Quote:
"EAS claims to represent around 320000 pilots and owners, of whom the PPL/IR Europe group are only 0.125%
The only way to dig up 320k pilots in Europe is to count every lawn mower including the one in my garden shed, and every parachute"
But if you look at the list of the sectors of light aviation in my posting 'elsewhere' (I tried to avoid posting the same in two places) you will see that EAS's membership constituency isn't just aeroplane pilots i.e. the sector debating the IMCr / IR. It covers a much wider range. For example, there are approximately 85,000 glider pilots (with a club and private glider ownership of c. 22,000 aircraft) in Europe, who through their national gliding associations are members of the European Gliding Union which is turn is a member of EAS. The same principle applies to hang glider pilots, microlight pilots, parachutists etc. There may of course be some double-count in the c. 320k referred to as some people are active in more than one sector, but that doesn't alter the figures materially. Fortunately (from one point of view) many of our constituent members are not affected by EASA as they operate Annex II aircraft, and remain, for the forseeable future at least, under national regulations. The ones that are affected by EASA are aeroplane pilots / owners, gliders, balloons and helicopters in categories > the Annex II threshold.