Then you get the more subtle stuff e.g. national regs on say homebuilts…
To be honest, I’m in the same boat. A few years ago, I knew the leglisation, and knew where to look up what I didn’t know.
Now, I’ve no idea where to find the definative document for any of the EASA leglisation.
The regulations are written by lawyers for lawyers not for the user.
If the normal pilot has no idea where they are, how can it be applied?
I struggle as well, but find the part I look for after some effort.
I go in to EASA source via the following link, the graphical block links are ok-ish (as far as EASA stuff goes) to follow.
http://easa.europa.eu/regulations
Day to day, I just CAP804 which has all the usual extracts from FCL anyway
I know that reasonably well. For me as a pilot (and not owner), part-FCL and SERA give most of the answers. Since part-NCO is not yet in force I also have to apply a number of Swedish ops regulations. The main problem with the EASA regs is that there are no tables of contents so it is very difficult to find your way. On paper, it would be hopeless, on the computer you can at least search.
There is also the issue of these leaving many options open to the national authority, and (at least in my case) I’ve found it impossible to find out which option has been selected in Ireland, never mind what other authorities selected.
On a different thread Peter wrote:
“Sorry – I don’t even know where Part-FCL is. I find the EASA website(s) an impenetrable mess.”
Flying in the UK, I used to be pretty clear on where the rules and regs were. It would be the ANO, a CAA CAP document, AIP or perhaps even the MATS part 1 as a guide. JAA then EASA have come through since and I’m a little out of touch with them. Under JAA this didn’t matter, I think, as it was all implemented through the CAA, but now I understand that EASA will take primacy and the CAA may publish differences ( or something) if they wish.
I can still find my way around most of the UK CAA CAP documents which I believe reflect the position in the UK and incorporate EASA, and I have training material that sets out the ICAO position on a lot of things.
Does anyone understand how to access the EASA documentation in a human readable form, and how would you go about understanding the differences if any for other countries, e.g. Holland?
Apologies for the dumb question but I’ve been getting nervous that my knowledge is increasingly based on accumulated information from EuroGA et al and that cannot be what EASA intends?
Ed
Ed wrote:
On a different thread Peter wrote:
“Sorry – I don’t even know where Part-FCL is. I find the EASA website(s) an impenetrable mess.”
I somehow doubt that Peter does not know where to find the EASA regulations, but in doubt you can find them here
I agree with both Peter and yourself wrt the lack of accessibility of the EASA regulations. I went through that when I studied for converting my FAA IR to EASA. There are however consolidated versions of some regulations on the EASA web site, although in some cases it includes regulations which have not gone into effect yet. It does takes a little getting used to, but you eventually get the hang of it. Sort of.
What is more confusing, as you point out, are all the exceptions that the regulation opens up to, and hence the differences between countries. For example the minimum altitudes above built-up areas in France, the transponder codes in Germany etc.
Apologies for the dumb question but I’ve been getting nervous that my knowledge is increasingly based on accumulated information from EuroGA et al and that cannot be what EASA intends?
You do need to take what you learn on forums, or in the club house for that matter, even from people that are generally considered as knowledgeable, with a grain of salt and nothing beats backing it up with first hand knowledge of the regulations.
I think we should have a somewhat pragmatic approach to the differences in regulations between countries, and it should certainly not prevent us from venturing outside our country of residence. ICAO laid down the basic for rules of the air and country-specific regulations are pretty much based on them. Even before SERA the rules of the air, airspaces and so on were, relatively speaking, the same in all European countries although there are some idiosyncrasies here and there. Apart from the two mentioned in a previous post, Night VFR not being allowed in some countries springs to mind.
The differences were never so great that it would prevent you from flying across Europe. My approach back when I first did that, pre-JAA, was to read the GEN section of the Jeppesen VFR manual for each country, and that I believe gave me all the information I needed to stay out of trouble. The biggest challenge was to find the documentation about the French P- and R- areas and acquire all of the VFR charts (this was pre-Jepp VFR+GPS and almost pre-online stores)
