To prove that I have absolutely nothing else to do this evening, I just started skimming through Part-NCO. Found a few things that are curious.
- If the seatbelt in an aircraft has an upper torso restraint system, it has to have a single-point release. I don't see any exception anywhere, so it seems Hooker harnesses are now illegal.
- It is illegal to smoke on board a sailplane or balloon, but in aeroplanes and helicopters (exception during refueling) that's left to the PICs discretion.
- Aeroplanes operated by more than one flight crew member (and I assume this is worded so that single pilot aircraft being used for flight training falls under this article as well) shall be equipped with a flight crew interphone system, including headsets and microphones for use by all flight crew members. That's going to be fun for the gliding fraternity.
- The documents, manuals and information [to be carried] may be available in a form other than on printed paper. Accessibility, usability and reliability should be assured. Hooray!
- I'm not quite sure, but it seems aircraft with less than 9 seats are not required to carry an installed ELT. A PLB would also suffice, and is only required for flight over water anyway. (But the rules wrt. ELTs are spread out across the whole document so it's hard to find the appropriate text.) And I found this: A personal locator beacon (PLB) should have a built-in GNSS receiver. But that last sentence might not be applicable throughout the entire document - I'm still trying to get the hang of the structure of the document.
- A means of measuring and displaying the time in hours, minutes and seconds may be a wrist watch capable of the same functions. But a "means of measuring and displaying the time" is a requirement in all types of aircraft, including gliders and balloons.
- There are fairly sensible requirements with regards to rescue equipment for flight over water. Life jackets (with integrated lights) are essentially mandatory in a lot of cases, but the rest of the equipment is left to the discretion of the PIC. And seat cushions are not considered to be flotation devices.
Except for those things, I must say I find the document well thought out. No undue regulation seems to have been imposed as a result of this. And in some cases the requirements are actually less than what's currently common.