Quick glance shows that finally the quadrantal cruising level rule is gone and replaced by the hemispheric one.
Also, weirdly, the marshalling sign for 'emergency stop' is now what used to be 'stop/cut engine', at least in my experience.
From the SERA text, there is no way a VFR flight can ever enter airspace A.
I'm curious about how you get that reading? I haven't read the regulations in details, but didn't take that reading from it.
Thanks for the clarification achimha. I have not really considered whether SERA is reasonable or unreasonable! for what it is worth, I thought that it was very clear and readable for a document of it's type.
I think that through the build up to implementing EU regs there has been confusion among pilots and training providers as to what is already decided and what has been put out for consultation... and what our CAA have added as another layer to the regulations.
I hope that, with discussion and informed comments from such as yourself,things will become a bit more clear.
I genuinely think that there is a feeling of concern in GA at the moment as to what the regulations mean for those at grass roots level. When JAR arrived, there were numerous seminars for instructors/ examiners etc to explain, inform and clarify. This time we have greater change but no oganised attempt to educate. This is a shame....
Sure but EU law is above national law (for areas where the states have empowered the EU) so either the states revoke their ANOs until Dec 4, 2012 or they ask for the derogation.
SERA doesn't replace laws, it is an additional regulation.
Hi Peter,
SERA is an EU regulation (or to be precise: an implementing regulation). EU regulations are valid law in all member countries, no need to cut and paste into local law.
EU directives are the ones that need to be transcribed.
I didn't know ICAO permitted VFR in airspace A. SERA surely does not do it (and defines SVFR clearly as taking place in a control zone). I guess it should be trivial for the UK to rename its airspace A to airspace B. The German CAA will have a very hard time implementing IFR in airspace G, for decades they have been convinced that it is totally impossible and extremely dangerous.
@Duckeggblue: SERA is the initiative to have a common ANO for all EU members. And member countries cannot just implement the parts they like. SERA is a EU regulation and thus law in all EU countries.
Of course the countries now have until 2014 to build political pressure to change the parts they don't like. However, SERA looks very reasonable to me -- the UK VFR in airspace A is as much nonsense as no IFR in airspace G in Germany.
My understanding is that the mandatory bits of EU regs have to be incorporated into national laws, so the ANO will have to be amended where necessary.
The ANO will still be the ANO as prosecutions have to be done in the UK and UK courts can work only with UK laws.
ICAO permits VFR in any Class A which touches the ground. That is how VFR works across the Heathrow zone, and to the Channel Islands. It is called SVFR.
There are just two countries in Europe which have lots of Class A: UK and Italy, and in neither case for any good apparent reason. It could be Class D...
However all these things have developed over decades and are hard to change. For example the UK IMC Rating allows IFR in Classes D,E,F,G which conveniently keeps IMC Rated pilots out of the most busy airspace, and fits in well with the way IFR is operated in the UK, with London Control dealing only with Eurocontrol-IFR flights (which need the full IR). It enabled the IMCR to be born and to stay, without massive political issues arising, despite the IMCR being a full IR in all but name when you look at the actual privileges (the full IR differs only in not having the UK-only restriction, not having the 1800m min vis requirement for takeoff or landing, and not having the no-Class-A restriction).
Most of this stuff is not really logical and would never have been done if starting with a clean sheet, but it is almost impossible to unravel now.
Being able to fly VFR at night is useful to pilots of aircraft over 1999kg 
and to pilots whose licenses prohibit IFR under any conditions (many or most non UK pilots, visiting the UK, I guess).
It also resolves the long standing grey area of whether the holder of an FAA PPL (which is absolutely VFR only) can fly on it in the UK at night.
SERA is like all things in politics and marketing: a name. Many trees had been sacrificed on the altar of bureaucracy. We have ICAO as basis and a SERA (with alterations to ICAO) and an ANO based on SERA (with alterations). It is a step into a single european sky, but as long as local regulations are possible not a real progress. Isn't it time for a Scottish ANO or a Bavarian exemption to add regional flair?
I am confused by the concept of SERA.
I may be missing something and am very willing to be educated 
It seems to me that in the UK, we have the Air Navigation Order that differs from SERA.
Other European countries have their own version of the ANO which differs from our ANO...and SERA.
All that seems to be happening, is that each country is adopting SERA- except for those bits that differ from their national rules of the air.
For the bits that differ, we register some form of national non conformance/exemption from SERA and we end up with our ANO but called SERA.
What will be "standardized" about this?
