AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2012 - IAOPA1

FAA and EASA meet in Cleveland
By Craig Spence, Acting Secretary General During the week of June 12 through 14, I had the pleasure of joining IAOPA Senior Vice President Martin Robinson while attending the 2012 U.S./Europe International Aviation Safety Conference that was being held in Cleveland, Ohio. The theme for this year’s conference was “Maintaining the Course for International Collaborative Success” and, as most of you would guess, was focused on providing an avenue for the regulators and the regulated to get together to discuss accomplishments and challenges not only from the past, but also what lies ahead. Of course the big elephant in the room for many of the regulators and airlines was the European Emissions Trading Scheme and its implications, but remarkably this was not discussed in any great detail. Instead, many of the issues discussed were central to general aviation such as pilot training and over regulation. A common theme among both the regulated and the regulators was that both sides feel stressed because resources are strained and all face multiple priorities vying for those limited resources. Despite this limitation, there was a great deal of discussion, both on the program and in the halls during the breaks, that we must undertake the challenge of increasing the pilot population and reducing the regulatory burden imposed on the industry if we are to move ahead. Almost 20 percent of the program focused on pilot training, the pilot supply and finding the aviation professional of the future. The aviation industry faces a perfect storm of conditions that are coming together to make the job of finding qualified pilots willing to satisfy the needs of airlines, let alone other segments such as business aviation or aerial work. In the U.S., the pending retirement of many pilots currently flying, new rules that will up the minimum number of hours required before you can step into the right seat of a commercial airliner, the cost associated with training to reach that level, and the fact that the industry has been battered by bankruptcies resulting in changes to work rules, the elimination of pensions, and low pay for entry positions all combine to make solving the problem that much more difficult. This situation is playing out all over the globe. If there is a single bright spot in all of this doom and gloom it is that a healthy and robust general aviation infrastructure is critical to solving this problem, and that getting youth involved in aviation is a must if we are to succeed. General aviation airports are the best places where kids can get an up-close view of what it is like to fly and almost every pilot needed will get their first flights in a GA aircraft. Programs need to be undertaken that will get kids involved early and provide an opportunity for youth to experience firsthand the freedom and excitement of taking to the air. Many of these exist today, but it will take a redoubling of effort on the part of industry and the regulators to solve this problem. IAOPA and affiliates around the world will be key in making this succeed. Equally encouraging were discussions that focused on the proportionality of regulation and the safety continuum in aircraft standards. That’s a fancy way of saying that a Piper PA-28 or a Cessna 172 doesn’t need the same certification standards as a Gulfstream 650 and that a common sense approach to aircraft certification could cut the cost of bringing new aircraft to the market and would stimulate innovation and new ideas. But these efforts cannot be undertaken in a vacuum and must be openly communicated with other nations so that changes made in one region don’t impact the ability to certify the aircraft in another. What I took away from the meeting is that the importance of general aviation is recognized on the world stage and that a strong IAOPA is now more important than ever. Coordination and collaboration not only on a regional scale, but also in a global context is essential to solving many of the problems we are facing and we can influence the outcome. We have our work cut out for us but together we can and will make a difference.

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AUGUST 2012

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2012

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