Motorgliding - BGA or CAA directly controlled maintenance and instructors?

[bookworm]

Fortunately BillieBob, an explanatory note to a CRD is not law.

In Article 4:

1. Aircraft, including any installed product, part and appliance, which are:
(a) designed or manufactured by an organisation for which the Agency or a Member State ensures safety oversight; or
(b) registered in a Member State, unless their regulatory safety oversight has been delegated to a third country and they are not used by a Community operator; or
(c) registered in a third country and used by an operator for which any Member State ensures oversight of operations or used into, within or out of the Community by an operator established or residing in the Community; or
(d) registered in a third country, or registered in a Member State which has delegated their regulatory safety oversight to a third country, and used by a third-country operator into, within or out of the Community

shall comply with this Regulation.

2. Personnel involved in the operations of aircraft referred to in paragraph 1(b), (c) or (d) shall comply with this Regulation.

3. Operations of aircraft referred to in paragraph 1(b), (c) or (d) shall comply with this Regulation.

4. Paragraph 1 shall not apply to aircraft referred to in Annex II.

So the word 'aircraft' clearly encompasses both aircraft that are required to comply with the regulation and aircraft that are not.

And there is nothing in COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 1178/2011 (the Aircrew Regulation) that restricts the definition of 'aircraft' or 'aeroplane'. Indeed:

FCL.010
‘Aeroplane’ means an engine-driven fixed-wing aircraft heavier than air which is supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against its wings

‘Aircraft’ means any machine which can derive support in the atmosphere from the reactions of the air other than the reactions of the air against the earth’s surface.

The scope of the Aircrew Regulation is defined by its Article 3:

Pilot licensing and medical certification
Without prejudice to Article 7, pilots of aircraft referred to in Article 4(1)(b) and (c) and Article 4(5) of Regulation (EC) No 216/2008 shall comply with the technical requirements and administrative procedures laid down in [Part-FCL] and [Part-MED].

This limits the applicability of the regulation to pilots of EU-registered and -resident aircraft. It does not constrain the scope of the word 'aircraft' in Part-FCL.