EASA-OPS/EU-OPS differences?

[Aero Mad]

Hi all,

I'm researching the replacement of the Trislander fleet (which could be dealt the 'death knell' by EU-OPS coming into force in the Channel Islands as of 2012).

I was wondering if anyone could explain to me what the difference between EU-OPS and EASA-OPS is and whether there will be any major differences in the Instrument and Equipment section(s) affecting 17 seater aircraft without weather radar etc.

Best wishes,

Aero Mad

[Sir George Cayley]

It's complicated. :confused:

Go back a bit. JAR OPS 1 became EU OPS 1 without significant change. The 'Lower than CAT 1' was added if I recall.

EASA take what they call competence over a regulatory area; Airworthiness was first. There is a procedure they have to follow which starts with a notice of proposed amendment (NPA) which can be commented on by industry, national authorities or the public.

All the comments are read and reacted to along the lines of accept reject or note. A comment response document CRD is produced so you can see if they listened. (you may just hear muffled laughing in the background just now)

After that an Opinion is formed and the process grinds towards adoption.

Now here's the rub. EASA can't stop meddling in things so instead of scrubbing out EU and replacing with EASA they went a rewrote the whole darn document.

And made a complete town halls of it. The CRD on Air Ops ran to 3200 pages. Each page contained dozens of comments. [Bit surprised to realise you didn't comment - chance to influence missed there]

So have a look at easa.europa.eu and go to the Rule making microsite. From there look for current CRDs and if you figure it out let everyone here know as we're completely flumuxted :ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh:

You may find a better answer at the CAA Flight Ops Dept (Policy Section)

As for the replacement that's easy - DC3s :ok:

Sir George Cayley

[Aero Mad]

Right, I've emailed the CAA (x2, one to a general address, one to the one you recommended), thanks Sir George :ok: Glad I'm not the only one who can't make head or tail of it.

[Grasscarp]

I recently contacted the CAA pointing out some parts of Flight Time Limitations that are out of date, and received the following somewhat disturbing reply
"We know that the references are out of date and if we could we would
update CAP371, both with corrections to the references and make some
amendments to the text based on knowledge gained from actual operations over the last 20 years. Unfortunately, we are unable to do this as the UK government have committed the UK to following the new EASA
regulations, which come into force in April 2012. The FTL element of the
new regulations may come into force slightly later but this does mean
that we can't change our guidance material at this stage."
This worries me somewhat and even more so in the light of what Sir George Cayley says about EASA.

[Aero Mad]

Right, I've had a reply. The CAA confirm that EU-OPS are not going to affect the Channel Islands. Instead, EASA-OPS will and they tell me to go and have a look at the website - so I search 'easa ops' in the top bar and this (http://easa.europa.eu/search.php?q=easa+ops&btnG=EASA+Search&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&client=default_frontend&entqr=0&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&proxyreload=1&ud=1&output=xml_no_dtd&proxystylesheet=default_frontend&site=default_collection) comes up. Great :ugh::ugh::ugh:

I cannot for the life of me find where EASA-OPS and/or the consultation process is located on their website. Can anyone help? Dates for implementation (set for April 2012 but when must the rules be complied by??) are as yet uncertain too. What a sham...

[dusk2dawn]

EASA - Notices of Proposed Amendment (NPAs) (http://easa.europa.eu/rulemaking/notices-of-proposed-amendment-NPA.php) with a link to the Comment Response Tool (CRT).

May the force be with you!

[Aero Mad]

Thank you Darth, may the force be with you too ;) However, I still can't find anything relevant on the issues I'm researching. Never mind, will ask EASA directly - being based in Cologne, I might even end up asking you! Thanks for your help anyway, informative posts from knowledgable people really make PPRuNe what it is :ok:

[Sir George Cayley]

It might take you till May 4th to work it out:ok:

As a Scottish undertaker once said " We're all doomed"

SGC