EGU
EGU Navigation Briefing 2010
European airspace classification
The use of the 7 ICAO Air space classifications was achieved on all levels of the Eurocontrol hierarchy. The latest change was made within the SESAR deliverables (paper work). Additionally the “Tool Box”, that among others will look at good practices in flexible use of air space and make recommendations towards the ECAC (European Civil Aviation Congress) States, has been introduced to the Eurocontrol Air Navigation Team (ANT) and has now to make its way through the Eurocontrol lines of command.
European Action Plan for Airspace Infringement Risk Reduction
The work on the “European Action Plan for Airspace Infringement Risk Reduction” which appeared early 2008, came to an end. Any effect was not recognized so far and it seems as the work was of no interest to anybody.
8.33 kHz Radio technology
The below FL 195 introduction of 8,33 kHz radio technology has not progressed over the last year. Commercial Aviation constantly makes the point in favour of a general introduction.
FAI Commission on Airspace and Navigation Systems (CANS)
The Commission on Airspace and Navigation met again in Frankfurt and will again in early February 2010. The meeting was mainly attended by European Gliding Association representatives. The outcome is in my opinion small and extremely focused on new technical gadgets. No response was yet received from the FAI member states if and how they used the CANS position paper.
Introduction of Mode S,
The Mode S technology was introduced in the ECAC states from March 2008 onwards. Instead of having a universal application the European countries still have and will have split opinion over the use. In some countries there is a total requirement, in some there is no requirement while others limit it to certain aircraft and the next group to certain airspaces only. The individual pilot has now to confirm the application of rules for each individual country
Let`s secure VFR altogether
Late in 2008 a meeting at Eurocontrol discussed the improvement of security related to VFR flying. Europe Air Sports commented on the brochure issued as completely unacceptable as it asked for:
Flight plan for every VFR flight Mandatory use of transponder by all aircraft Vetting (back ground check) of all VFR pilots
No further information was received on this issue in 2009.
EGAST European General Aviation Safety Team
EGAST was established in 2007 and is a working party at EASA in Cologne. EAS is represented by a VP.
European Gliding Union
Representative Organisation of European Glider Pilots
Report of the General Secretary to the Congress 2010
Beyond the annual congress, held in Helsinki, the Board held two official meetings in Frankfurt. Several other meetings and workshop took toke place during the year 2009.
I started my first year as a General Secretary with trying to understand the way of working within the Executive Board and I got familiar with procedures and organizational details. Emil Blumer, former General Secretary, gave me a great help and introduced me to all necessary knowledge, tools and methods for an efficient work. During this first year, he was always available for my questions and needs of knowledge. There is only one thing missing – a list of all abbreviations used in EGU.
I would like to thank Emil for the perfect handover of a complete documentation, electronic files and instructions.
I am impressed of the enormous amount of work that has been performed by the president, the Board- members and some delegates from our member countries at regular meetings with EAS, with EASA, with Eurocontrol and other organisations. Preparation of meetings, writing reports and minutes as well as studying all the documents need a lot of time. Without all these voluntary efforts EGU wouldn’t work at all.
Distributing documents to the right recipients is crucial and was a challenge to me as General Secretary. Keeping in touch with all members, delegates, working groups etc. requires an accurate and actual database for efficient communication. We therefore need the help from all of you to keep the address list actual; specifically email addresses are very important.
I like to thank the President, the Members of the Executive Board and all of you for the warm welcome of the new General Secretary and for the great support I received in 2009.
January 2010 Markus Gnaegi
EGU Excecutive Board General Secretary: Report 10
The past year required, as in previous years, a significant volume of activity from the Executive Board. The new board members, Markus – Secretary, Howard – TO Maintenance & Airworthiness and Henrik – TO Operations, were integrated fast and well. Luckily, Roland Stuck was willing to keep supporting EGU as special officer for the ongoing EASA affairs. As David Roberts was elected as president of Europe Air Sports, he decided to resign as board member of EGU in October which creates a vacancy. Many thanks for the dedicated work and support!
Detailed information will be provided by the Technical Officers at the Congress Meeting but an abstract of the work in their domain is distributed in this second batch of documents for the meeting.
Besides that, I should like to give a short overview of the subjects requiring our effort during the last months.
EASA has continued to publish a flow of NPA’s, CRD’s and Opinions. EGU has done its best to attend workshops/meetings and to comment on all these documents while respecting the time frame:
- NPA 2008-17 a/c Implementing Rules for Personal Licensing Due to the mass number of replies, the publication of the CRD is delayed and is now expected to be distributed in March 2010. The medical part – still under very high pressure – will be handled separately and the CRD might be published in June 2010. This means that the whole implementation encounters a vast delay and we still have to wait for the so called “cover regulation” to know how the transfer of all licences will be handled. Up to now, we can assure you that the input for our sport in the NPA via our representatives in the different working groups survives largely unchanged. The FCL.008 working group is still coping with the cloud flying issue.
- NPA 2008-22 a/g Authority and Organisation Requirements At the end of May, we posted our comments and here too we have to wait for the CRD. A very important item is the requirement that all training must be offered via so called ‘Approved Training Organisations’. Even the relaxed requirements for the “small organisations” didn’t fit at all for our sport and, as you know, our comments were in clear language! After some contacts with EASA, there was an opening for air sports to provide them alternatives. A proposal for training in the non-profit area for gliding, ballooning and powered flight will be discussed with EASA under the EAS umbrella in the coming weeks.
- NPA 2009-01 Operational Suitability Certificate Here, a special certification process was announced to operate an aircraft. As this is directly related to the design and manufacturers side, comments were handed in by Werner Scholz on behalf of the manufacturers’ Organisation. It seems that a solution for sailplanes could be found in an extra paragraph in the CS 22.
- NPA 2009-02 Implementing Rules for Air Operations With over 1200 pages, luckily ‘only’ a few hundred related to our activities, this NPA was also a hard job to handle. Finally, the requirements for our operations seemed less harmful than expected, but the necessary comments were posted in due time. For the outcome, we have, once again, to await the CRD.
- CRD 2008-03 Licences for Non Complex Aircraft Maintenance Engineers This publication gave us a clearer view about the ‘Light Licence’ for the maintenance of the ELA1 aircraft. Although the ELA-concept is part of the new Basic Regulation (216/2008,) we still have to wait for the publication of the adapted Implementing Rules of Part 21.
EGU/PP 2009-12-30 1/2
Part M These rules are now fully operational. To discover the impact on our gliding activities, Howard composed a questionnaire that was posted to the members. The goal is to have a clear overview on how maintenance and airworthiness is now organised in our member gliding federations. This is vital information we need in future meetings with EASA and the EU-Commission.
Aerodromes The new Reg. 1108/2009 has now also enlarged the Basic Regulation towards aerodromes, air traffic management and air navigation services. Thanks to a very early action via EAS, a derogation for smaller airfields is foreseen and the fields used by us will stay outside EASA’s field of competence and remain under the supervision of the NAA’s.
Airspace Günter attended a number of meetings related to airspace and organised the annual workshop on 14th November in Luxembourg. A broader participation of our members is more than welcome.
Statistics Another important item in negotiations are our statistics on activities, incidents and accidents. In fact we are the only organisation who can present reliable figures. Please give a prompt reply to Henrik’s request to provide your organisation’s data for 2009. (it is a shame that he is still waiting for some figures for 2008!)
Finances Luckily, the EGU’s financial situation is healthy. See our Treasurer’s report for the details. The budget for 2010 as proposed by the Board keeps the membership fees unchanged.
Membership Some members have ignored payment of the required membership fees (some for more than one year). The Board decided to send them a written notice with a last request. It is not honest towards the other members not to contribute to EGU’s work for gliding in Europe. Without receiving arrear payments, EGU will count 22 full members and 3 associate members.
Communication Thanks to Roland’s webmaster task, we have a very useful website with easy access to all reports, documents, regulations, etc. The publication of more up-to-date news or even a regular newsletter is a dream for 2010.
Relations As in the past, EGU maintains very good relations with EAS. It is an important platform for presenting the whole air sport community (large figures count!) getting an entry at the political level, such as the EU- Commission, EU-DG’s and regular meetings with EASA. There is also close contact and exchange of information with IGC. With the necessary independence but, in cooperation with the other partners, we can survive in this complex world.
Conclusion Despite having been a board member from the start if EGU, knowing the organisation and the play ground very well, it was not that easy for me to take over the presidency as it is so time-consuming, on top of combining it with different professional functions in the Belgian air sport organisation. My sincere thanks to the Board members and Roland for their devoted commitment. But… we also need you (we are looking for a new board member) and your support to continue.
Patrick Pauwels 2009-12-30
EGU/PP 2009-12-30 2/2
EGU/RD/2010-01-03
Initial Airworthiness – Part 21 and ELA
ELA supporting documentation needs.
The ELA process as expressed in NPA2007/08 is now fully accepted into Part 21, including all the alleviation presented last year. This includes the raising of the ELA1 limit to 1200kg. Even so, the rule has yet to be formally issued by EASA. The development of important supporting documentation and Guidance Material (GM) is slow to emerge in support of the new alleviations. Anticipated issue dates have lapsed and this is of concern to the development of GA and sport aviation, as well as gliding.
Among the the measures proposed in NPA2007/08 is the creation of a ‘Standard Changes and Repairs’ document authorising and enabling routine repairs and changes that have been a previous feature of sport aviation. The use of existing guidance material in the interim has been refused. EGU has been advised that there is no political barrier to these developments but the delay is causing difficulties and expense for both national associations and individual owners.
EGU has considered a paper seeking more open regulations on minor installations in commercial and non-CAT aircraft. This is intended as a follow up to the successful ‘Standard Parts’ initiative mounted some 4 years ago resulting in the acceptance that non type certificated (non-TSO) equipments could be carried in sailplanes, provided that the equipment was produced to an extant industry standard. While this enables the carriage of such items as ‘commercial’ GPS and loggers, the question of their installation remains an issue for a DOA approved organisation, or a submission direct to EASA, unless the TC holder has issued particularly clear guidance. This paper has been discussed by the EGU Board, EAS and individuals at EASA. To date no response has been received, save an expectation that the future ‘Standard Changes and Repairs’ document is seen by EASA as the best route forward, but as noted above, the timescale for this document is not determined.
Continuing Airworthiness and Maintenance– Part M Implementation and standard interpretation across nations
During the past year Part-M has been accepted into European law and most nations have at least embarked on the adoption of these measures. The depth of the consequences of taking on these actions is highly dependent on both the previous practices used in a given nation and the degree of involvement and responsibility sought by the national association in that nation. Further issues arise where National Federations are in application for approval under Sub Parts F, G and I. Then the interpretation of Part-M by the individual National Aviation Authorities becomes a serious issue.
Areas identified to date include, but are not confined to:
