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In the June issue you will find news about the EASA working group
dealing with a simplified instrument rating, interesting information
about PLBs, a summery of the recent GA friendly resolution adopted by
the European Parliament, anomalies of the EU Emission trading scheme and
much more.
Read the
June 2009 Issue Online
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The European Parliament has given general aviation its biggest boost in
modern times with the adoption of a resolution which guides the EC and
member states to adopt a raft of principles which would preserve, foster
and promote GA across Europe. Resolution 2008/2134(INI) sets out the
importance of keeping legislation in proportion, recognising the
differences between CAT and GA in setting fees and charges, ensuring
that GA has access to airports and airspace and accepting that GA has a
vital role to play in Europe's transport infrastructure.
The resolution, adopted by a huge margin - 524 votes in favour, 74
against and six abstentions - now forms the basis of the European
Commission's approach to general aviation. The Commission is in turn the
boss of EASA, which will find it very difficult to ignore the new
landscape for GA. In addition, national AOPAs can now use it in
negotiations with their own CAAs to ensure that GA is treated fairly.
The full document can be seen by
clicking on this link. It includes 35 clauses, each of which
represents a major breakthrough for GA, addressing nearly every major
issue impacting on general aviation today; access to airfields and
airspace, proportionality in regulation and charges and appropriate
technology requirements. It calls on the EC to recognise the important
role that GA plays in the training of professional pilots.
The resolution had its genesis in a meeting four years ago between
European Aviation Commissioner Daniel Calleja di Crespo and a three-man
IAOPA delegation at which the need for action on European legislation
affecting GA was discussed. MEPs like Timothy Kirkhope from the UK and
Arunas Degutis from Lithuania, both pilots, have been active in
canvassing support. IAOPA is having the document translated into every
European language and distributed to authorities across the continent.
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As of April 4'th 2009 the Dutch Authorities has banned alle VFR flights
in a large area around Schiphol airport and mandated that the
transponder be turned OFF(!) when flying into the neighboring Lelystad
airport.
The stated reason is that the large number of Mode S echoes from VFR
traffic has caused the radar screens of Schiphol apprach to be cluttered
with targets causing a break-down for ATC. The break-down comes just a
few days after Mode S transponder was mandated for all VFR flights in
Dutsch airspace.
This could be one of the worst examples we have seen so far of how new
equipment is mandated without thinking through the consequences.
Aircraft owners have first been forced to spend fortunes equipping their
aircraft with expensive Mode S transponders, and now are banned out of
the airspace because the ground equipment cannot handle the load.
IAOPA for years have arguing that the requirement for mode S for all VFR
traffic would lead to cluttering of radar screens. This is now a proven
fact - but unfortunately the cost for this excercise has been enormous.
Hopefully this is an important lesson learned for aviation authorities
in other countries and for Eurocontrol who is proposing to mandate Mode
S for VFR traffic all over Europe.
The
link to the dutch AIP can be found here
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EASA has in recent months published a number of highly important Notices
of Proposed Ammendsment (NPAs) which will have significant implications
for all pilots in Europe.
The consultation on Flight Crew Licensing (FCL) has just ended and the
response from IAOPA can be found here
for NPA 2008-17a and here for NPA
2008-17b.
The other major NPA is covering Operational Rules (OPS) and will be
directly applicable for all aircraft operations after 2012. IAOPA
strongly encourage all members to study the proposed regulation and to
provide their comments either directly to EASA through EASA's Comment
Response tool, or to submit their comment to IAOPA Europe for inclusion
in the commen response. The consultation ends 31st of July.
The proposed regulation and EASA's Comment Response tool can be found
here.
Some of the requirements which a particularly noteworthy are:
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Equipment requirement for VFR night flights, since this has never
previously been harmonised.
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Except for equipment, the only additional operational requirement for
VFR at night is fuel for 45 minutes instead of 30 minutes. Should
weather requirements be added. Flying VFR at night with a ceiling of
500 feet and a visibility of 1.500 meters is hardly safe. What would
be reasonable requirements?
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There is a requirement for counter-drum pointer when operating NIGHT
VFR or IFR. This is not relevant for piston aircraft operating mainly
below 10.000ft and very expensive! Helicopters are exempted exactly
because they operate below 10.000 ft. The same should apply for piston
engine aircraft.
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There seems to be no provision for socalled "VFR on top". This has
been legal in several member states and should be introduced.
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The requirement for an accellerate-stop distance for complex aircraft
does not make sense. Many aircraft was never certified with such a
limitation and has no data in the flight manual. For single engine
aircraft and aircraft which are not certified to continue a takeoff on
one engine, the requirement is absurd and aerodynamically meaningless.
Studies of the FAA accident database also show that there is
absolutely no safety case.
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Organisational requirements for non-commercial complex aircraft
operations will be very hard to comply with for a small organisation
and provides no added safety for the one-man organisation. More likely
the just the opposite, since it takes away attention from what is
essential. The requirements for management system, ops manual, fatigue
management system etc. comes from the Basic Regulation and surely it
is stated several times that the documentation required should be
proportional with the scale and scope of the regulation. However the
proposed regulation and implementing rules are so detailed and
demanding that it is hard to see how a one-man operator should comply.
The list will be expanded as we receive comments from you and as we work
our way through the more than 1000 page of NPA material.
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January 1, 1991, Phil Boyer took the controls of AOPA US and IAOPA.
December 31, 2008, some days after his 68th birthday, he leaves the left
seat of the organisation and takes off for his retirement. The 18 years
of Phil's presidency bear many milestones of successful membership
development and solutions for hard challenges threatening the General
Aviation community like product liability, airport closures,
restrictions after 9/11, avgas availability, new technologies and
regulations.
One of the hallmarks of Phil's tenure is to listen to the pilot members
and above all else to serve their needs. "All I did was to translate as
well as I could their concerns into actionable items for the
organisation. This pervades anything we do," he described his credo. And
it worked perfectly: membership in the USA went up from 300'000 to
415'000 and gathers 70 percent of the US pilots, the Airport Support
Network, created 12 years ago, has volunteers at nearly 2000 airports,
the AOPA Pilot magazine is now the largest aviation magazine in the
world, The Be-A-Pilot programme increased the number of student starts
in the USA remarkably, the next promising initiative Let's Go Flying was
started a month ago and - not to forget - the number of IAOPA affiliates
worldwide doubled to 66 actually.
1988 Phil and his wife Lois crossed the Atlantic for the first time in
their own pressurised Cessna 340 and flew across Europe. This experience
turned out to be the key for Phil to understand the specific problems
and challenges GA in Europe occurs since the EU and its regulatory
bodies try to harmonise the rules for civil aviation. Three years later,
when he took the controls of IAOPA, he had his first official contacts
with high level EU representatives of aviation. Since then IAOPA (EUR),
the common board of 33 affiliated organisations on the old continent and
around the Mediterranean, sharpened its profile and increased its
efforts to maintain GA's freedom of flight in the unnecessarily
complicated and partly saturated airspace structure in the skies of
Europe. Phil and the HQ quickly recognised: if Europe sneezes, the world
will catch a cold. They supported and realised many actions that led to
better understanding and withdrawal of disproportionate and
discriminatory requirements. Also the Agenda for a sustainable future of
General Aviation and Business Aviation in Europe, published by the EU
Commission in January 2008, respected and implemented many inputs from
IAOPA.
Nine IAOPA World Assemblies (WA) he chaired around the globe since 1992
passed more than one hundred resolutions to pave the way for IAOPA
proposals on future aviation technology, regulations and SARPS in the
palm of ICAO, EASA, ECAC, Eurocontrol and FAA. With his competence and
leadership Phil Boyer won the admiration of all who attended WA and the
respect of the administration and industry on both sides of the Atlantic
for our projects. His service and unwavering determination to improve
General Aviation worldwide merit our highest gratitude.
Phil Boyer, the leader, pilot in command and friend climbs out for his
retirement. Wherever he lands he will find other passionate causes and
friends who know what they owe him: gratitude for a big peace of freedom
of flight. Thank you Phil and many happy landings wherever you touch the
ground.
Ruedi Gerber IAOPA Senior Vice President for the European Region
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Hardly any of the insiders of the European air traffic control had
believed that it would finish successfully:
SESAR, the European
commission’s project to develop a masterplan for a uniform air traffic
control system in Europe.
Too many other projects with the same
goal had failed because of various resistances, but SESAR supplied in May
2008 after nearly 3 years just-in-time all working papers, called
“Deliverables".
Thus the definition phase of SESAR has
ended, now the implementation phase will follow up to the year 2025.
The
European General Aviation was represented in SESAR by IAOPA. Altogether
IAOPA had to invest 28 man/months into the work on the project, which were
paid however by the European commission and Eurocontrol, a new fact for
such projects. For the work on this project IAOPA could win the Danish
consulting company SCANAVIA under the leadership of Val Eggers, former
president of both the Danish civil aviation authority and AOPA Denmark.
What
did SESAR give General Aviation? GA is surely also negatively affected by
the completely fragmented planning and controlling of air traffic control
in Europe. Equipment programs (as for instance mode S) are not clearly
coordinated in order to create benefits and to increase system performance.
Therefore
IAOPA is very pleased that SESAR will make a substantial contribution to
overcoming these shortcomings and that SESAR also considered the needs of
General Aviation in its „Concept Of Operations". These are above all:
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Continued access to all air space, as well as
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The supply of traffic and weather information to increase flight
safety. Information which is so far only available for large airplanes.
But there are some problems SESAR could not solve. In the definition phase
clarity could not be reached in regard to two central points:
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Consensus on one " Common Technical Vision" , which describes the
avionics standards the airspace users must equip with and
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how the probably negative cost/benefit ratio for General Aviation can
be overcome.
It is positive in any case that these problems were clearly pointed out
and that now solutions are looked for: One idea would be that the
beneficiaries financially compensate the disadvantaged. One thing was
clearly pointed out: One size just doesn´t fit all! What is good for
Airbusses or Boeings doesn’t fit for a Cessnas or Diamonds.
IAOPA
is looking forward to continue the critical dialogue with all groups
involved in the SESAR Joint Undertaking.
Details concerning the
SESAR project you find here: www.sesar-consortium.aero.
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One of AOPA Belgiums longstanding Board members, delegate to the IAOPA
(EUR) Regional Meetings and IAOPA World Assemblies and experienced pilot
with home bases in Belgium and Switzerland has passed away on 22nd July
2008: Ernst Georg Heinrich Hauff, born on 1st April 1933, joined the
Eurocontrol Agency in September 1964, spent his entire career at the
Headquarters and retired in September 1996.
Ernst, a passionate
private pilot who hardly missed Annual Meetings, World Assemblies or
Regional Meetings, was a very active and successful representative
defending the interests of General Aviation. His brilliant technical
advice was respected; his interventions on the national or the European
level were effective and his keen humour always opened the door for many
long evenings in the bright light of General Aviation. The values he
preserved, his openness and his desire for adventures are encouraging
qualities showing us the way to think far beyond the horizon where he took
off for the last leg.
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The article containing information about newly selected AOPA US
president Craig Fuller mistakenly asserts, in part, that, “Mr Fuller
becomes IAOPA President by virtue of the fact that the President of the
largest of the 66 AOPAs worldwide automatically assumes the post."
In fact, every four years an election is held to select an IAOPA
president and regional vice presidents. A nominating committee will
shortly be selected that will provide a slate of candidates for the
elective offices to IAOPA board members from which they will cast their
votes. This procedure has been contained in the IAOPA Constitution and
Bylaws since its inception in 1962.
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Take a look at the upper right corner of this webpage and just enter
your email to sign up to receive the IAOPA Europe Enewsletter. Every
second month you will then receive our ENewsletter keeping you
up-to-date about General Aviation in Europe.
Your privacy of course is guaranteed and you can unsubscribe anytime
with one click on the unsubscribe link in the newsletter.
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The new 'Constitution' for aviation in Europe is now a reality. The
regulation that was published March 19'th is called Regulation (EC) No
216/2008 and will have significant consequences for everybody involved
in European aviation.
The regulation extends the scope of EASA to also cover third country
aircraft, operational rules and flight crew licensing. It contains
several important definitions such as commercial operation, and
complex motor-powered aircraft. Further it introduces a sub-ICAO
leisure pilot license for aircraft up to 2000 kg for which the
medical may be issued by a general medical practitioner.
On the operational side the regulation (annex IV) specifies the
essential requirements for operational rules that will be part of any
pilots curriculum together with a set of implementing rules which are
yet to be published by EASA.
Operationally the biggest change for non commercial aviation will be for
operators of non-commercial aircraft which fall under the definition of
a complex aircraft. Such non commercial operators - even one man
operations - in the future must have a management system with internal
reporting procedures, a safety programme, an operations manual and a
fatigue management system. The non commercial operator is not required
to hold an air operators certificate (AOC) but must submit a declaration
in which he specifies how he complies with the regulation.
A complex aeroplane in this context is any turbojet aircraft or any
turboprop aircraft with more than one engine, any aircraft that requires
more than one pilot, is certified for more than 19 seats or has a
maximum take-off mass exceeding 5700 kg. For example a King Air, an
Eclipse VLJ or a Diamond D-Jet will all be complex whereas most of the
single engine turboprops such as the TBM 850 or the Pilatus PC-12 will
be non-complex.
A very unfortunate implication of this definition as pointed out by
IAOPA from the beginning of the process, is that corporate operators
might be compelled to switch from twin-engine turboprops like the King
Air to single engine equivalents like the TBM 850. By doing away with
one engine they can get a larger and faster aircraft and avoid all the
new bureacratic hazzle associated with operating a complex aircraft.
This does not appear to do anything good for safety!
Another challenging part of the regulation is the definition of
commercial operation which implies that trial lessons and flight
training contrary to now will fall in the commercial category. That
clearly will have a very significant impact on flying schools that will
have to satisfy a whole new set of requirements and of course must
rewrite all their manuals and documentation.
A lot depends on the actual implementing rules that will specify the
requirements in detail. The essential regulation requires that the
implementing rules take into account 'the scale and scope of the
operation' and IAOPA is represented in the EASA working groups for OPS
and FCL rules comitted to making sure that the small non-commercial
operator is not forgotten in the big commercial game.
EASA's implementing rules are expected to go into consultation already
within a few months and the whole package will enter into force no later
than April 8'th 2012.
Read
the full text of Regulation (EC) No 216/2008
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One of Austria’s most experienced pilots and longstanding president of
AOPA Austria has passed away on 4th January 2008: Julius (Jack) Meinl,
born on 27th October 1930, got his first flying lessons in the late
Fourties in the British Royal Airforce. The first airplane he flew was a
Tiger Moth. And it was his son who surprised him with the same type of
airplane as his last birthday present.
When he returned to Austria
in 1953 to take the presidential seat of the family owned enterprise in
the coffee market he started using his aircraft for business trips all
over Europe. In the LORAN times Jack Meinl already crossed the Atlantic in
his Turbo-Commander. The high standards he asked for in his company lead
him on the yoke of his plane as well. His technical skills and knowledge
often surpassed those of even experienced mechanics. An ideal condition to
set up and successfully develop his own Maintenance Company Gate V.
Jack
Meinl never believed blindly in authorities. He was a true liberal and
always open minded for new and persuading ideas. The unusual, adventure
attracted him. And it only was a question of time to start his around the
world flight in a Bombardier airplane to land on tiny atolls in the
Pacific or the strip in front of the Wichita production line.
Air
Rallies belonged to Jacks many passions. And he always combined it with
his business: a cop of Meinl-Coffee on the shores of the Baikal Sea or in
Usbekistan, negotiating in Saudia Arabia under the tent around the fire
place with camel meat roasting on a spit: he always succeeded to combine
new experiences and his passion for the benefit of his business. And he
never missed a real treat: with coffee producers in Brazil, with the
Touaregs in Algeria or just with Meinl at his place, the Graben in Vienna.
Jack
Meinl, the co-founder of AOPA Austria and their president for more than 30
years, hardly missed a World Assembly or a Regional Meeting. His advice
was respected; his interventions on the national or European level were
effective and his keen humour always opened the the door for many long
evenings in the bright light of General Aviation. The values he preserved,
his openness and his desire for adventures are encouraging qualities
showing us the way to think far beyond the horizon where he took off for
the last leg.
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