It comes into effect in EASA Member States on 11th November. The document does not include associated AMC and GM; these are anticipated to be included in the next version of the Easy Access Rules for Aircrew which should be published on or around 11th November. A summary has been circulating on social media; here are the most GA-relevant aspects of the amendment:
One interesting thing is the special focus on RT, which is generally poor in GA.
Many small improvements it seems.
I don’t get the 6 month timeframe for the night rating. Any ideas ?
It is a time limit from start of the training until it is finished. I guess they think it is a problem that many might start to do a couple of hours during the winter and do not finish it until the winter after that making a long time between flight when it is only 5 hours of training. Makes sort of sense maybe.
It is very good that they drop the theoretical knowledge sittings and introduce SEP(sea) for LAPL. Using annex I aircraft for training is also great!
Good that they finally addressed the stupid formulation of the revalidation rules that prohibited revalidation of class/type/IR ratings earlier that three months before they would lapse.
As far as I understand, can I have my IR done on my own N-registered aircraft under a EASA training organisation?
And what about G-reg aircraft (after the Brexit)?
Same situation, presumably. You need to ask your local FTO(s) if they will train in a customer aircraft. Most won’t (due to administrative laziness) and that has always been one of the big limiting factors on IR adoption in Europe. The other main one is lack of freelance training options. There may be some European CAAs who prohibit training in a foreign reg plane, too. Most clearly prohibit ab initio training in foreign regs, otherwise many schools would go foreign reg. A search with a term like
“n-reg” AND ir
digs out various past threads.
Is there anything in this new set of regs which addresses this issue?
Most won’t (due to administrative laziness) and that has always been one of the big limiting factors on IR adoption in Europe
I would rather assume the limited availability of IFR-airfields is the key drag for IR adoption in Europe (compared to the number of VFR-only airfields. At least in Germany & Switzerland; guessing it is similar in other European countries)
Isn’t it the first time a time limit is set for any training ? I hope this won’t be copied for other ratings. One can have many reasons to spread out flight training. It is not efficient but some circumstances may force you to.
What if you exceed 6 months ? You have to start from the beginning again ?