European SE-IMC Gets Closer

The long-delayed implementation of Single Engine Commercial Night/IMC in Europe looks finally to arrive no later than March 2003, according to Ron Ashford of the Single Engine Turbine Alliance.

Europe's JAA issued its long-awaited Notice of Proposed Amendment (NPA) for Single Engine Commercial Operations at Night and/or in IMC in June. Interested parties have until September 30 to make their comments.

Flying SE-IMC Anyway The March 2003 date now promised for European SE-IMC implementation is 15 months later than hoped for by both operators and manufacturers. Frustration from single-engine turboprop aircraft manufacturer Pilatus resulted in a protest to the JAA (just after EBACE, Geneva) in desperation to keep their PC-12 production line going. Some European nations have already implemented their own SE-IMC rules because of JAA foot-dragging, and the numbers have grown further this year. SE-IFR cargo-only operations are permitted by exemption in Denmark, Finland, France, Greenland, Norway, Spain and Sweden; Switzerland has stated that it will approve passenger and cargo operations in accordance with the current JAA Notice of Proposed Amendment. The exemption will apply to Swiss operators flying Swiss-registered aircraft within Swiss airspace.

At present, JAR 1.525(a) does not allow an operator to fly a single-engine airplane at night and/or in IMC, except under special VFR.
"I think it's fair to say that they [the JAA Operations Sectarial Team working on the proposed final rule] are not likely or expected to overrule anything from the working group," Ashford says. "They may touch on procedural matters within the main text. After this, the revised NPA goes to the JAA committee for the final rule decision. I suspect at this stage the UK CAA will try to put back in a 'cargo only' trial period, but I don't think they will do anything unilaterally."

All that a tightlipped CAA spokesman would say to Show News is, "We are currently considering our response to the NPA."
The NPA does not address single- or dual-pilot operations. Ashford says, "Single pilot at night for cargo continues [in the NPA], but there is a separate ICAO initiative on when two pilots should be required that everyone is conscious of, and the JAA doesn't want to second-guess." This won't be added to the NPA but will be issued as a separate rule at a later date.

Because of the frustration felt by some potential single-engine turboprop operators, a few European JAA countries have exempted themselves from the current JAA rules and have allowed limited Night and IMC cargo operations.

It is thought that the French will also go along with a SE-IMC commercial passenger rule once it is on the books. At the moment only cargo operations are allowed in French airspace under the French exemption from the current JAA rules.

The Spanish DGAC exemption was approved on Dec. 27, 2001, for dual pilot SE-IMC day/night cargo operations.

In line with the Spanish decision, four Cessna Caravan Cargomasters are currently operating under these rules. Two of the Cargomasters have been operated by Swift Air since March on the Madrid-Mallorca route. One is operated by Lanzarote Air Cargo within the Canary Islands, and Al Aire operate out of Madrid. Five more Caravans have been ordered, says Cessna's man in Madrid, Marc Bloomfield. He says that the first of these, another Cargomaster, will be delivered in December of this year. Spanish passenger operations will start as soon as SE-IMC is approved by the JAA, according to another Cessna spokesperson.

Currently the NPA's equipment list requirements include a radio altimeter, two separate electrical generating systems, two attitude indicators powered from independent sources, airborne weather radar, emergency electrical supply (battery), and an area navigation system using equipment qualified for approach accuracy and capable of being programmed with aerodrome and emergency landing sites en route.

Pilot training will be tightly monitored as will aircraft maintenance procedures, according to the NPA.

The JAA target is to better one fatality per five million hours in commercial service. "We require an engine/airframe reliability requirement just like ETOPS for SE-IMC," Ashford says. Individual state authorities will be responsible for its implementation and monitoring.

"I think it will all go through, but some impracticables need to be ironed out before the NPA becomes law," Ashford says. "For example, having a forced landing area available throughout the cruise except for the specified risk periods [which were picked up from the Australian legislation] does not contribute anything measurable in safety terms and is far too complicated in practice. Thus the one country [Australia] that went that far is now intending to change it back to that of the American/Canadian rules."

The NPA's operational approval section contains revised planning and aerodrome operating minima requirements, but the "continuous availability of a landing site has been relaxed." This, says the JAA document, "is justified on the basis of the introduction of risk periods for takeoff, departure, en route and arrival phases of flight." Additional crew training requirements have also been rationalized and expanded.

By Mike Vines