EAS Newsletter - October 2005 Issue 21

EUROPE AIR SPORTS NEWSLETTER

The Association co-ordinating regulatory matters for and representing European National Aero-Clubs and Associations and Air Sports Unions and Federations with European Regulatory Authorities and Institutions.

October 2005                                                                                                                         S5057- Issue 21

Europe Air Sports recognizes its roots in FAI –the World Air Sport Federation- and congratulates FAI and all the delegates at the General Conference with their Centenary !

Membership and affiliations.

Europe Air Sports (EAS) counts 24 National Aero-Clubs, and 4 European Air Sports Organizations as Members, representing around 700.000 European air sporters.
EAS is affiliated to the FAI and is member of the EU Sports Office in Brussels.

New Board.
President is Sir John Allison. The Board now consists of Sir John, David Roberts as Treasurer-General and Louis Berger, Frank Dörner and Marcel Felten as VP’s.
In addition 3 Advisors to the Board have been elected from the ranks of the Members and FAI: Roland Stuck, Per Wistisen and Pierre Portmann. 

Programme Manager/Secretary-General.
After an initial period with an  outside consultant hired as Programme Manager, the Board has assigned Rudolph Schuegraf  in that position as from June 2005.
Rudi is now actively in function, managing activities and information and representing EAS at various levels.
Secretary-General is Harry Schoevers, now over 10 years.

 Working Parties/Technical Officers.
Our main body of technical activities. Active are 8 WP’s and 8 TO’s. Recently the WP Powered Flying has been revitalized. Kick-off meeting 11/12 Nov. in Hanover.

 European Commission matters.
The institutions under authority of the Commission (EASA and SES), the European Aviation Safety Agency and the Single European Sky, are now fully operational.

EAS  maintains high level contacts with Commission and Directorate functionaries.
Important issues directly from the Commission are the regulations on insurance for air operators and on driving licences. These requirements could have had serious impact on us, but have been downgraded to acceptable levels, also by intervention of EAS.

 Airspace matters

EAS, recognized as representative for the air sports community participates as observer in the Industry Consultation Body (ICB) of SES. Potential important issues are at stake, like the implementation of the future ATM system in Europe (known as SESAME).

 EAS is fully involved in ACG (high level consultation Group), TFA (Taskforce for airspace classifications) and the 8.33 channel spacing drafting group. Our delegates are Marcel Felten and Günter Bertram.

The main issue is the redesign of European airspace. Restructuring of upper-airspace has been decided upon. Lower airspace issues finally resulted in a decision of Eurocontrol to recommend not to define a common Lower Airspace Level for the member-States. Regulation of lower airspace is left to the National Authorities. This is a satisfactory result, achieved also by the efforts of our delegates –however, national developments should be monitored carefully by our Members!

Another issue of great concern was the regulation for charging air navigation services where an intended coverage of VFR traffic would impact our community. The issue is suspended at European level, also by pressures from EAS, but again National regulators can impose unsatisfactory rules.

Issues of transponders and vertical expansion of the 8.33 kHz radio-communication are still requiring our attention.

EAS also participated in Eurocontrol’s General & Business Aviation Day where our President has made an opening speech that has widely attracted attention.

A high level meeting of our President and the Director-General of Eurocontrol is scheduled for 23 November

 EASA matters

EAS is a regular Member of the EASA Advisory Board (EAB), where the President represents EAS. Main subjects are budget, work programme, and fees and charges.

Another important committee is the Safety Standards Consultative Committee (SSCC). Rudolph Schuegraf is representing EAS.  SSCC is consulted on work programme issues, at the heart of the Agency.

However, our main effort was and is directed at the Notice of Proposed Amendment (NPA’s).

An important NPA refers to the extension of EASA’s scope to operations and licensing. Here a great success has been achieved by our inputs. The EASA Opinion limits requirements in the regulation for our category of aviation to a generalized nature and leaves the implementation to national authorities or qualified entities. A huge task lays ahead to materialize these intents to desirable formats.

The NPA for  Maintenance Part-M for non-complex, non- commercial aircraft is now in consultation. EAS has organized in coordination with EASA a special Workshop in Cologne on 4/5 November.

EAS also has filed a request with the Commission to change Annex II (exemptions of the main Regulation) which defines the scope of EASA. This concerns certain categories of gliders, microlights and historical aircraft.

Licensing and Medical matters are taken care of by our officers, Rudi Schuegraf and Dr. Peter Saundby, as usual.

 Website.

EAS website, hosted by the FAI, is now upgraded and provides extensive information. Site is accessible at:

http://www.europe-airsports.fai.org.