The Transition To EASA Aircrew Regulations:

One NAA’s experience

Ray Elgy UK Civil Aviation Authority, Licensing & Training Standards

November 2012

Content • Context – Volumes of UK licensing activity

• The task:

- issue new licences, medicals and organisation

approvals

- conversion of existing licences and approvals; and

- consolidation of the remaining national licences,

medicals, and approvals into a coherent and

manageable system.

• What the programme involved

• Our Approach and key decisions

• What went well

• What we could have done better

Slide 2

EASA “Aircrew” Regulation (regulation 1178/2011) comprises:

The EASA Aircrew Regulation - setting out the main rules;

Annex I - Part-FCL – Replaces JAR-FCL 1 & 2

Annex II - Conversion of European non-JAR Licences

Annex III - Validation/Conversion of 3rd country licences

Annex IV - Part-MED - Replaces JAR-FCL 3

Annex V - Part - CC - Requirements for Cabin Crew

Annex VI - Part-ARA - National Aviation Authorities.

Annex VII - Part-ORA - Organisations.

Licensing & Medical Context

v ~18,000 active professional pilots (Class 1 Medicals)

v ~30,000 active private pilots (Class 2 Medicals or Medical Declarations.

v ~2,000 active air traffic control officers (Class 3 Medicals)

v ~400 Registered Flight Training Facilities

v ~200 Approved Flight Training Organisations

v 91 Approved Type Rating Training Organisations

Slide 4

Licensing & Medical Volumes Annually…

Licensing

v ~8,000 new Licences

v ~13,000 Ratings

v >60,000 Telephone calls

v >10,000 E-mails plus ~10,000 Letters/Faxes (Licensing)

v ~15,000 Licence/Operator Proficiency Checks

v ~100 Foreign Licence Validations

v ~35,000 Theory Examinations

v ~2,500 Flight Examinations

v ~250 annual audits of approved companies,

v ~300 FSTD Qualification certificates

v ~400 FSTD User Approvals

Slide 5

Medical

v Correspondence ~10,000

v ~33,000 Telephone calls

v Clinic Initial Class 1 ~2,000 applicants

v Reviews/investigations ~1,700

v Support of AMEs (263) and,

v AME On - Line

EUROPEAN RULEMAKING TIMETABLE

RULE CRD Publication Opinion Published as

law

Part-FCL April 2010 August 2010 Nov 2011

Part-MED 15 June 2010 January 2011 Nov 2011

Part-ARA August 2010 June 2011 Q1 2012

Part-ORA August 2010 June 2011 Q1 2012

All of these became applicable from 8th April 2012, subject to

the use of derogations / opt-outs / exemptions.

The CAA Transition Project was formally launched in March

2011 (But much preparatory work done beforehand)

Timetable

The Aircrew Regulation itself became effective on 8th April

2012.

Derogation/Opt Out of Annexes for up to 12 months:

Amendment 1 the Aircrew Regulation allowed Member States

the flexibility to opt out of individual Annexes until dates of

their choosing between 8th April 2012 and 7th April 2013.

However, the end dates for conversion of national licences

remain fixed.

Key Decision The CAA determined that the date of applicability of all of the

Annexes in the UK would be 17th September 2012.

Timetable

Other Derogations/Opt Outs

- The CAA has invoked the 3 year opt-out for the mandatory

requirement to hold the new EASA licences and ratings that

have no JAR equivalent – Light Aircraft Pilots licence

(Aeroplane / Helicopter / Sailplane / Balloon), and

SPL(Sailplane), BPL(Balloon); Aerobatic, Towing, Mountain

and Flight Test Rating.

- The CAA has invoked the permitted deferment of application

of validation requirements for private flights until April 2014.

- The CAA is taking the permitted period of 2 years to convert

national licences (being used for purposes outside the LAPL

privileges).

Licence Conversion Deadlines

To fly EASA aircraft:

Aircraft and Operation Pilot must have an EASA licence by:

Aeroplanes and helicopters used

for commercial purposes.

8th April 2014

Aeroplanes and helicopters outside

scope of LAPL used for any

purpose.

8th April 2014

Aeroplanes and helicopters within

the scope of the LAPL and used for

non-commercial purposes.

8th April 2015

Balloons, Airships and Sailplanes. 8th April 2015

Aerobatic rating

Towing rating (Banner or Glider)

Mountain rating

Flight Test rating

8th April 2015

There were three distinct areas

of work for the CAA:

- to be ready to issue new licences, medicals and

organisation approvals in accordance with EASA

rules Parts FCL, MED, ORA, and ARA;

- conversion of existing licences and approvals into

appropriate EASA equivalents; and

- consolidation of the remaining national licences,

medicals, and approvals into a coherent and

manageable system.

Rationalisation of the national rules and

legacy licences.

Key Decision. As far as is practicable, the privileges of national

licences should be the same as the EASA

equivalents where these exist (except that they will

not be valid for EASA aircraft).

For ratings on national licences that are the same as

EASA ratings, EASA rules will apply in their entirety.

- Microlights.

- Light Gyroplanes.

- Amateur-built aircraft.

- Ex-military Aircraft, (and replicas of these)*.

- Vintage/Historic aircraft (designed before 1955).

- Complex Historic aircraft (and replicas of these)*.

- Research / scientific aircraft.

- Light gliders, including foot-launched

- UAVs with an operating mass of less than 150kg

- Any aircraft under 70 kg without pilot.

- Plus - State Aircraft (including military, Police, SAR)

These aircraft remain under national rules, (except those

marked * when used for Commercial Air Transport).

EU rules apply to all aircraft (wherever

registered) except:

EASA aircraft and National aircraft

Use of EASA licences for Annex II and State aircraft.

The UK CAA and Dept for Transport amended UK law so that

EASA licences with Class ratings are valid for non-EASA

aircraft within the same Class ratings – (avoiding the

necessity to hold a national licence with SEP as well in order

to fly an Annex II machines such as an Auster, Tigermoth, or

homebuilt aeroplane).

Pilots with EASA licences are able to fly EASA aircraft and

most non-EASA aeroplanes (subject to class and type

ratings).

EASA aircraft and national aircraft

Pilots with ratings for non-EASA aircraft.

Issues arise where existing holders of JAR and national licences

have ratings that are not included in Part-FCL, such as a type

rating for a non-EASA aircraft.

There is no provision in Part-FCL or Part-ARA to include national

ratings on EASA licences.

To allow the flexibility to address such cases the CAA has re-

introduced the UK PPL, UK CPL, and UK ATPL, alongside the

NPPL(A), but valid for non-EASA aircraft only. This provides for an

ICAO licence to be issued to EASA licence holders as necessary

to provide UK national ratings; (not valid for EASA aircraft). There

will also be an NPPL(H) to cater for pilots who obtain a LAPL(H)

and then a rating for an Annex II helicopter.

The Scale of the Task:

What The Project Involved…….

•Over 17 man-years of effort expended in 18 Months.

•Over 270 Individual Work Specifications

•Over 70 application forms created/updated

•Over 30 Standards Documents (Guidance Material) revised

•5 Project Teams;

•Licensing Implementation Change Team (ICT)

•Medical ICT

•IT ICT

•Engineer Licensing ICT

•Readiness & Practical considerations group

The Project involved……..

•2 break-out projects identified, to take forward the Webinar

delivery of Training and forthcoming Engineer Licensing

changes

•AME Seminars delivered by Medical Department

•Numerous presentations to Industry

•CAP804 published

•Numerous updates to website content

•Quick-Guide to EASA-FCL changes (over 35,000 “hits” on

web)

•Podcast on the changes (Over 4,500 downloads)

•Quick-guides for the introduction of the LAPL

•Webinar delivery of non-UK examiner briefings on-line

And also involved…….

• Changes to our main Licensing IT system, which included;

•77500 lines of reference data - Each line has many

values.

•Over 1500 individual tests run during UAT

•Non-stop implementation from 17:00 Wednesday 12th to

late afternoon Sunday 16th September

• Centralising the use of an Exemptions Database to record

exemptions against regulations across disciplines.

• Creation of an ATO Register – combining RTF and FTO/TRTO

records

• Creation of a solution to allow LAPL Medical assessments to

be recorded

• Creation of an online Fee Calculator – to illustrate how the

scheme of charges applies to applications, including

conversion fees etc

What went well.

• Engagement with, and support from EASA

• Close liaison with, and support of Industry:

• Airlines

• Approved Training Organisations

• Ground Instructors

• Representative bodies

• Project Management

• Communications plan

• Use of a single page on our website to which

industry were directed in all correspondence

throughout the project:

www.caa.co.uk/eupilotlicensing

What could have been done better...

•Ensuring all activities were assigned to an

accountable manager (We missed the

application forms!)

•We did under-estimate the amount of work

and the resources required.

•We under-estimated the degree of changes

required in the licensing assessment process,

and the time that it takes to process

applications. This has increased the turn-

round times.

CAA Information on licensing and EASA: We have a dedicated page on our website where EASA

related information may be found–

www.caa.co.uk/eupilotlicensing

However, the purpose of this page was predominantly to

inform industry of what was coming, so we are changing

the content of this page accordingly. Currently still

available, however, are documents such as;

• A “Quick Guide” to the changes.

• “European Legislation – The expected effects on the licensing of

pilots in the UK”

• Frequently Asked Questions

Thank you for your attention.