November 2006

AOPA-Germany Gets Help with Background Checks

All pilots in Germany must undergo an initial federal background investigation ("reliability check") for security purposes. Although AOPA-Germany has attempted to prevent this procedure from being put into place they were unable to prevent its initiation. Worse, the background investigation must be repeated every two years.

After some effort the association has enlisted the aid of a powerful member of the German Bundestag (legislature), Mr. Ernst Burgbacher, to ease the repetitive requirement. Mr. Burgbacher wrote to the German Minister of the Interior requesting that he, "Free private pilots overall terrorism suspicion. Criminalizing private pilots must stop and the interval between background checks must match the actual threat. Small general aviation aircraft and their weather dependence make private pilots an extremely small risk so that an appropriate reliability examination interval would be once every five years. A shorter interval represents an unnecessary bureaucratic burden for the pilots and air security authorities and must therefore be avoided."

Michael Erb, AOPA-Germany Managing Director commented, "AOPA-Germany wants to eliminate these discriminatory and unnecessary background investigations. We have some success in our support of members opposing this requirement within the courts. When a Munich pilot refused to undergo the background investigations his license was revoked by the Aviation Authority of Bavaria. But we didn't give up. A Munich Administrative Court decided that the Authorities overreacted and that the refusal to undergo the background investigations must not lead to the loss of pilot privileges; the license was returned to the pilot. AOPA is determined to fight these court cases for the rights of its pilots up to the German Supreme Court."    << Back to top

ICAO ELT Progress

At a recent meeting of the ICAO Air Navigation Commission, IAOPA Representative to ICAO Frank Hofmann presented an information paper recommending modification to proposed changes to ICAO ELT standards (see IAOPA online). IAOPA recommendations were made to modify a pending requirement to equip all aircraft operating internationally with a 406/121.5 MHz ELT by July 2008. Options were presented to require ELTs only for extended overwater flights or operations in areas where search and rescue was considered difficult and to permit the use of personal locator beacons for light aircraft. Unfortunately, both suggestions were rejected by the ANC, favoring universal ELT equipage.

The official ICAO state letter presenting this change will not be released until early next year, but affiliates should begin discussing the impact of ELT equipage with their national aviation authorities. It should be emphasized that this standard applies only to international flights and need not be implemented for domestic operations. Moreover, bilateral agreements may be entered into with neighboring states, waiving the need for the ELT requirement on trans-border operations.

IAOPA will continue to work with ICAO and others to lessen the impact of this standard.    

Ghana Applies for Affiliation

Asiwome Dzakuma and several associates of Accra, Ghana have applied for affiliation with IAOPA with an organization to be called "AOPA-Ghana." The group has submitted a constitution and bylaws acceptable to the secretariat and now await comments of the IAOPA Board regarding their application.

Dzakuma states, "General aviation in Ghana is seriously undeveloped and quite a remote endeavor. In Ghana and Africa lots of activity is tied to politics. Apart from airline activity here I must say general aviation is virtually nonexistent that is why I have taken personal interest in general aviation development and the formation of AOPA in Ghana to champion GA here. We believe with an association such as AOPA in Ghana we can work our way through lots of political and administrative bottlenecks. Aviation in Africa is still considered a preserve of a few but some of us believe it is an important and complementary vehicle to economic development and poverty reduction here."

Board comments regarding this application should be sent to the secretariat not later than 1 December 2006.    << Back to top

IAOPA Europe Responds to EASA General Aviation Proposal

IAOPA Europe recently submitted its response to the important EASA consultation on general aviation. The response was written after a consultation of national AOPAs and a thorough discussion of the matter at the IAOPA regional meeting in Warsaw.

EASA proposed a simplified system for initial airworthiness, modifications and repairs for all aircraft up to 5, 700 kg., a measure that may significantly reduce costs for pilots and aircraft owners. However, the proposal also offered a recreational pilot license that would enable pilots to operate aircraft with an upper limit of 5,700 kg was deemed to be too high for IAOPA Europe. The group also felt that a recreational license was a good solution to bring some nationally regulated segments such as gliders, ultralight, VLAs etc., under the EASA framework. The traditional private pilot license, especially for larger aircraft, was seen as a more appropriate focus when revising the existing PPL framework instead of reinventing the wheel and creating an entirely new licensing system to cover a similar group of aircraft.

Under the EASA proposal certain licensing tasks could be delegated to assessment bodies (non-government organizations) to administer. IAOPA Europe endorses the concept "if it can be demonstrated to reduce total costs." Jacob Pederson, IAOPA Europe representative to EASA commented, "We don't want to just move costs from national CAAs to private organizations."

IAOPA Europe's full input to the proposal may be viewed at the Web site.    

Former AOPA-Norway President Dies

Per Holter-Sørensen, President of AOPA-Norway for many years, passed away on 22 September 2006. Frode Berg, Vice President of AOPA-Norway, notes "Per was a giant in the general aviation movement in Norway, and was a board member almost from the start of our organization. Not only did he run AOPA-Norway with a steady hand for many years, but he was also loved as a pilot, instructor, friend and mentor to several generations of pilots."   

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