Today” show on May 24. In that interview, Sheaffer defended his actions and said he knew about the restricted airspace and tried to avoid it. He also said he tried to communicate with the helicopter.

He reiterated those remarks today.

Sheaffer said that not only was an emergency locator beacon on the ground jamming the radio signal, but that the helicopter was having a problem with its radio and could not communicate with his plane.

“The helicopter tried to get us to communicate on another channel, but the helicopter had radio problems,” Sheaffer said.

“There’s always more to a story,” Sheaffer said.

The aircraft had come within about three miles of the White House, forcing panicked evacuations there and in the Capitol complex shortly after noon that day. After repeated warnings, Sheaffer and Martin eventually turned the plane away from Washington and landed in Frederick, Md.

The FAA took no action against Martin, who was a student pilot.