European Aviation Safety Agency NEWS ISSUE 03 10.2009

航空

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航空

08

10. 2009

EASANEWS

European Aviation Safety Agency

// Quick News / // Quick News / // Quick News //

Product Safety

The activities of the product safety department in the past months are occurring in a general context of revision of the rulemaking programme depart-ment in order to provide support to the Air Traffic Management and aerodrome department. Two significant events deserve to be highlighted: the publication of the amendment 6 of CS-25 which introduces new specifications for thermal/acoustic insulation material, for flight in icing conditions and for fuel tank flammability reduction and the posi-tive opinions given by the EASA Committee to the pending opinions relative to regulations 1702/2003 and 2042/2003. These positive opinions will, in par-ticular, introduce the privilege to issue permit to fly for Continuing Airworthiness Management Organi-sations (CAMO).
Much work has also been invested in the Operation-al Suitability Certificates during the comment period of the Notice of Proposed Amendment (NPA) and after closure of comments on June 30, to define a strategy to reply to the comments received. To final-ise the Comment Response Document with regard to 4 tasks related to Part 66 (privileges of B1/B2 licenses; type and group training, type training, li-censes for maintenance engineers for non-complex aircraft) has also represented a lot of effort.
Furthermore, the department has contributed to the progression of issues in relation with permit to fly, conversion of Part-66 licenses, foreign CAMO, replacement of halons as fire extinguishing agents, and introduction of version 7.1 of the software for ACAS (Airborne Collision Avoidance Systems)
The activities of replying to accident investigation safety recommendations and to article 14 exemp-tions have continued at a sustained pace.

Bell 429
Certification

On 29 September EASA issued a type-certificate to the Bell 429 helicopter. The Agency also approved the Bell 429 Initial Maintenance Requirement Re-port (IMRR). This is the first time the MRB process has been approved for a helicopter, resulting in safety and efficiency benefits for operators and maintenance organizations.

Imprint

Publisher:
European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)
Postfach 101253
D-50452 Cologne
Germany
Phone  +49 221 8999 0000
Fax  +49 221 8999 0999
www.easa.europa.eu
Editor:
Daniel H.ltgen
Layout:
804. GRAPHIC DESIGN, Düsseldorf Germany
For more information about this publication, reactions or subscriptions please write to
easa.news@easa.europa.eu
Copyright EASA for all imagery, unless
otherwise noted.
Published quarterly, release free of charge.
ISSN: 1831-3272

Source: Bell

Air Traffic Management /
Air Navigation Services

The Regulation that will amend the EASA Basic Regulation 216/2008 and represent the 2nd ex-tension of EASA to Aerodromes and ATM/ANS will be adopted by the Council of Ministers on 14 Sep-tember 2009. Meanwhile the work on the detailed rulemaking tasks for the implementing rules which EASA is mandated to prepare from here until the end of 2012 (ATM/ANS) and 2013 (aerodromes) has started. Member States’ Civil aviation admin-istrations and the industry representatives have been asked to nominate members for the rule-making groups for ATM/ANS. These groups are scheduled to be formed and hold their constitut-ing meetings starting as from autumn. The same work will shortly begin for aerodromes.

EASANEWS

Issue # 03

10.2009

European Aviation Safety Agency

From vision to reality:
The European
Aviation Safety Programme

Patrick Goudou,
EASA Executive Director
People sometimes ask me, does EASA have a vi-sion? My reply is that Europe shall become the saf-est aviation region in the world! For this to happen, the Agency needs progressively to implement its safety responsibilities in all areas of civil aviation safety, from aircraft, pilots and operators to airports and air traffic management.
EASA, however, is only one part of the plan. Opera-tors, manufacturers, national authorities and the EU institutions each have specific actions to improve aviation safety. What is missing today is a framework that pulls these actions together. This is why the Agency has initiated the European Aviation Safety Programme (EASP). The EASP is Europe’s answer to ICAO’s requirement of state safety plans. The EASP will identify Europe’s top safety priorities, propose suitable remedial actions and set concrete safety tar-gets. One priority, for example, could be pilot train-ing and how to best adapt it to future operational challenges and aircraft technology. This is also the subject of a dedicated EASA conference on 24 No-vember (see events, page 7).
In line with our principles of transparency and ac-countability, the EASP will allow stakeholders to monitor progress on how Europe’s safety targets are being met. It will be a reference document for policy makers and a guide for best practice. An Advisory Committee for the EASP has been established with senior representatives of industry, government and the EU to agree on the next steps before the end of the year. As the EASP takes shape in 2010, I look for-ward to reporting to EASA’s stakeholders regularly on the measures taken and the targets met. I am convinced the EASP can play a pivotal role in making Europe the world leader in aviation safety.

The way forward with EASA’s
new responsibilities

by Jules Kneepkens,
Rulemaking Director
We have seen many changes during the past months, starting with the consultation on the proposed implementing measures regarding pilot licensing and air operations and more recently the adoption of the amended Basic Regulation address-ing the extension of Community competence to the fields of ATM/ANS and aerodromes. These develop-ments represent a challenge for all of us – Member States, Industry, EASA and the Commission.
Following the various views expressed by the avia-tion community, the Agency and the Commission worked on a coordinated approach to the way for-ward to address the concerns raised and to ensure a smooth transition. The proposed approach received full support from the EASA Management Board dur-ing its meeting on 15 September this year.
All parties involved in this process stressed the im-portance of meeting the legal deadlines set by the Basic Regulation through establishing priorities and offering appropriate transitional measures. It is also agreed that lessons learnt during the first extension phase will help with the second. This includes keep-ing processes as simple as possible and building the work around existing material and expertise.
Taking into account the views of stakeholders, EASA and the Commission have decided to prioritize work packages for the areas covered by the first and second extension. This prioritization provides the necessary balance in terms of safety and level playing field and is based on:

 safety risks,

 whether uniform rules are already established at   European level,

 the size and type of the affected stakeholder
 community,

 the progress already made by EASA in certain   fields regarding the first extension, and

 the resources available.
EASA will propose appropriate transition measures allowing Member States and industry time to adapt to the new rules. The length of the transition peri-ods will depend on whether Community legislation or common standards are already established and will take into account the effort needed by Member States and industry to implement the legislation. The final decision for the transition measures will be made at Commission level.
First Extension_ Pilot Licensing and Commercial Air Transport operations have been identified as first priority work packages. Work packages re-lated to other types of operations such as aerial work and general aviation will follow. With a few exceptions, further rulemaking tasks in the fields of pilot licensing and air operations can only be started once EASA has published the Opinions on the initial implementing rules. One of these excep-tions is the task on flying in IMC conditions, which has already been initiated and will continue.
Many of you have commented on our NPAs con-cerning pilot licensing, air operations and opera-tional suitability. We would like to thank each one of you for having gone to the time and effort to provide meaningful comments which will help us to improve the proposals. The work on the im-plementing measures for pilot licensing is already quite advanced, while we are at the very early stag-es of reviewing the comments on the other NPAs.
Due to the exceptional circumstances and in or-der to ease the potential weight of comment re-sponse documents and resulting text proposals, we will apply advanced working methods for the comments on the requirements for authorities, organisations, air operations and operational suit-ability. While taking into account the individual comments received, we will provide a summary of the responses to the comments in order to concen-trate on improving the text. We are developing a tabular format to clearly show the changes made, as well as related justifications. The plan is to in-clude references to EU-OPS/JAR-OPS 3 and ICAO SARPS, as applicable.
We plan to publish the comment response tables and resulting text using a phased approach be-tween March and December 2010. To meet the le-gal deadlines we will have to stick to the 2 months publication period for the comment response ta-bles, as provided for in the Agency’s Rulemaking procedure. This will probably mean that the pub-lication periods for individual packages will not overlap. However, the Agency will regularly inform stakeholders about the comment review progress.
Regarding the structure, the total system approach and consequently the horizontal structure of the authority and organisation requirements are main-tained. This includes the general requirements and additional requirements for aero-medical centres and approved training organisations as well as commercial operators and non-commercial op-erators of complex motor-powered aircraft. Taking into account the views of stakeholders, we will adapt the sub-structure of Part-OPS by separating the requirements into dedicated parts for Com-mercial Air Transport, non-commercial operations (i.e. recreational and business aviation), Special Approvals (e.g. low visibility operations, danger-ous goods, etc.) and other operations (e.g. aerial work, training flights and test flights). The change is depicted below.
The approach established by EASA and the Com-mission also touches upon a number of important principles for processing the related NPAs. These include producing proposals that are aligned as closely as possible to existing standards (ICAO SARPs, Community law and adopted JARs) and that can be easily adopted during the Comitology proc-ess. Consideration is given to safety and regulatory principles (e.g. changes stemming from the Basic Regulation) and proportionality to avoid undue burden for general aviation and small/medium enterprises. The EASA proposals will provide the necessary balance in terms of safety and level play-ing field as well as hard and soft law. As is the case today, the draft implementing rules and Agency measures (CS, AMC, GM) are being developed in parallel.

02

10. 2009

EASANEWS

European Aviation Safety Agency

Jules Kneepkens

Present structure as included in the NPA on air operations

CAT

OTHER
OPERATIONS

SPA

GEN

CAT

OTHER
OPERATIONS

Envisaged structure after comment review

CAT

OTHER
OPERATIONS

SPA

GEN

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EASANEWS

European Aviation Safety Agency

10. 2009

. 2008 Diamond Aircraft Industries GmbH

Second Extension_ A phased approach for pub-lishing NPAs will also be used for the ATM/ANS and aerodromes implementation measures. EASA has proposed 3 distinct terms of reference to address the extension of scope to ATM/ANS and will con-centrate its rulemaking activities now on Air Naviga-tion Service Provisions, Air Traffic Controller Licens-ing and requirements for competent authorities in ATM/ANS. In the field of aerodromes, EASA has al-ready initiated the preparatory work and envisages no further prioritization for the development of the implementation measures at this stage. The EASA proposals will build on existing rules and material and will take account of the available expertise (Eu-rocontrol, GASR). The horizontal rule structure of authority and organisation requirements proposed under the first extension will be followed.
This coordinated approach by EASA and the Com-mission which is welcomed by the Management Board, provides a clear way forward in the further processing of the first extension tasks following the extensive debate in reaction to the associated NPAs. It embraces 4 key elements: the modifica-tion of the proposed rule structure with imple-menting measures which are readily understand-able by those who have to comply with them, prioritisation of the work, alignment with existing standards and proposals for transition measures. The second extension will benefit from the clari-fication reached for the first one. The Agency will continuously inform stakeholders at various levels and through different forums about the progress of the related rulemaking activities.

04

10. 2009

EASANEWS

European Aviation Safety Agency

EASA’s International Cooperation:
Setting Priorities in a
Challenging Environment

by Thaddee Sulocki,
EASA Head of International Cooperation
Technical Cooperation and Assistance Pro-grammes_ The EASA system - being quite unique and innovative - generates a lot of expectations and interest throughout the world. This is the combined result of the development of a modern set of regulations adapted to the complexity of the aviation world and the new sharing of responsi-bilities between authorities and industry allowing for a better use of scarce resources. As a conse-quence, an increasing number of countries elect to adopt or adapt EASA regulations and there is a vast increase of the volume of requests to the Agency in terms of technical cooperation activities.
Furthermore, as part of its efforts in supporting the improvement of aviation safety worldwide, the European Commission (EC) is launching new major EU Civil Aviation Cooperation Programmes (e.g. India, China, Russia, Mediterranean countries - EUROMED - and Central Asia/Black Sea countries - TRACECA). Moreover, CAAs subject to regulation 2111/2005 (known as the “Black-list”) may also require the definition of specific assistance pro-grammes under the leadership of the EC. In both cases, the EC makes use of the technical expertise of EASA - in the first instance to identify the needs of beneficiary CAAs, and secondly to guide and monitor the implementation of projects.
As a matter of general principle, however, EASA technical assistance focuses on the following three main domains: the Regional strategy, the support to the EU Civil Aviation Cooperation projects, nota-bly those related to the “Black-List” and the EASA International Cooperation Forum (ICF).
The first EASA International Cooperation Forum was held in Cologne in October 2008. Such a fo-rum helps to identify the common needs and ex-pectations of the authorities using, in one way or another, EASA regulations. Together with EASA, these authorities form a “Community” sharing a number of common values, goals and challenges.
Therefore, EASA has established a network of focal points and is developing a method to deal system-atically with most requests emerging from “EASA Community” Members.
In conclusion, the priorities are to support the European Neighbouring Countries, Sub-Saharan Countries, “Black-Listed” Countries, Asian Coun-tries, other regions and to follow up on the EASA International Cooperation Forum.
Bilateral Agreements and Working Arrange-ments_ Assisting the Commission in the nego-tiations of Bilateral Agreements is a priority for the International Cooperation Department. The Department is today actively supporting the dis-cussions on two bilateral agreements: the EU/US Bilateral Agreement, and the EU/Canada Bilateral Agreement. EASA has also started to support the Commission in the negotiations with Brazil and Australia. It is expected that a comparable exercise will soon start with New Zealand.
A top priority has also been the preparation and sig-nature of Working Arrangements with the “ECAC-non-EU countries”, in order to organise a smooth transition from the JAA to EASA. EASA was tasked to develop these agreements by the EC and ECAC/JAA. All these Working Arrangements (except with Ukraine) have been signed early July 2009.
Work in the first half of 2009 was almost exclusively geared towards these two main priorities. Now, the Agency is focusing on Working Arrangements with China, India, Japan, and possibly South Korea. This activity is conducted in close cooperation with the European Commission.
The Department also continues to organise man-agement meetings with the Civil Aviation Authori-ties of third countries in order to monitor and exe-cute the terms of the current Bilateral Agreements, and to monitor the implementation of the Working Arrangements (for an overview of all the existing Working Arrangements please look at the EASA website and click on International Cooperation).
EASA Representation Abroad_ Today, EASA has established two representatives abroad, one in Washington DC, USA, and one in Beijing, People’s Republic of China. They are the main direct contact for the civil aviation authority, the accident investi-gation board and the industry of these countries. The two main objectives are: improvement of the day-to-day cooperation, and technical advice and assistance.
The representative in China, Sylvette Chollet, has additional tasks such as supporting EASA involve-ment in technical cooperation programmes (Inter-national Civil Aviation Organization Cooperative Development of Operational Safety and Continu-ing Airworthiness Programme (ICAO COSCAP) for North Asia and EU Programme) on a local level. She is also assisting EASA in the issuance of Export Certificate of Airworthiness for Airbus aircraft as-sembled in China.
In the future, several posts are foreseen, for ex-ample in Brazil, Canada (ICAO), India and Russia, whereas the current representations in China and the USA should be strengthened.
Representations abroad are key elements for dis-seminating the European system and contributing to the smooth implementation of Bilateral Agree-ments and major Working Arrangements.

EASA International Cooperation Department

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10. 2009

European Aviation Safety Agency

EASANEWS

Report from
the U.S.

by Julian Hall,
EASA US Representative Washington D.C.
In 2008 it was confirmed that DG TREN supported the approach of EASA to attach an aviation safety representative to the Delegation of the European Commission in Washington D.C.
I have now been in post for one year, working at the Delegation of the European Commission where I work closely with the Transport, Energy and En-vironment (TEE) Section, which is responsible for monitoring and analysing US political, economic and regulatory developments. The Ambassador of the Delegation is Mr John Bruton, a former Prime Minister of Ireland.
The role of the EASA Representative is to support the Agency in all areas which are within the scope of the Agency’s remit in the United States and Cana-da. To accomplish this it is necessary to work closely with the US and Canadian Administrations, Industry and Non Government Organizations (NGOs).. The role also entails working closely with the Commis-sion Delegation in Washington, and with the Euro-pean Commission on all common matters.
There are several current challenges, the first be-ing the impact of draft US legislation on the entry into force of the bilateral safety agreement with the USA. The language in the FAA “reauthorization Bill” is primarily used to approve the finances for continued operation of the FAA. However, certain new provisions have been introduced which would, if approved, contradict the intent of the agreement, particularly in the Maintenance Annex to the Agree-ment by introducing additional inspections and the possibility of drugs and alcohol testing.
The second challenge will be how to assist in managing the impact of the Regulation (EC) No. 216/2008 on the relationship between North America and Europe. The new Regulation ushers in the first extension of scope of the Agency, which includes new requirements in Operations, Licens-ing, Third Country Operators and Operational Suit-ability Certificates.  In the global aviation system it will be necessary to explore how Europe and the US and Canada can adapt to these changes whilst maintaining a robust safety system. A key focus is ensuring we consider the views of US and Cana-dian stakeholders during the comment response period. To facilitate this activity, various meetings have been organised in the United States to ex-plain the first extension and discuss the new im-plementing rules. It will be important to have close cooperation and coordination to ensure we have a balanced, workable Safety system.
The third significant challenge will be to support the proposed second extension of EASA to Aerodromes and ATM, which is already providing its own unique challenges and opportunities.
2010 has many additional challenges for EASA in the United States such as maintaining the momentum in existing safety initiatives. For example, it is planned to become more involved in the Commercial Avia-tion Safety Team (CAST) activities, and the FAA Avia-tion Rulemaking Advisory Committee (ARAC).
In the coming years it will be increasingly important to regularly liaise with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to ensure a good flow of infor-mation to permit EASA to maintain its responsibili-ties for continuing airworthiness of the products it certifies.
Regular liaison with industry associations such as the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Air Transport Association (ATA), General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), Aerospace Industry Association (AIA), Aeronautical Repair Sta-tion Association (ARSA), etc. and close liaison with the FAA and TCCA are essential elements in market-ing and promoting EASA.

. Moreimput / PIXELIO

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European Aviation Safety Agency

EASANEWS

10. 2009

Aircraft engine particle emissions: a new certification parameter

by Erika Herms,
EASA Environmental Protection Officer
Since the late 1970s, there is a growing concern regarding aircraft engine emissions and their ef-fects on local air quality and global climate change. When the First Edition of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Annex 16 Volume II was adopted in 1981, it was focused on the control of common air pollutants emissions which have an effect on local air quality: carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and smoke.  Many changes have been introduced in the Annex 16 volume II since that time. The most significant changes were the introduction of more stringent limits for NOx emissions while the other limits remained unchanged.
Smoke was originally controlled mostly for visibility reasons as the appearance of black smoke at the exhaust of aircraft engines was considered unde-sirable.  Nowadays, due to progress in technology, aircraft engines are considered to be smoke-free. However, in reality, the particles which are emitted are so small that they are not visible. 
In the ambient air, particulate matter (PM) consists of a mixture of solid and liquid particles that are suspended in the air. They vary in size, composi-tion and origin. PM is either directly emitted into the air or formed from gaseous precursors. The di-rect emissions of particles from aircraft engines are non-volatile particles containing carbon. They are the result of an incomplete combustion processes. The main volatile PM precursors/substances emit-ted by aircraft engines are sulphur oxides (SOx), ni-trogen oxides (NOx) and unburned hydrocarbons (HC).  Combustion-related particles are small in size, as opposed to coarse particles stemming from natural sources (salt, sand, dust). While aviation contributes significantly, the majority of global PM pollution can be attributed to road vehicles, power/heating plants and various industrial processes.
Small particles – dangerous, but as yet unmeas-ured_  When it comes to their effect on health, the size of particles is an important issue. The smaller the particle, the deeper it enters into the lungs. Fine particles are strongly associated with heart and lung diseases which, in extreme cases, can lead to premature mortality. Particle sizes at the ex-haust of a current aircraft engine vary with a large proportion between 20nm to 60nm depending on the operating conditions. These nanoparticles may pass through the lungs and cell membranes into the blood. Particles emitted by automotive engines are of a similar or slightly larger size.
The particle surface also has a significant impact on health. Particles can absorb toxic compounds and the effect on lungs will depend on the interacting surface area. Particle surface is not easy to measure and therefore the particle number may be used as an surrogate parameter since the surface can vary with the number at a given constant mass concen-tration.
Furthermore, particles impact the environment at regional scale through the contamination of soil and water after deposition, and at global scale on climate change by triggering cloud formation.
Current legislation and methods_ EU ambient air regulation (Directive 96/62/EC) was established in 1996 in order to reduce undesired health effects.  As particles larger than 10μm (1x10-6m) in diameter do not cause major problems because they are fil-tered by the nose and throat, the first regulation on PM in ambient air was based on the measurement of the mass of particles smaller than 10μm (PM10). Following the Cleaner Air for Europe (CAFE) initia-tive, the latest Directive (2008/50/EC) on ambient air quality also introduces a PM2.5 mass limit value (diameter smaller than 2.5μm) which better repre-sents the impact on human health.  It should be noted that compliance with this Directive is expect-ed to be a problem at some European airports.
In order to reduce the concentrations of PM in ambient air it is necessary to mitigate the emis-sions at all sources. Since the early 1990s, the Eu-ropean car legislation has prescribed limitations in particle mass emissions. The latest car emissions legislation, Euro5 and Euro6, introduce more strin-gent PM mass standards and non-volatile particle number limits. As for aircraft engine emissions, ICAO Annex 16 Volume II prescribes certification limits for smoke emissions using a visibility param-eter known as a “Smoke Number (SN)”. This proce-dure measures the obscuration (opacity) of a spot on a filter and is only linked to visibility properties. The gaseous precursors which form secondary par-ticles in the plume are also regulated as ICAO has established standards for nitrogen oxides (NOx) and unburned hydrocarbon (HC). The emissions of sulphur oxides (SOx) are indirectly regulated via the fuel specifications which place a limit on sulphur content. Within the UK Def. Stan. and US ASTM specifications, this content is currently lim-ited to 0.3% in mass for commercial aviation fuel.
Working towards a new regulation_ As men-tioned above, the smoke requirement was mainly created to address the issue of visibility of exhaust emissions.  Particle emissions from aircraft engines are now very small, and so SN is no longer an ap-propriate indicator although it is still used for the certification of aircraft engines. In order to evaluate the trend in engine technology advances as regards particle emissions and their subsequent impact on local air quality and climate change, we have to focus on the measurement of particulate mat-ter mass, number and size.  For these reasons the ICAO Committee on Aviation Environmental Protec-tion (CAEP) is currently working on developing an aircraft engine particulate matter emissions cer-tification methodology. Towards that end CAEP is coordinating with the SAE E-31 committee which is responsible for establishing standard methods and recommended practices for sampling and measure-ment of aircraft exhaust emissions. E-31 has pre-viously developed the Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP) on smoke which was adopted by ICAO in the first edition of Annex 16 Volume II. This year the Committee has also finalised and approved the Aerospace Information Report (AIR) on the measurement of non-volatile particle emissions.
EASA is already working within CAEP and last year the Agency became a member of the SAE E-31 committee in order to closely participate in the de-velopment of an ARP on non-volatile particle emis-sions. When published, this ARP is expected to be used by ICAO and regulatory agencies to underpin a certification requirement on aircraft engine par-ticle emissions.
Research and development_ In order to contrib-ute towards the CAEP and E-31 work, EASA funded a study on airplane particle emissions (APE) in 2008.  This has been followed up by a further re-search study, SAMPLE, in 2009 to consider some of the outstanding questions regarding sampling and measurement of aircraft engine PM emissions.  This study has been successful in bringing together key expertise on this issue from all over Europe, and coordinating with US FAA/EPA research projects on this same subject, with the aim of closing knowl-edge gaps and progressing quickly towards a ro-bust PM certification requirement.
The next CAEP work programme will start in 2010 and end in 2013. One of the work items is likely to be the development of an aircraft engine based metric and methodology for application as a non-volatile PM emissions certification requirement.  Significant effort is needed to achieve this task, and EASA will further contribute to this by launching a follow-on research study in 2010 known as SAMPLE II.  It will build on the results and conclusions from the initial study by focusing on the sampling system and on aircraft engine tests. The Agency will also host the next SAE E-31 particulate matter subcom-mittee meeting in November this year.
1 Gaseous precursors.are gases that lead to particles after chemical
  and physical transformations.
2 SAE International is the society dedicated to advancing mobility
  engineering worldwide; SAE E-31 is the .aircraft exhaust emis-
  sions measurement.. committee.
3 FOCA.: Swiss Federal Office of the Civil Aviation
  FAA: US Federal Aviation Administration
  EPA: US Environmental Protection Agency

07

10. 2009

European Aviation Safety Agency

EASANEWS

Events

EASA conference
Are pilots trained to meet the challenge?

3rd EASA
Rotorcraft Symposium

On 24 November, the Agency will be hosting a pi-lot training conference close to its headquarters in Cologne, Germany. The symposium addresses what is emerging to be a global consensus that training needs to move up on the safety agenda. Is-sues include future training needs for increasingly automated aircraft and the challenges of working in congested airspace. The purpose of the confer-ence is primarily to exchange views and identify key elements of best practice. The Agency’s initia-tive brings together experts and speakers from Eu-rope and worldwide. John M. Allen, Director, Flight Standards Service FAA, will kick-off the debate along with EASA Executive Director Patrick Goudou and set the scene from the US and European per-spectives, followed by contributions from industry representatives.
The agenda is available on the events page of our website and we will keep readers posted of the outcome of the conference via the EASA News elec-tronic newsletter.
From 2 – 3 December, EASA will for the third year running provide the rotorcraft community with a forum to discuss initiatives or issues in the field of rotorcraft safety. Topics include rotorcraft design, continuing airworthiness, regulatory approval and operational matters. Speakers include Gunter Car-loff, Executive Director of the New European Heli-copter Association and senior representatives from the world’s leading helicopter manufacturers.

For more information visit EASA’s events webpage: www.easa.eu.int/ws_prod/g/g_events.php