Easier access for general aviation pilots to instrument flight rules flying

Opinion No 01/2019(A)

Executive Summary from Opinion N0 01/2019(a) published by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency

This Opinion delivers the results of three rulemaking tasks (RMTs): RMT.0677 ‘Easier access for general aviation pilots to instrument flight rules flying’ and the combined RMT.0654 ‘Revision of the balloon licensing requirements’/RMT.0701 ‘Revision of the sailplane licensing requirements’. The detailed structure of this Opinion and the reason for combining these RMTs into one opinion are given in Section1.1.

The objective of this Opinionregarding RMT.0677 is to establish a simpler, lighter and better regulatory framework for general aviation (GA)pilots regarding flights under instrument flight rules (IFR).

Part (A) of this Opinion proposes a more proportionate set of requirements for GA pilots and a competency-based approach to gain an IFR flying qualification. This is one of the key initiatives for meeting the EASA and the GA community’s objectives in this area.With Part (A) of this Opinion, EASA addresses the objective established by the GA Road Map, which is to work towards simpler, lighter and better rules for GA. With better and easier access to IFR flying, GA pilots would be able to plan A-B flights with more confidence of safe completion. They would be less vulnerable to changing weather conditions and the associated risk of continuous visual flight rules (VFR) flights into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). As well as increasing the safety and resilience of GA flying, better and easier access to IFR flying will also reduce the complexity of longer flights, which often require extensive planning and contingency provisions to be executed under VFR. IFR flight planning for longer A-B flights is often more straightforward —thus encouraging pilots to conduct flights that they might otherwise have not attempted. This will bring safety and economic benefits.