June issue of GA magazine is out 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

EU Parliament adopts GA friendly resolution 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.

Mandatory Mode S Carriage leads to breakdown

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

Important EASA consultations out now

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:   Equipment requirement for VFR night flights, since this has never previously been harmonised. 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? 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. There seems to be no provision for socalled "VFR on top". This has been legal in several member states and should be introduced. 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. 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.

Happy Landings Phil 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

First phase of European Air Traffic Control Project SESAR ends successfully

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: Continued access to all air space, as well as 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: Consensus on one " Common Technical Vision" , which describes the avionics standards the airspace users must equip with and 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.

In Memoriam Ernst Hauff

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.

Correction to July ENewsletter

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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EASA extension of scope finally adopted 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

In memoriam Jack Meinl

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.