On 16 October 2014 in Rome ended twe two-day EASA Safety Conference 2014 under the motto "Towards simpler, lighter, better rules for General Aviation", devoted to issues related to current and future actions to simplify and improve the legislation in the General Aviation (GA). The event was hosted by Italian Aviation Authority - ENAC. The conference was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport of Italy, EASA management including the Executive Director Mr Patrick Ky, as well as the representatives of national Aviation Authorities, including the President Civil Aviation Authority Mr Piotr Ołowski who participated in one of the panel discussions. The conference was also attended by the representatives of the aviation organizations involved in the design, production, training, maintenance and management as well as the aeroclubs, associations and groups directly involved in business activities and recreational sector of GA.
Within the two days of the conference during the panel discussions, a number of issues were discussed, among others: GA safety indicators, airworthiness, operations performance and the current licensing regulations. The discussion highlighted the change in the position of EASA in simplifying the existing requirements. Participants during the discussion warmly welcomed the information on the ongoing work on the implementation of the simplifications described in GA Roadmap and expressed hope for faster conducting legislative processes. There were also criticism of the Agency regarding the current state of the requirements that have been created for the CAT, which in many cases have no bearing on the activities of small organizations and in particular to individual users.
the President of the Civil Aviation Authority Mr Piotr Ołowski who attended one of the panels presented the current state of general aviation in Poland. President Ołowski pointed to the need to better align the regulation of General Aviation, to make them more effective and understandable. He also proposed to create a separate document with a set of rules only for general aviation, allowing the GA entities to quickly find the relevant provisions in one place.
During the conference the sake of simplicity, that at the beginning of 2015 will be implemented for the unused commercial aircraft ELA 1 and 2. These include among others the possibility of a declaration and acceptance of Maintenance Program by the owners to define a minimum scope of the review of the aircraft, introducing the possibility of carring out of the airworthiness review and issuance of the ARC by maintenance organizations during the annual review and the ability to develop and validate the Maintenance Program by maintenance organizations.
Subsequent changes to the rules are under development or in the consultation process. You can find them on EASA website in the form of EASA TORs, NPAs, CRDs and Opinions.
