7/29/2019 001 EASA Newsletter Issue 12

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NEWS NEWS

EASA Rulemaking Update

Most of us are qu te fam ar w th persona com-puters but a so w th the more recent terms suchas smartphone, Phone, Pad, tab ets, and GPSnav gators.

Dur ng the ast decades the progress of such equ p-ment n terms of reduced we ght and comp ex ty,reduced cost, powerfu resources and pro ferat onof a myr ad of app cat ons, has obv ous y nducedsome pr vate p ots to br ng one of those gadgetsn the a rcraft cockp t. The dea has soon been fo -owed by a number of commerc a operators, s ncethese e ectron c resources, covered by the termEectron c F ght Bag (EFB), whethernsta ed n thecockp t or just strapped on the p ots knee, may a -ow reduc ng the we ght and vo ume of paper car-r ed on board, may support the crew to performca cu at ons or even present the a rcraft pos t on ona mov ng map to ncrease s tuat ona awareness.

Lke any new techno ogy, wh e an EFB provdesc ear benef ts to operators and p ots, t may nev-erthe ess pose new safety r sks to av at on. F rst,commerc a e ectron c hardware s not cert f ed forav at on use and ts re ab ty s not def ned. Th smeans that a g ven funct ona ty may be ost anymoment. But second y th s hardware may poser sks to the a rcraft. Thrd, a though the hardwaremay be portab e, th s does not exc ude someconnect on to nsta ed a rcraft systems wh ch ofcourse have to be cons dered dur ng the a rworth -

ness cert f cat on processes. Furthermore, even fa the r sks re ated to the hardware have been m t -gated, the use of EFB dur ng f ght may st poseoperat ona hazards.

In other words, wh e EFB s def n te y benef c a ,the safety r sks connected to ts use cannot be un-derest mated and need to be assessed by the com-petent author t es or at east by the operator, w th-n the m ts of the pr v eges enjoyed by the atter.

Therefore, after about a decade of concrete expe-r ence, the USA Federa Avat on Admn strat on(FAA) n September ssued the Adv sory Cr-cu ar - offer ng comprehens ve gu dance forthe a rworth ness and operat ona aspects. Thedocument was a most mmed ate y overtaken bythe events, and therefore a new ed t on A wasre eased n March . In October , the Eu-ropean Jo nt Avat on Author t es (JAA)ssued theTemporary Gudance Leafet (TGL) .

Ths TGL has so far consttuted the pr nc pa gu danceto European av at on author t es when rece vng ap-p cat ons to use EFB by commerca a r operators.

The funct ons and tasks of JAA were transferred toEASA. Afterts n t a per od of act v ty, n theAgency estab shed a draft ng group to be adv sedon the transpos t on of TGL . Wh e the groupwas work ng, techno ogy and app cat ons cont n-

ued to evo ve. Qu te some t me passed before No-t ce of Proposed Amendment (NPA) - waspub shed n March .

As drected by the eg s ator the text of sa d NPAwas a gned w th the atest techno og ca deve op-ments and harmon sed as much as poss b e w thenv saged new ed t on B of FAA AC - .

However, the FAA aso announced the ntent on ofpub sh ng a Change to the r Advsory Crcu ar (ed.B) and ater a subsequent new ed t on C. Meanwh ea so ICAO has started workng on the matter n asubgroup of the OPS Pane . As a resut, the NPA trg-gered a cons derab e number of comments, ma n ysp t among those fear ng any change to pract cesestab shed on the bas s of TGL and those f nd ngthe Agencys proposa s not yet rea y a gned w ththe present and foreseen state of the art.

Of course any ru e ssued by the Agency w notnva date ex st ng approva s ssued on the bas s ofTGL , but t has to be opened towards future evo-ut on. The Agency has estab shed a Revew Group(RG) to be advsed on the rep es to be g ven to thecomments rece ved on the NPA and, even more m-portant, on the resu t ng text of the proposed AMC

- . The frst meet ng of the RG aready tookp ace ast August. There n consensus was reachedon the fo ow ng po nts:

Cont nued on Page

Ru es for E ectron c F ght Bags

Pilot using a tablet computer

H a w k e r B e e c h c r a f t C o r p o r a t i o n

7/29/2019 001 EASA Newsletter Issue 12

2/2

NEWS NEWS

EASA Rulemaking Update

October marked the entry nto force of thenew European ru es for Ar Operat ons. The newRegu at on was adopted by the European Comm s-s on on October and pub shed on Octo-ber n the Off c a Journa of the European Un-on as Comm ss on Regu at on (EU) No / .The assocated Acceptab e Means of Comp ance(AMC) and Gudance Mater a (GM) are pub shedas Decs ons on the EASA webste.

Ths Reguat on and ts assoc ated Dec s ons const -tute the f rst OPS package, contan ng Annexes I V:Annex I Def n t ons,Annex II Part-ARO,Annex III Part-ORO,Annex IV Part-CAT, andAnnex V Part-SPA.

The new Reguat on creates harmon sed requ re-ments at the European eve for commerc a a rtransport operat ons of a rp anes and he cop-ters, ensur ng a so cont nu ty w th the prev ousru es: for aerop anes operators, the new ru esrecogn se the pr v eges of the ex st ng cert f cateho ders, whereas for he copters, the new Regu a-t on bu ds on JAR-OPS , rep ac ng the d fferentnat ona ru es and fac tat ng the cross-borderoperat ons n the future. The Member States maya so de ay the app cab ty of the new ru es formax mum two years.

The second OPS package (on non-commerca operat ons) s be ng trans ated and prepared forscrut ny by the European Par ament and Coun-c . The rema n ng two packages (aer a workand commerc a a r transport w th sa p anes andba oons) are st under rev ew at the EASA Com-m ttee. The adopt on processes for the nd thOPS packages w not be conc uded before theend of .

Support ng stakeho ders dur ng the trans t onper od A rcrew and A r Operat onsThe Agency s support ng stakeho ders dur ng thetrans t on per ods nto the new ru es n var ous ways:

The F ght Standard webs te: Q/ a / a /Ky a Q */*a /*

page on the F ght Standard webs te w th nforma-t on on the mp ementat on. Moreover, n order toass st the stakeho ders to adjust to the new ru es,the Agency has comp ed and pub shed on th spage a deta ed st of d fferences between the newReguat on and EU-OPS/JAR OPS, the so ca edcross-reference tab e, n a form of an Exce f ea ow ng sort ng, f ter ng and search ng funct ons. y 9 Q/ a / /Ky a Q/ yaKQ *-

ards webs te has a page on the mp ementat onof th s new ru e, nc ud ng nformat on on whent app es n the var ous Member States.

Q/ / a / a y * / a 9 a

9/ / a Q/ a / m/ a/ 9 Q/ K/ and of a commerc a avat on stakeho ders, wh ch

means that the mpact of any poss b e hazard hasto be assessed, and where necessary m t gated,e ther dur ng the des gn and product on phasesor dur ng operat ons.Q/ /* a a Qa /

cr ter a for any a rcraft, however, for the opera-t ona aspects t app es on y to Commerca ArTransport (CAT) operators.Q/ /* / a y y/ * y

Update on the Regu at on on A r Operat ons Pub cat onof Regu at on (EU) No / on A r Operat ons

aer a work/spec a sed operat ons (commerc a or not) or to any sort of non-commerc a act v ty

(recreat ona or bus ness).Q/ Q * / y / Q // a Qa Q Q *

caused confus on n recent years w d sap pear,n order to c ass fy the EFB host patforms n on ytwo var ants: portab e or nsta ed.Q/ y/ ayy / yy /* / / aa

w th a rcraft systems;Q/ 9 / ya a ayy / y a9a/* *-

ng to the sever ty of the r poss b e fa ure cond t ons.

Q/ / Q/ 9/ /99/ y* / / a /*neg g b e, the cert f ed operator, n order to

mprove the cost-eff c ency of the regu atoryprocesses (ref. Art. . .(c) of Basc Reguat on)wou d have the pr v ege of d rect y approv ngthem.

The Agency was very peased by the construct vesp r t n the Revew Group and current y foreseesa m d- pub cat on of the Comment ResponseDocument (CRD).

on the new and forthcom ng Regu at ons on A r-crew, Ar Operat ons and Th rd Country Opera-tors and a so a grow ng co ect on of Frequent yAsked Questons.

Workshops: Q Q/ a / * a / a /K-

t ons, the Agency s a so offer ng reg ona work-shops: assoc ated presentat ons are ava ab e onthe F ght Standards webs te under the News &Events secton.

Courses: / Q/ a / * a / a -

at ons are under preparat on further nforma-t on s ava ab e on the EASA Learnng Gateway.

Vs t the updated F ght Standards m n webs te tof nd out more!www.easa.europa.eu/f ghtstandards/

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