EASA threat to operation of N Reg Aircraft

[Sam Rutherford]

Dear Pilot/Aviation enthusiast,

As you may know, our EASA is attacking our ability to exercise FAA licenses and ratings in European airspace; and they are presently winning:

• EASA has steadfastly defeated all attempts to establish dialogue with the decision-makers in the flight crew licensing process,
• Instead of a formal EU commission meeting with a published agenda, participants list, documents and minutes, it appears that EASA will decide your future as a pilot in a closed-door comitology meeting,
• None of the amendments on content seem likely to be accepted, at best an implementation deferred by a couple of years.
  
  This is unacceptable. The stance has been and remains that:

• The European safety record for N-registered aircraft is demonstrably better than the same of F-, D- or G-registered aircraft.
• EASA keeps suggesting that the nebulous private IFR project (FCL008) will solve everything and provide easy conversions: this is simply not true. The current proposals are years away and still call for 7 written exams with an average of 7000 questions with 4 possible answers each; overly complex initial and recurrent checks; and high costs of re-training.
• EASA keeps answering that some bilateral agreements with the United States will solve our problem quickly, but we know from reliable sources that these agreements in the current will not improve our lot in any way.
• The minute EASA does produce a set of rules better suited for non-commercial instrument flying, FAA-licensed pilots will logically migrate en masse. The current situation was created by European civil aviation authorities - they are the ones who need to fix it, instead of constraining everyone to adopt disproportionate rules. Enact better solutions first, then let market forces adopt what is most rational.
• Adopting part FCL as it is will cause around half of the European instrument-rated pilots to abandon aviation due near-commercial complexities and inability to use N-registered aircraft. The consequence will be loss of jobs in training, maintenance and manufacturing industry, loss of en-route fees and fuel taxes. One cannot kill a functional system for a hypothetical, unproven replacement.

EVEN IF YOU DO NOT PRESENTLY USE AN AMERICAN (OR OTHER NON EU LICENCE) YOU MAY WANT TO IN THE FUTURE – THUS THIS COULD STILL AFFECT YOU AND YOUR LIBERTY TO FLY THE WAY YOU WANT TO.

You may still help (decisions are being made tomorrow, the 8th December):

1). Send an e-mail from your own address on the model below TODAY to the attached e-mail addresses, with BCC to [email protected]
2). Forward this message to each FAA and EASA-licensed pilot, mechanic and medical examiner you know, asking them write themselves.

To:
[email protected][email protected][email protected]

BCC: [email protected]

Title : EASA FCL flight personnel licensing regulation

Text body :

attention Mr. President Barroso, Mrs Vice-President Ashton and Director Ruete,

As an EU citizen, resident, professional and taxpayer, I am deeply concerned about the imminent rule-making that would forbid, in contradiction with ICAO standards, pilots such as myself from flying in European airspace.

Its The EASA proposed license-conversion requirements are complex, costly, and disproportionate; they will cost job losses in the hundreds across Europe in aircraft manufacturing, flight training and maintenance; flight safety would be demonstrably affected.

In a time of crisis, creating further predicaments is not what we hope from your Commission. Thank you for attention.

Yours truly,

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