Flying - EASA GA roadmap

19-Nov-14 12:08

I just read the EASA “Roadmap for regulation of general aviation” working paper. It’s jaw-dropping. It demonstrates an entirely new mindset! Some highlights:

A reoccurring feature in recent discussions has been the need to focus regulation on actual risk and to prioritise rules that target the biggest and most relevant risks. Traditionally much regulation has been blanket regulation, which aimed to cover all possible risks by saying something about everything, although the vast majority of fatalities are caused by a small set of recurring causes. This has led to a situation, where persons participating in aviation only occasionally on their free time cannot actually remember all the rules, nor do they consider the majority of rules relevant to them. The resulting culture of indifference and non‐compliance is a major safety risk as those people who choose to ignore rules they consider irrelevant, tend to apply the same attitude to all rules.

we also need to consider what is meant by “a high level of safety” […]. A “high level” does not mean applying the same level to all activities. The safety requirements of an Airbus A380 used to transport large numbers of fare paying passengers are far greater than those for a piston single aircraft used for pleasure flying. Furthermore it has to be acknowledged that the levels of safety in a large and well‐resourced organisation, employing professionals with extensive training and experience are bound to be better than for a private individual who can only afford to fly 20‐50 hours an year and who is his own SMS organisation. Anything else would imply that all that professional training and SMS’s have had no positive safety impact.

Almost invariably the [accident] cause is pilot error and only rarely something related to third party failings, such as airworthiness issues. However the most important lesson for the purposes of this roadmap is that all of these accident causes are already forbidden by law – yet they keep recurring. It is evident that additional regulation would not change anything, but what we are tackling with is a very human mix of genuine mistakes and attitude problems. Hence, if we wish to improve GA safety further, we need to find more intelligent methods of reaching the pilots.

National authorities can ill afford to put more resources to oversight of general aviation, when CAT is an obvious safety priority. Also the general aviation community itself is suffering and activity levels are falling, because flying as a hobby is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain. Apart from the loss of a recreational activity this puts also the recruitment basis and innovation potential of commercial aviation at risk.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

19-Nov-14 16:12

Wise words. Let’s hope they listen.

KEMT

23-Jun-20 22:07

The roadmap 2.0 just came out.

ESMK, Sweden

24-Jun-20 07:21

GA goes digital: EASA will coordinate the development of innovative technical solutions that will provide cockpit-accessible real-time aeronautical and flight data; – this reads like implementing ads-b in in europe – which would be amazing – if not for the fact that nobody will be able to afford to fly as we will be paying 15 euros a gallon.
I respect what the EASA is doing – ELA1, Part M light, but as national governments are not aligned on this goal of supporting GA and continue seperate efforts on cabon taxes, transport policies, airport management, its making GA more and more difficult for anything more than going for a 45 minute bimble around the local area and landing where you started.

24-Jun-20 07:36

It’s a roadmap for existing aircraft factories, not a roadmap for GA.

The elephant is the circulation

ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

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EASA GA roadmap

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