The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) has over 400,000 members worldwide, making it the largest pilots organisation.
The Association is a not for Commercial Gain organisation, owned and operated by its members. Its primary role is to further the aim of General Aviation. By working with authorities AOPA explains the needs of GA and tries to ensure that regulation does not needlessly, by added cost and bureaucracy, hinder its development.
Safety in aviation is paramount and we believe that the best safety device on board any aircraft is a well trained pilot.
Getting the Regulatory model right should enable pilots to spend more of their time and money on flying.
A personal message from Martin Robinson, AOPAs CEO, "AOPA is the only organisation that can fully look after General Aviation pilots, whatever type of aircraft they fly and whether they are professional or recreational pilots. You owe it to yourself to belong."
AOPA promotes your right to fly and aim to:
- Increase General Aviation awareness
- Increase your freedom to fly
- Combat increases in costs
- Remove or amend unnecessary regulations and restrictions
- Improve aviation safety
- Protect airfields
- Improve flying training
- Evaluate and publicise proposed changes in legislation
- Fight for your rights
- Make our members better pilots.
AOPA Pilots Are Better Pilots
Aims of AOPA
* Control the cost of private flying
* Prevent Unnecessary restrictions
* Improve general aviation
AOPA ensure the view of pilots and aircraft owners are heard in all the appropriate places both locally and Internationally. AOPA UK represent pilots and aircraft owners in over a dozen UK and European aviation forums. Through its association with IAOPA representation at over further thirty International aviation forums
AOPA - The People details the individuals elected to manage AOPA and their positions within the organisation.
Why you should join AOPA - application forms are available from Soloflight
AOPA represents and promotes members interests to Government, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA), EU Commission, Eurocontrol and to National Air Traffic Services.
Exclusive AOPA benefits include:
* Initial FREE legal advice. Each year a growing number of PPL holders are prosecuted by the CAA: on whom will your rely for help?
* Initial FREE medical advice.
* A photo-embossed international air crew card for Two Year membership showing the holders photo, Pilots licence number and AOPA membership number. This assists pilots in security areas and in obtaining various negotiable discounts.
* Discounted insurance for personal accident, aircraft cover, flying instructors liability and travel through BESSO Limited a leading London based brokerage which has been in partnership with AOPA since 1995.
* Tailored advice on aircraft purchases to suit individuals needs.
* Award winning General Aviation magazine that keeps you right up to date with the world of GA.
* Access to members area on the AOPA website at www.aopa.co.uk
* Access to NOTAMS and Met information through the AOPA website.
* AOPA Forum - for advice and comments from fellow pilots and AOPA members.
* The Lottery 700 Club
To view the web site & further benefits, click here
News Updates
- Humberside Representative appointed
Membership is FREE to students and there is a Wings Awards scheme for encouraging the improvement of your skills as a pilot. Mel can be contacted through the Soloflight office or by email humberside@aopa.co.uk.
NEWS
Death knell for PPL instructor
EASA is under pressure to abandon the reintroduction of the PPL Flying Instructor from European states who insist that instructors hold a CPL or have ‘demonstrated a CPL level of theoretical knowledge’. EASA had responded positively to proposals for a PPL Instructor, which used to exist before the JARs, and members of its licensing Working Group believed it was a done deal. But unnamed states have put their foot down. The decision is a blow to the flight training industry which had hoped to lure back the experienced, high-time PPL who wanted to instruct part-time, or full-time after retirement from a day job. AOPA’s Martin Robinson says: “A greybeard who’s been around the track a few times often makes a better instructor than a 150-hour CPL who has no experience but has paper qualifications. Few people are going to pay for a CPL course at that stage in their lives. What is the gain in getting them to do CPL exams which are largely irrelevant to what they’re going to teach? We’ll end up with a LAPL instructor who can’t be paid, then some expensive instructors who’ve got all the tickets but charge heavily – you’ll have two instructors with different qualifications, charging different amounts to teach exactly the same thing on the same aircraft. Where’s the sense?”
AOPA Bonus Day at Duxford on September 18th
Make a date to be at Duxford on Saturday September 18th for the AOPA Bonus Day, where you can talk to some of the most influential people in UK aviation. A key speaker will be Eric Sivel, EASA’s Deputy Director of Rulemaking, and the CAA will be sending a senior manager – full details on www.aopa.co.uk when they are confirmed. There’s a full seminar programme, prize competitions including concours d’elegance, oldest and youngest pilots and furthest fly-in visitor. Question AOPA representatives from the Instructors Committee, Corporate Members, Executive Committee and Members Working Group and get information on AOPA products like the Aerobatics Course, Radio Navigation Certificate, Wings Awards and Mentoring Scheme. See you there.
What are you doing out there?
The Airspace and Safety Initiative has begun an AOPA-backed survey of Class G airspace users to find out what we’re up to. AOPA has long complained that airspace changes are made without considering the knock-on effect on the Open FIR. The CAA says that collecting accurate data “will enable (us) to have better information available when taking decisions on issues like airspace design.” The ten-minute online survey should be completed with logbook to hand. All information is non-attributable and will only be used for the airspace model. See http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/G5Z9BNB
They’ve got your number
Somebody’s going to get a call from the CAA to ask how they came to infringe Red Arrows RAT during the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Already there have been three infringements of Reds RATs – that’s as many as they had all last year. Red 10 Graeme Bagnall says: “At Goodwood we got a tail number, which we have passed to the CAA.” Do you have the AIS freephone number in your mobile? If not, put it in now. It’s 0500 354 802. Call if before you take off, every time. It could save you untold grief.
8.33 kHz radio spacing is coming
The European Commission has decided
to mandate the use of 8.33 kHz radio spacing at all levels across Europe and is
requiring that new aircraft be equipped with this spacing from 2012.
Retro-fitting of old aircraft with new radios will begin within eight years,
although there is no indication of when the retrofit will have to be completed
by. States will have up to 2018 to decide how to apply the retrofit
requirement.
Meanwhile, Ofcom’s sham ‘consultation’ on the new radio stealth tax has been extended to April 22nd, but don’t expect any change; the Treasury wants money, Ofcom has been ordered to go out and get some, and they don’t want to be confused with facts. Safety arguments cut no ice; Ofcom says it is not responsible for safety and won’t take it into consideration. Europe’s decision to mandate 8.33 has stripped away Ofcom’s fig-leaf for the tax, which was to claim that it was incentivising the use of 8.33.
How will GA cope with new charges of £2,600 a year for an A/G radio, £10,000 for ATIS and Volmet and so forth? Small airfields have not done well in recent times; two bad summers have come on top of an avalanche of increases in CAA charges. Landing fees won’t stand further stretching. Those airfields which manage to find saving in the CAA’s removal of the licensing requirement for flight training may find that Ofcom’s demand for a handout wipes out any advantage.
An unhelpful law
The government has introduced a specific law which makes it an offence to shine a laser light at an aircraft. Unfortunately, it’s a retrograde step. Up to now, criminals who tried to blind pilots were charged with endangering an aircraft, and Judge Tudor Owen, a helicopter pilot who sits at Snaresbrook Crown Court, established a precedent – upheld on appeal – by which a jail term was deemed a proper punishment. The new law provides only for a fine.
FAA to run N-reg seminars in London
Everything you want to know about operating on the N-register will be explained at a series of FAA seminars loosely themed on ‘the rights and responsibilities of pilots of N-reg aircraft operating outside the USA’ to be held near London this month. The seminars have been arranged by the FAA’s new representative in London, Tweet Coleman; the first, at Farnborough Airport on April 13th, is booked out, but there are still places on the 14th at Harrods Aviation conference room at Luton Airport, and on the 15th at FlightSafety at Farnborough. Each seminar runs from 2 – 4 pm.
February
The CAA has thrown its weight behind the
IMC rating, making its preservation a matter of policy, which is excellent news
for the campaign to keep it. At a meeting on January 25th CAA Chief
Executive Andrew Haines told Martin Robinson that the retention of the IMC
rating was official policy, and that Mike Smethers, Chairman of the EASA Board
of Management and a CAA Board member, has been asked to explore with EASA ways
of allowing the IMC rating to continue to be offered, if only in the UK. As set
out in detail in the current issue of General Aviation magazine, the IMC
rating is one of the major reasons why the UK’s GA accident rate is much better
than the rest of Europe; while some 90 pilots a year die in France and 80 in
Germany, the UK figure is 20 to 25, despite our maritime climate. While some
other European countries would welcome an IMC rating, there is opposition in
some circles, partly because of a misinformation campaign which has
characterised it as “an instrument rating with 20 percent of the training”.
EASA does not want to ban the IMC rating and has tried hard to have it
accepted, but unless there is unanimity among the 27 EASA countries, the
current rules say it must be banned everywhere. AOPA UK has begun a political
campaign to change this situation.
Ofcom stealth tax grinds inexorably on
GA faces yet another charge through Ofcom’s intention to levy fees for VHF frequencies. Ofcom want to introduce stealth taxes of £2,600 a year for an A/G service, £9,900 for ATIS and VOLMET and up to £19,800 for VHF digital links. AOPA believes the consequent loss of frequencies will have serious safety implications as aerodromes with multiple frequencies are forced to amalgamate them and unlicensed aerodromes go non-radio rather than find yet more money for the government. Ofcom seems to believe that should this occur, the CAA will introduce regulations to force aerodromes to provide radio services and pay the taxes. Ofcom says differential taxing of frequencies –†25 kHz will be three times more expensive than 8.33 kHz – will encourage the spread of 8.33. But AOPA says this is a fig-leaf for a tax grab. Martin Robinson said: “When 8.33 kHz became universal above FL195 it was not done by pricing. The only safe way is to have everyone using the same kit. I fear that as well as bleeding more money out of GA, Ofcom’s tax will force an undesirable and expensive radio mandate on the CAA.
Security and prosecution costs
AOPA is pressing for details of exactly how the CAA plans to restrict airspace over venues for the London Olympics in 2012. Areas affected include not only east London but south Dorset and various football stadia, and many aerodromes will operate under restriction. Recently the Aviation Security Division of the DfT hosted a meeting to discuss how to apply the UK’s derogation from EC regulations on security, in particular for aircraft below 15 tonnes. In the USA, the Transport Security Administration is to leave most GA security to GA – let’s hope Europe does likewise. The DfT is working on an update to the regulatory framework for aviation, and proposes to make “users” pay the cost of enforcement. AOPA believes this is grossly unfair; murderers and rapists do not have to pay the full costs of investigation and prosecution, nor should GA pilots.
NEWS December 2009
Get your IMC Rating now!
AOPA-UK is developing a multi-faceted strategy to save the
IMC Rating following a meeting with EASA’s Deputy Head of Rulemaking Eric Sivel
on December 2. M Sivel confirmed that the brief EASA had received from FCL-008,
the working group set up to look at instrument flying issues, was hostile to
the IMC Rating, alleging that it is unsafe and accords holders “virtually the
same privileges as the IR with 20% of the training”. The fact that these
observations have come from a UK delegate indicated that support for the IMC
Rating was patchy, even in the UK. AOPA’s Martin Robinson and Nick Wilcock
stressed that there was near-unanimous support for the IMC Rating in the UK and
it would not be given up without a fight. Many of the claims about the IMC
Rating were simply untrue, said Robinson. Apart from dismissing the rating out
of hand, FCL-008 had not properly considered how the IMC or an equivalent
rating might be made to work, contrary to its terms of reference. AOPA is now
working on a strategy aimed at saving the IMC Rating and involving the European
Parliament, the EC, the CAA, and probably you – a targeted letter-writing
program may become necessary in the New Year. Watch this space. Martin Robinson
says: “Pilots are not coming forward to do IMC Ratings because of the EASA
threat, but I urge all pilots to get the rating. These skills have saved many
lives, and once you have these skills, EASA cannot take them away. There’s
never been a better time to do an IMC Rating than now.”
Mentoring Scheme moves
The AOPA Mentoring Scheme took another step towards fruition in December when AOPA’s lawyers and insurance advisers pronounced positively on the workability of the scheme from their standpoint. Relevant legal papers and insurance clauses are being drawn up, and AOPA’s Directors will be asked for their seal of approval at an upcoming meeting. The Mentoring Scheme aims to put together experienced pilots with those who have less flying time, ability or confidence in order to encourage them to undertake flights of which they are perfectly capable, but which they avoid because of fear of the unknown. AOPA’s legal consultant Tim Scorer and insurance adviser Frank Bannister of Besso told a Members Working Group meeting inter alia that with stipulations that left no room for doubt as to who was in charge (always the mentee) and with straightforward and no-cost insurance amendments, the Scheme as detailed would fly. Project Manager Mick Elborn is champing at the bit to get (re)started… more news soon.
The infringements numbers game
The Airspace Infringement Working Group held its first meeting of the modern era on December 7, with the total of infringements said to have reached 1,054 for the year, most of them in the London area. While AOPA is keen to see action taken against dangerous infringers, there is a suspicion that somebody is playing with figures for reasons of their own. If there were 1,054 infringements, why did the CAA investigate about 10 percent, and take action against only a handful? What constitutes an infringement? How does a controller decide whether to file an MOR or file a Form 939 requesting an investigation? Does it depend on which side they got out of bed that day? Martin Robinson says: “We need to know the rules of the game, and they mustn’t change from day to day. I fear there are ulterior motives at work here, and I’m not happy about it. The fight against infringements is too important.”
November News 2009
Saving the IMC rating
AOPA is carrying the fight to save the IMC rating to Europe, with a meeting on December 2nd in Cologne with Eric Sivel, EASA’s Deputy Head of Rulemaking, to discuss how to proceed. The meeting follows the closure of FCL-008, the EASA working group set up to debate future instrument flying qualifications, which failed to address the issue of the IMC rating nor proposed any equivalent. AOPA UK has established that because the UK delegates refused to back the IMC rating, other European delegates thought Britain did not want it. A UK delegate from of Europe Air Sports and PPL-IR has said that the IMC rating offers essentially the same privileges as an IR on the basis of 20% of the training, its approval by the CAA was a daft and ludicrous compromise, and claims made for its contribution to safety ‘cannot credibly substantiated by the facts.’ Martin Robinson of AOPA UK says: “Mistakenly, many European delegates have come to believe this, and our first job is to make it absolutely clear that this is not the position of UK general aviation.” AOPA is also gathering support for the IMC rating in Brussels; senior EC figures have been appraised of the situation and Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot has expressed support. IMC rating proponents in the European Parliament include Timothy Kirkhope, MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, who is a private pilot who holds an IMC rating. A primary aim is to clarify whether the UK is legally allowed to adopt a rating useable only in its airspace; EASA has in the past said that this is impossible, but is now making ambiguous noises.
Know what your pax are up to
AOPA is advising GA pilots to take their own security seriously after becoming involved in cases in which pilots face having to carry the can for criminal behaviour by passengers. One case involves a 62-year-old flying instructor with no criminal background who agreed to fly to France with an owner who was showing the aircraft to a would-be buyer. They took him to Le Touquet for lunch but on the way back police were waiting for them; they allegedly found 13kg of heroin in the man’s bag. Martin Robinson says: “There is evidence that some pilots are being set up in this way. It’s up to the pilot to be absolutely certain that everything is above board. That means knowing what is in every bag on the plane. As the pilot, you can’t afford to be squeamish about asking people what they’re carrying. You may find it difficult to look in a passenger’s bag, but it’s a lot more difficult to do time. Your passengers will understand if you explain properly.”
Five ring circus
AOPA is involved with the security forces in a group which aims to assess the risk to the London Olympic Games in 2012 from a number of sources, including GA. The Olympic Risk Assessment Working Group aims to identify as many potential risks as possible. By its nature, it is given to ‘blue sky’ thinking and the pondering of ‘what-ifs’, so there’s little in its deliberations that should be taken as a concrete proposal or a hard-and-fast plan. The group seems to be open to argument and keen to see that counter-measures are truly proportionate to risk. There are likely, however, to be onerous airspace restrictions around Olympic sites and AOPA wants to ensure that none are unduly large or needlessly prolonged, and that aerodromes beneath them are able to continue to operate.
Saving the IMC Rating for the UK
Moves to save the IMC Rating were discussed with EASA and EC officials in Barcelona for the IAOPA Europe Regional Meeting early this month, with EASA’s deputy head of rulemaking Eric Sivel agreeing that given our weather, the IMC Rating was as important to the UK as the Mountain Rating is to Switzerland and some way had to be found to maintain safety levels under EASA. In much of Europe it is illegal to fly in IMC outside controlled airspace. Possible solutions include making the rating useable “where national law allows”, as has been done with medical certification; an appeal under the provisions of an “equivalent safety case” allowed for in EASA’s articles; or an airspace solution. All of these face serious problems. M Sivel said EASA Working Group 008 had been set up to look at the IMC Rating and the possibility of a simplified IR, and if it did not produce a workable solution to the IMC problem, it had failed in its purpose. Asked whether the simplified IR was a realistic possibility, he did not know. “There is a lot of opposition. The pilots unions and the airlines say don’t touch it – if anything, make it more difficult.”
EASA’s new approach
EASA has been instructed by the European Commission to stop ‘reinventing the wheel’ and adopt more JAA and ICAO standards rather than rewriting everything. M Sivel said this was not easy because all 27 EU countries had adopted the JARs in different ways, and it was not clear whose approach was best. Every country had filed differences with ICAO to allow them to impose their own standards – the UK has filed more than 600 – and sorting them out is often more difficult than creating new regulations. The lack of data on GA is a major stumbling block for EASA; in the absence of information on how many pilots there are, what licences they hold, how many hours they fly, how many ‘incidents’ they experience, how many accidents they have and of what type, it’s impossible to produce ‘risk-based’ regulation which addresses real-world problems. Some countries produce no data, others very little, and no countries produce the same data. M Sivel said EASA had 15 people in its Safety Analysis department in Cologne, and if you asked them a question, as often as not the answer was, ‘We don’t know’.
Fly to the Channel Islands on an NPPL
Fergus Woods, Director of Civil Aviation for the Channel Islands, has promulgated exemptions to the ANOs of Jersey and Guernsey to allow the privileges of the NPPL to be exercised in Channel Islands airspace. Charles Strasser, chairman of the AOPA’s Channel Islands region, expressed his delight that, after more than four years of effort, talks, correspondence and meetings, this extension of the flying area for NPPL holders has finally been made possible. He says: “Hopefully, all NPPL holders will take advantage of this new availability and enjoy many visits to the Channel Islands.”
Because such a trip entails a long sea crossing and entry into the Class A airspace of the CICZ, it is required that ‘ab initio’ NPPL holders first undertake a familiarisation flight with an FI or CRI. This does not apply to holders who previously held a PPL, but who downgraded to the NPPL for medical reasons. Documents explaining the conditions can be read on www.aopa.co.uk
Radio stealth tax is back
Little more than nine months after conceding defeat in its plan to charge for aviation radio frequencies, the telecoms watchdog Ofcom is back with barely revised proposals to make aviation pay. While the regulator seemed to accept that such charges would run probably counter to international law, it is clear that it is being leaned on by the Treasury, which is desperate for money and sees a Stealth Tax opportunity. The same old discredited arguments are being trotted out; Ofcom argues that if radio frequencies are surrendered it proves they weren’t necessary in the first place, and can be reallocated. It ignores the fact that the aviation band is protected, and they can’t just take away an A/G frequency and sell it to a local taxi firm. Its original proposals included charging £126,000 a year for every DME and £115,000 for every ILS and VOR, and even .25 mHz radios at rural airfields would have attracted an annual charge of £4,950. AOPA’s Martin Robinson says: “Ofcom is a regulator, not a tax-raiser, but it is doing the dirty work of the Treasury, which is bedazzled at having found something new it can charge money for. International law may be a better shield, but even that may not be enough.”
Saving the IMC
AOPA is refusing to accept that the UK IMC rating must be traded away in the cause of European harmonisation and is moving to ensure that the rating be maintained in the UK. EASA’s FCL-008 working group proposes to replace the IMC with an ‘en route instrument rating’ which would allow flight on airways in IMC but would not teach or allow the practice of instrument approaches and landings. AOPA says this misses the whole point of the IMCR, which is primarily to save life. There is little understanding of the IMCR at FCL-008, and while national laws prevent flight in IMC in some European countries, AOPA says that’s no reason to kill off what the CAA says is “a proven lifesaver” in the UK. Worried about the safety implications of destroying the IMC rating, EASA said in January 2008 that as a last resort the UK could invoke Article 10(v) of EC Regulation 1592/2002 (which sets out EASA’s remit) which allows nations to put forward an “equivalent safety case” and effectively adopt an amended system from the rest. There are, however, many practical difficulties which must be overcome, and AOPA plans to begin the process while there is still time.
Strasser Scheme
Norwich and Spanhoe have signed up to AOPA’s Strasser Scheme, under which landing fees are waived in case of genuine emergency or unforeseen weather diversion. This brings to 203 the number of airfields that have adopted the Scheme, which aims to increase safety by ensuring that when pilots are in trouble, cost does not deter them from getting onto the ground at the earliest opportunity. The Scheme is run by AOPA’s Channel Islands chairman Charles Strasser, who has convinced Jeppesen to include the list of participating airfields in their VFR guide. The airfields which have declined to subscribe to the Scheme are Belfast, Biggin Hill, Birmingham, Cardiff, Carlisle, Filton, Leeds/Bradford, Luton and Manchester.
- SESAR funding found
- Mode-S and TMZs
- GA security risk ‘hypothetical’