141st IAOPA Europe Regional Meeting in Finland

The 141st IAOPA Europe Regional Meeting will be held in Finland, in Rovaniemi on 14th of September 2019. Rovaniemi is the official hometown of Santa Claus (says Finland). Forget the snow on the picture by the way. It’s September and still summer even above the polar circle.
AOPA board members from all over Europe will gather in Rovaniemi to discuss the latest and most important issues that concern GA at the moment. Issues like drones and airspace, how to integrate UAV's into the airspace without endangering GA's privileges to navigate safely and freely  (see item in this newsletter), ATM delays and slots, the European picture, the risk of GNSS Outages, shortage of ATCO’s which happens to be the case at the German ANSP DFS with the result that even GA-people have to wait far too much time in their plane before they an IFR-departure slot, update on EU-FCL, Part M Light: When will it come, how can we get prepared? ADS-B and electronic conspicuity: Is there anything new? ADS-B websites and privacy: Time for us to either deliver or to surrender. General Update on the Single European Sky and EASA. EUROCAE: IAOPA is a member, but how can we finally contribute, and other subjects on the GA agenda.

If you are a board member and want to participate, there is still a chance to register. Please contact AOPA Finland at info@aopa.fi. Hotel accommodation is provided for a reasonable prize. Rovaniemi can easily be reached by plane, for instance via Helsinki.
 

AOPA members get 15% discount at Jeppesen, prolonged till August 31 2020.

AOPA / IAOPA organizations work tirelessly around the world to represent, protect and develop general aviation. These efforts often include advocacy for GA (General Aviation) with government agencies,participation in public education and promotion of continuing education and safety in the aviation community. AOPA also works with its industry partners to ensure special discounts and benefits for its members. Through an agreement with Jeppesen, members can claim a 15% discount (prolonged till at least August 31, 2020) on some of Jeppesen's most popular card / data services and EASA training products. More information about the offer and what you should consider when ordering can be found on our website.

MOGAS map Germany

Many people fly within or to Germany. Many planes, especially MLA’s/UL’s fly on MOGAS these days. AOPA Germany has published a map with all the MOGAS locations. At which airfield is there any fuel? Most ultralight aircraft do not need AVGAS, but get along well with auto fuel. The AIP as an official airfield directory in Germany does not list any microlight airfields, so it unfortunately cannot be used as a source of information. German AOPA-member René Mühlmeier addressed the problem and produced a clear MOGAS map.

The map is updated several times a year and can be found on the website of AOPA Germany.

Air Safety – Fatigue

Fatigue affects our ability to fly. It can impair our memory and judgment, our concentration and vision, and our ability to coordinate. An overwhelming desire to sleep is the most commonly reported symptom of fatigue. Pilots should not get on the plane if there is evidence of exhaustion. if it happens while flying, the flight should be stopped as soon as possible. In a Safety Advisor entitled "Fighting Fatigue," AOPA-USA has addressed the causes and effects of fatigue and provides guidance on how to prevent exhaustion on the floor and in the cockpit.

Sleep deprivation

The obvious cause of fatigue is usually a lack of sleep. Different people need different amounts of sleep. For most adults, the critical amount of sleep is seven to eight hours during the night. If you are regularly deprived of a good night's sleep, it will eventually make itself felt. For example, the ability to concentrate could be impaired or overwhelmed by an overwhelming need for sleep.
The best defense against fatigue is to change your sleep patterns and make sure you get enough sleep in the long run. However, a good night's sleep with sufficient sleep does not make up for the sleep deficit of four days.

Avoid flights that end after 10 o'clock in the evening. If this is not possible, stop with sufficient rest before the flight or consider flying with a second pilot.
More on fatigue here on the AOPA USA website .

General  Aviation in Finland

AOPA Finland organized the aviation discussion forum at SuomiAreena event together with production company Media hub Helsinki and the City of Pori. Suomi Areena is held simultaneously with the oldest jazz festival in Europe, Pori Jazz; hence the visitors can enjoy lively discussion during the day and musical highlights in the evening. This summer 73 000 visitors took part in about 200 events. 

Organizers of SuomiAreena events consist of ministries, governmental and municipal organizations, NGO’s, labor market organizations, political parties, companies, etc. The discussion topics are related with politics, society, culture and sports. 
For full details and to read the entire article go to AOPA Finland’s website. 

Some information about FIS in various European countries

Esa Harju of Finland asked the IAOPA members which countries offer FIS (Flight Information Service) available as described in ICAO SERA documentation. The response so far:

Belgium: a dedicated frequency and service provided. In addition, the military also provides FIS on a dedicated frequency, depending on activity.

Switzerland runs two FIS, one for the Zurich and one for the Geneva Area. They are good for general information and so on, but the FIS controllers are not allowed to give you any HDG, ALT or clearances. They have got a radar screen, but are not allowed to guide you. They can only give you info like “Airspace Charlie ahead” or traffic information. Swiss ANSP finds it too expensive to put a fully licensed controller at the console. FIS in Switzerland is free of charge.

In the Netherlands FIS is provided by the civil ANSP on several dedicated frequencies and by the military ANSP on one dedicated frequency.  In the future these two providers will join forces which will hopefully increase the service-level. At this moment the services provided by the military FIS are extremely poor.

The Bulgarian FIS is in compliance with SERA. Operates in 130.6 MHZ.

In the UK they have London and Scottish FIS, which provide simply an information service on a number of frequencies.  One can also request FIS from various lower airspace radar service providers, some of whom are military and some civil. The services they may be able to offer are ‘Basic’, ‘Traffic’ or ‘Deconfliction’ , all of which are levels of FIS. Other ATSU’s may also be able to provide FIS.
Denmark has "Copenhagen Information", providing Flight Information Service to VFR traffic outside the major TMA’s. They provide flight following and traffic information and advice about airspace - but no radar vectors. The service is widely used by the majority of VFR pilots.

Greece has excellent FIS service covering all of the FIR. Athens TMA has also a dedicated FIS service to cover only the TMA VFR traffic.

Presidents Award for Dan Åkerman  

At their last board meeting before the summer, AOPA Sweden drew attention to some old servants and gave them plaques for valuable efforts. Including Dan Åkerman, who was given a Presidents Award for his work with AOPA Sweden and IAOPA Europe on numerous airworthiness activities.

On the picture left Dan Åkerman, to the right Lennart Persson.

Drones get their own U-space

Operators of commercial drones are entering the market. The buzzword for flying without line of sight is BVLOS and stands for "Behind Visual Line of Sight". In order to fly safely with drones many rules and systems will be needed that do not yet exist. The European Commission intends to create a set of rules for flight operations by mid-2020. A crucial factor for the success of BVLOS drones is the creation of an airspace adapted to the particular characteristics of the drones. For a pure see and avoid with the well-known evasion rules for the visual flight about in the airspace "Golf" no longer works, if only because the pilots manned aircraft, the small and agile drones are no longer visually perceived. At an EASA drone workshop in May 2019 the airspace changes were discussed. The idea is to create a special airspace category for drones from ground level up to 500 ft GND, called U-Space, which stands for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Airspace.

From our GA perspective, the key weakness is the assumption that below 500 feet no manned aviation takes place apart from airfields, and that consequently drones only have to deal with each other in U-space. The answer to our criticism shows great ignorance and only makes things worse, because it now manned aviation will have to register itself before entering the U-space and pay for it in case of doubt. We as AOPA and European IAOPA are in discussion with the European and national committees, and not least, of course, with our colleagues from air sports and professional aviation. There is unquestionably consensus among all manned aviation aerospace associations that drones must adapt and abide by existing rules of the game:
• Drones always have to give way to manned aircraft, if only because of the small scale and variety of "See and Avoid" the planned drones stopped working.
• A prior formal permit to enter the U-Space cannot be obtained by manned aviation, unless it is about longer-term planned aerial work. All operators of low-altitude rescue helicopters have very different problems, and glider pilots who make an unplanned out-landing cannot even determine where they will take place even 5 minutes before landing. The situation is similar with balloons, hang gliders and paragliders, and there is certainly no time for formalities during emergency landings.
• The manned aviation may not incur any costs for the entry into the U-Space.

Should it become necessary for manned aviation to become visible with electronic devices, such as paraglider pilots without conventional transponders, then the costs have to be borne by the originators of the new requirements, i.e. the drones. The potential for the drones to develop into something good for general aviation is certainly there, if the above criteria are met and the drone communication network is designed to be used by general aviation may, with the aim of transmitting traffic and weather data, or even at z. B. establish a telephone connection for air traffic control. But the drone's business model is far from over, and there are still too many critical issues left unresolved. Also, it is unknown who should be responsible for the management of the drones: the classical air traffic control, a governmentally mandated private enterprise, or would a competitive situation with several companies for drone control possible? Equally unexplained are the questions of how the drones behave in case of loss of their data connection, or how the social acceptance in case of increased drone traffic over our cities looks like. For the parcel delivery services, it is definitely wise not to oppose drones on operational grounds, the existing contracts with their human deliveries will certainly not be terminated for many years.

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.