EBF members have been following Gordon Bennett gas balloon race for 4 days, hardly finding time to sleep. We thank the American organisers who have done a terrific work.
What the crews have achieved from Albuquerque this year is incredible, and we would like to congratulate all of them.
We have especially happy that the podium is entirely European, with two French and one German crew. This proves the excellence of European Balloonists. Thank you Eric Decellière & Benoit Havret, Willi and Benni Eimers, and The “two Benoit” (as we call them in France) for bringing us so much joy and passion.
The Board of EBF has been quite active in 2022; we will of course give more details during our next General Assembly in spring, but as the year begins, we would like to share our activities with you.
EASA Season Opener:
In January we started with the EASA’s Season Opener. The preparations started in January with discussions with EASA and the Member States to make sure our presentation would be in line with the other GA presentations. The final presentation was on March 21st and was followed online by more than 200 balloonists from all over the EU. In April we had a debriefing and concluded that in 2023 we should make some improvements and make sure more balloonists participate.
AERO Friedrichshafen:
In late April we were present at the AERO Friedrichshafen (at no cost to EBF) and were part of several presentations of EASA.
General Assembly:
On May 10th we presented our work and plans at the EBF Board meeting. The minutes have been sent to all members, and can be found on the Website.
June 30th EASA meetings:
We participated in an EASA meeting on several topics: Electronic Conspicuity, U-space. Part 66 licencing for balloon engineers, flying in Natura 2000 areas.
Meeting with drones industry, and U-space issues:
On October 6th we had a meeting with the drone industry representatives to discuss the future. Our position toward drones and U-space is that we welcome newcomers to the airspace but that they need to be aware of us and not limit our freedom to fly. We are a strong supporter of electronic visibility by drones and other air mobile systems, but we should not be confronted with any new requirements for investments in equipment. We have supported solutions such as Safesky, which is an simple App on your phone that makes you electronically visible to other airspace users.
In October 16-17-18th we have participated in a meeting with EASA to discuss issues that are problematic to us and get to know the new EASA team. Dominique Roland has retired and Boudewijn Deuss has also retired. Both were very much involved in ballooning and advocates of our interests. The new Team now is Vladimir Foltin (GA Roadmap Champion) and Alain Leroy (Heading up the GA Team) We have had the opportunity to discuss all topics that are now on our agenda with them. We are a member of the EASA GA TeB, (General Aviation advisory member states group) and General Aviation Com group, which are very strategic groups, where a lot of lobbying can be done. We have participated in the meeting of the 5 and 6thof December. Here again we discussed the Part 66 requirements. We were asked to propose a solution that is workable for the ballooning community. This now being prepared.
We also had the opportunity to meet with the legal expert and have reserved time for an update of Part BOP and BFCL if required.
Another topic of interest may be the development of an Electronic Operations Manual based on Web Manuals. This may in future be something for all members to use. This is still work in Progress.
So, as you see, there was a lot of work. It is not easy to communicate very often, as topics run generally for several months, and EASA demands discretion. All this work has been done by a very small number of people in our Board (mainly Karel Abbenes, our Vice President and Paul Spellward, Secretary General), and we would like to be better organised in 2023, so that other members can take responsibilities and be part of the working groups.
Please let us know wether you would like to help and participate in one or several tasks. The whole Board wishes you a very happy 2023, with lots of safe flights!
Karel Abbenes, Jan Andersen, Patricia Lamy, Paul Spellward
European Ballooning Federation wishes all European Balloonists very merry holidays and a happy new year. May the clouds that fly over Europe vanish soon, may we come back to a more peaceful and respectful relationship with Nature, and for us balloonists, may we fly often and safe in 2023.
European Ballooning Federation is proud to participate in EASA’s European General Aviation Season Opener: Ballooning session will be on March 21st at 7:00 pm CET. JOIN US!
Like all Europeans, EBF members express strongly their solidarity with Ukrainian people, and especially with our Ukrainian balloonists friends.
If there is a way we can help, for instance in welcoming Ukrainian balloonists families in one of EBF countries, or sending helpful stuff, please let us know.
We also have many Russian balloonists friends, and we know they are not responsible for what happens. We do hope the situation will be resolved soon, in respect of both Ukrainian and Russian people.
As “real” international meetings cannot take place, and we still have a lot to discuss for the improvement of European balloon rules, EBF members representatives decided to meet regularly.
Here is the capture of our last meeting, which took place o “Zoom” on Tuesday, Feb 16th, with the following agenda:
Covid situation in each country: flight possible ? with passengers ? leisure only ? Training ? instruction? (2-3 minutes each)
Examinations: theoretical exams. The situation may have progressed, so each one should explain what is going on in his/her country. 5 minutes for countries that have info to give.
Part Med: Is there an evolution since our last GM?
Transfer from CAMO to CAO,
The costs of a DTO,
suggestions for changing Part BFCL and Part BOP. Example: Examinations: OPC checks– Question was raised during the last GM about OPC checks: EBF’s wish is that there is only one test, even if the pilot flies for several operators)
Short explanation from Allie Dunnington about her online training school.
Any other issue:
French commercial pilots would like to stress the point that it is very difficult to achieve the 50 hours after the licence to become commercial (Daniel Favier)
Other ?
PS – Sorry – we are not allowed to bring the video from the meeting.
After Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Holland, Spain, Switzerland, and UK, we have the pleasure to welcome Germany, represented by the talented Willi Eimers, President of the ballooning section of the Deutscher Aero Club. We are certain that Germany will be a very important contributor to our work, and we warmly welcome the German balloonists.
Times flies: nearly 6 years have passed since the creation of EBF, on April 14th 2014 in Paris.
EBF will enter its 7th year in 2020 and has been working with EASA on all matters regarding ballooning regulations for more than 5 years and is actively participating in working groups on several topics regarding general aviation.
This means that a small group of people participate not only in Rule Making Tasks, but also in focus groups that conceive the future of aviation safety. Ballooning may be small in number of pilots, but our implication is certainly as strong as other disciplines.
This is what we have done since we started to work with EASA in 2015:
Operations, Part BOP: finished, and already in force since April 2019. Only a few details in AMC/GM need to be synchronized with other parts.
Training: The “DTO” (Declared Training Organization”) in a few months (April 2020) training will only be possible inside DTOs (or ATOs). This will structure and harmonize training throughout Europe, allow all European pilots to benefit from the same quality of training and therefore to be able to work in other European countries, as training, for commercial pilots, is linked with operations and licences
Licences: BFCL. The task force, created by EBF and EASA in 2016, chaired by Paul Spellward from UK, has achieved its mission, as the new licences come to a reality in 2020. The AMC and GM are also ready, so all European pilots will have the same licence.
In parallel with the BFCL work, the medical requirement for the BPL except when conducting commercial passenger ballooning has been reduced to the LAPL medical, which is a major success driven by EBF.
Maintenance rules are being refresher and made somewhat lighter with the arrival also in 2020 of Part M Light. This rulemaking task started in 2013, with EBF taking the lead for ballooning in 2014.
EBF people:
You will be very surprised to know that all this has been achieved by a very small number of people:
Karel Abbenes, from Holland, EBF Vice President
Phil Dunnington, from UK, EBF General Secretary
Geert Peirsman, from Belgium, Treasurer
Jan Andersen, from Denmark, Webmaster
Paul Spellward, from UK, chairman of BFCL task force, and Jean Donnet, FCL expert
Thank you All For your dedication, competence, and friendship!
Our thanks also go to the EASA team, especially to Patrick Ky and Dominique Roland who took us seriously from the beginning and made all this possible, and to all other participants in the working groups. In particular on the BFCL work, Daan Doussi and Christian Kucher have worked closely and warmly with the ballooning experts.
Last but not least, I would like to also congratulate our Spanish representative, Neus Llado, who recently gave birth to twins! The future of ballooning is on its way!
So, on behalf of all members, and the executive Committee, I wish to all balloonists a very successful and very safe 2020.
