David Learmount/LONDON
Criteria for the location of flying schools permitted to train pilots for the new joint European pilots licence are to be "restructured", but not dropped, according to the European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA).
In their present form the Joint Aviation Requirements for flight crew licensing (JAR FCL) require schools to have their headquarters and main place of business in one of the JAA countries. Under the threat of US schools losing European business, the authorities in Washington have pressed the European Commission to force the JAA to drop the location clauses.
Many European pilot training schools send their students to the USA for the "fair weather" part of their training, but the JAA's head of flightcrew licensing, Anke Megelberg-Thissen, says: "We don't want all the training done in the USA, from the beginning at least."
Graham Forbes, chief executive at the UK General Aviation Manufacturers and Traders Association, believes there could be a safety issue for pilots training elsewhere to fly for European airlines.
The USA argues that the rules are protectionist and have nothing to do with safety, but the European pilot training industry sees their retention as crucial to its survival.
At its 11-14 January meeting in Madrid, Spain, the FCL Committee determined a form of words that Mengelberg-Thissen has described as a "restructuring" of the original clauses (Appendix One to JARFCL 1.055 Paragraphs 2A and 2B), but she will not release the wording until the new rules have been presented to the JAA's Regulatory Advisory Council this month.
US observers at Madrid are "not optimistic" about the outcome, while European industry observers are more upbeat. In late March, says Mengelberg-Thissen, the revised rules will be published as a Notice of Proposed Amendment (NPA).
The difficulty of putting the JAR FCL principles into practice across Europe - ensuring identical standards - has clearly taken the JAA by surprise. Mengelberg-Thissen says: "We haven't harmonised in Europe yet," hinting that implementing and overseeing JAR FCL licensing outside the JAR member states will have to wait.
JAR FCL was adopted in October, but its implementation date is 1 July. At immediate stake is the future European business for two large US schools - FlightSafety International's Vero Beach, Florida school, and Western Michigan University's flight training academy, which were licensed by the UK Civil Aviation Authority to carry out training for UK commercial pilots' licences.
Industry executives at the Madrid meeting report that an appeal for "grandfather rights" for these schools met a frosty reception, on the basis that there can be only one standard for implementing JAR FCL. If rulemaking is complete by the implementation date they may not get JAR FCL approval, and if it is not complete they definitely will not get approval.
Source: Flight International
