GAMA and IAOPA Europe launch the 2020 European General Aviation Survey | invitation to participate
The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and the International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Associations (IAOPA), with the support of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and AERO Friedrichshafen, launched the 2020 European General Aviation survey. The annual survey will aid in providing a better understanding of the trends in general aviation flight activity, aircraft equipment and fleet composition trends to support safety analysis in Europe.
The 2019 survey (link to results), which concluded in April 2019, was highly successful, with responses covering over 6,000 general aviation aircraft in 32 European countries. Its results were used by EASA in their 2019 Annual Safety Review to calculate accident rates for Non-Commercial Aeroplanes. This year, GAMA and IAOPA aim to further increase participation across the general aviation community to improve the accuracy of the results and ensure all countries are well represented.
“This survey is an important step for a better understanding of General Aviation activity across Europe. Conducting this survey on a yearly basis will help us focus our improvements for General Aviation safety,” said Dominique Roland, Head of General Aviation, EASA.
Initial results of the survey will be presented at AERO 2020, 1-4 April in Friedrichshafen, Germany, whose Project Leader, Mr. Roland Bosch stated: “AERO Friedrichshafen as the leading General Aviation show in Europe is proud to support this initiative led by GAMA and IAOPA to improve the safety of General Aviation“.
The survey is now open and will be close on 5th April 2020. To access the survey please visit: https://survey.sogosurvey.com/r/ioLfK3.
For additional information, please contact Cate Brancart, Manager, European Safety and Operations, GAMA, cbrancart@gama.aero or Dr. Michael Erb, Senior Vice President – Europe, IAOPA, erb@aopa.de.
GAMA is an international trade association representing over 100 of the world's leading manufacturers of general aviation airplanes and rotorcraft, engines, avionics, components and related services. GAMA's members also operate repair stations, fixed based operations, pilot and maintenance training facilities and manage fleets of aircraft. For more information, visit GAMA's website at www.GAMA.aero.
IAOPA Europe is the European branch of The International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Associations (IAOPA) with 32 national affiliates with a total of 15,000 individual members. IAOPA has represented international general aviation for nearly 50 years. For more information, visit IAOPA Europe’s website at www.iaopa.eu and www.iaopa.org.
Not everything is sunshine. Development takes more time. Some personal thoughts on UAV’s – drones. Part 2
By Peter Sodermans, AOPA Luxembourg
In the last newsletter, of January 28, Peter Sodermans, president of AOPA Luxembourg sketched the present situation with regards to drones / UAV’s. In this newsletter the second part of his article.
The EASA draft opinion on U-Space boldy starts with stating in its first sentence that Unmanned aircraft — commonly called drones — are the future of aviation and a promising source for delivering innovative services.
However, the reality is less shiny as it seems at first sight. There are wider security concerns. Also, some sound names from the drone industry pulled the plug in in recent months.
The limited scalability of drone applications is a real challenge. The legislation on drones in Europe so far is a patchwork, with different prohibitions and obligations in each country. That makes it difficult for
start-ups to develop standard solutions that they can sell in different countries. The market expects a lot from the harmonization of European legislation with the upcoming EASA U-Space legislation.
But we are starting to move into professionalization of the market. A lot of pending issues concerning legislation about U-Space are effectively forwarded to 2022. What I expect from legislation is that it will help - by creating new rules - to reduce risk perception around drones. Although some strong ideas seem to be introduced in the U-Space legislation, there’s still work to do on creating the same kind of confidence as e.g. a helicopter flying over a crowd (confidence based upon good legislation, strong training and strict technical control). We must achieve the same for drones, for example by using multiple propellers or by requiring anti-collision systems, besides creating a strong legal framework based upon the EASA U-Space and solid training.
The priority rules of the EASA draft opinion at one hand state the principle that human life prevails over these flying robots, but this is not continued to its maximum extent by still allowing in the draft opinion non-defined “special operations” to override this holy priority rule.
Every plane whatsoever always has a pilot on board, reason why IAOPA EU pursues this ‘human centric’ vision. The Article 7 of the draft opinion in particular, although it rightfully highlights that drones would always have to give a way, further provides an exception for the provision of ‘special operations’ – a term that is not further defined. This could lead to the potential abuse of this provision by drone operating companies. Simply not acceptable, drones always should give way to human life. No exceptions!
Other topics of interest or concern are the visual and noise disturbances created by drones. Classic General Aviation has invested in reducing the noise disturbances out of respect for the population. And tries to co-exist in densely populated Western Europe. With regards to avoiding overflying small villages, (adjusting traffic patterns) around airfields and using equipment (e.g. propeller’s reducing noise), I don’t see any measure at all in the draft opinion. And there will be a lot of these disturbances, if we see the results of the commercial testings.
This topic should be addressed in the interest of aviation as such, especially anno 2020 where we have serious ecological movements. The Luxembourg MEP Tilly Metz rightfully addressed this topic early 2020 in the European parliament stating that the implementation of a European drone services market will drastically change the nature of European airspace, which until now has been carefully regulated. She rightfully posted a parliamentary question about this upcoming EASA drone legislation: “…concerning the ecological effects and the consequences for the well-being of EU citizens. Drone operators are seeking to deploy large numbers of commercial drone models, which would lead to a significant amount of visual and noise pollution.” Adding the question: “Whether the regulations will sufficiently protect the environment and the well-being of EU citizens?” Especially as the commercial drones will use the lowest part of the airspace, one should consider noise and visual pollution. And what about privacy considerations in this GDPR -era?
When drones are to become the future of aviation, as EASA states, a human centric approach will prove to be essential for the success of it. We’ve seen recently some drone swarms’ attacks in the Middle East, way more thoughts should be given on ensuring that drone integration in European airspace happens in a fully transparent and secure way. There’s no reason to be naïve.
Invitation to Memorial Hans Gutmann Tourist Rally Flight 2020
After hosting the 8th ‘Memorial Hang Gutmann Tourist Rally Flight’ in June 2019, with crews flying to Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Greece and Slovenia, the organization is now planning the 9th edition of the international general aviation event.
The organization is hoping that a lot of crews and aircrafts will participate. They are reaching out to you to motivate and invite all Aeronautical Federations of General Aviation, IAOPA chapters, aeroclubs and all flying friends to participate in the event or help them with national and local advises on the expected route.
The organizational team is seeking for advice on airfields with a nice atmosphere, customs, tourism and sightseeing activities, hotels etc. This to make this edition of the event even better than the last one.
The proposed schedule for the Rally Flight is from 19th till 29th June 2020, with flight stops in Portugal, Morocco, Spain and France (finish). The afterparty will be in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Total distance: ca. 2400NM. The rally is classified as Category 2 by the FAI-GAC (General Aviation Commission) and is equal to European championship.
The organization can be contacted by e-mail: info@hansgutmannrally.eu or jean.birgen@hansgutmannrally.eu
Please keep us informed about the aviation news in your country
If you have any news or things that you would like to share with pilots in other countries - for instance if you organize a Fly-in that might be of interest or if there is news about airports or new rules and regulations in your country that other pilots should know - please don't hesitate to send all your news to me, Gerrit Brand | Netherlands | email: newsletteriaopaeu@hotmail.com, telephone or whatsapp + 31 6 50831893.
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