The Executive Committee (EC) had a routine meeting at the end of July. The arrangements for the bank account under the control of the new EC have been completed. There are changes in organisation of representation of General Aviation sector at EASA; EBF is reapplying for membership of the key bodies. It’s critical that ballooning remains directly represented, rather than under a more general organisation such as Europe Air Sports. EBF will participate at the next large sector meeting at EASA in November.
EBF’s work on regulation development and improvement continues. After a year of consultation with EBF members, a list of proposed changes to Part BFCL has been submitted to EASA. The EC is working in parallel on Part BOP and will submit proposals in the coming few months. Important changes for Part 66 engineers are going too slowly at EASA and EBF is pushing for progress. There are varying interpretations in different countries on how training organisations (DTOs) should operate and EBF will start a project to provide guidance on best practice. EBF has opened discussions with the department in EASA which deals with technical (airworthiness) issues, so that the voice of users (balloon pilots and operators) can be better heard. EBF is supporting an initiative which could bring pilot medical declarations (instead of medical certification) for pilots who do not fly commercially.
EBF is contributing on Electronic Conspicuity, to ensure that a solution for balloons which involves a simple App on a mobile phone is adopted. This work is very important to defend our access to low level airspace which might be allocated to drones in the future.
EBF will improve liaison with the member federations. There might be an EBF “conference” in the future. An initiative has been agreed to invite a specific federation to join each Executive Committee meeting, starting with the October meeting.
Paul Spellward, President