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Issue No 58, 25 March 2024
By: Anthony O. Ives
Aviation is one of the most regulated if not the most regulated activity and industry in the world. The regulation of aviation is very complex generating complicated legal requirements. Most countries base their aviation regulations on those defined by the Chicago convention in 1944 and establishment of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) a UN (United Nations) organisation set up to make and manage international aviation law and regulations.
Air transportation is arguably one of the safest means of transport some people might argue its because of strict regulations. However, regulations are usually introduced as a result of accidents or other unfortunate incidents [1]. Radio Controlled Model Aircraft have suffered a lot heavy regulations in recent times with regulations still increasing, this was due to the rise in popularity of drone or quadcopters and people operating them irresponsibly. So it is always important to remember that irresponsible actions particularly in aviation can result in new restrictive regulations which will take away more of our freedoms and probably make everything more expensive.
In this article all aspects of aviation law [2] or the Chicage convention cannot be discussed in detail so only personnal licencing and airworthiness regulations will be briefly discussed. The purpose of the Chicago convention was to promote international aviation with the hope of making the world a smaller place and increasing intermational co-operation and appreciation of different nations, races, cultures, etc resulting in world peace and possibly preventing the reoccurrence of devastating wars like the second world war. Well at least that is the offical explanation no doubt there are other explanations. There is roughly 18 different annexes to the Chicago convention. This is full list below:
Annex 1 Personnel Licensing
Annex 2 Rules of the Air
Annex 3 Meteorological Service for International Air Navigation
Annex 4 Aeronautical Charts
Annex 5 Units of Measurement to be Used in Air and Ground Operations
Annex 6 Operation of Aircraft
Annex 7 Aircraft Nationality and Registration Marks
Annex 8 Airworthiness of Aircraft
Annex 9 Facilitation
Annex 10 Aeronautical Telecommunications
Annex 11 Air Traffic Services
Annex 12 Search and Rescue
Annex 13 Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation
Annex 14 Aerodromes
Annex 15 Aeronautical Information Services
Annex 16 Environmental Protection
Annex 17 Security: Safeguarding International Civil Aviation Against Acts of Unlawful Interference
Annex 18 The Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air
New annexes can be added as required with possibly addtional annexes already being added at the time of writing. Annex 1 and 8 will be briefly introduced.
Annex 1 covers licencing obviously you need a licence to fly an aircraft including a helicopter. A PPL(H), Private Pilot Licence specifically for helicopters is required to fly a helicopter for you own person use, essentially it does not qualify you to fly for a living or to get paid for flying. In order to fly a helicopter for living or to get paid for flying you would need a CPL(H), Commerical Pilot Licence specifically for helicopters. The other type of licence that might be required for a helicopter is ATPL(H), Airline Transport Pilot Licence specifically for helicopters. An ATPL(H) is required for helicopters that require two pilots to be flown legally such as the Sikorsky S-92, S-70, etc. Helicopters certified to been flown by two pilots are usually only flown by professional pilots, pilots who fly for a living hence ATPL(H) requires a CPL(H) as prerequisite followed by additional training and flying experience.
The usual requirements and training to get a PPL(H) in most countries is something like the followimg:
45 hours of flying
25 hours of flight instruction
10 supervised solo hours including a 100nm cross-country solo
Theory exams
Gaining a CPL(H) in Europe or UK (United Kingdom) is usually achieved in two ways one of which is in attending a course which instructs someone with zero flying experience up to commercial flying standard, this type of commercial flying course is called a integrated course. However, the most popular way to gain a commerical pilot licence is the modular route which you build up your flying experience starting by completing a PPL(H), then hour building up to 155 hours, 50 of which must be solo hours including 10 cross country solo hours and at the same time completing the necessary theory exams finally completing a 30 or 35 hour commerical flight instruction course. Generally depending on whether you sit ATPL(H) theory exams you will have a frozen ATPL(H) or with just CPL(H) theory exams you will get a CPL(H). With a froxen ATPL(H) in order to get it unfrozen you will need to complete an instrument rating for helicopters, known as IR(H) and along with meeting other flying experience within 7 years or your frozen ATPL(H) will revert to CPL(H) requiring you to redo the ATPL(H) theory exams to gain ATPL(H). In reality there is so little difference between the CPL(H) and ATPL(H) theory exams student pilots usually always do the ATPL(H) theory exams to keep their options open. In other countries such as the United States (USA) the route to achieve a commerical pilots licence is different, even a private pilots licence can be slightly different.
Annex 8 and airworthiness requirements are used to specify the legal specifications to which aircraft are built to. Most countries essentially those that are members of ICAO use the airworthiness standards set out in annex 8 as a baseline but typically add additional reqirements based on their historical experiences, etc. Most influential nations such as USA, Russia, China and of course the EU (European Union) are members of ICAO as are many others such as the United Kingdom.
The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) is the US's organisation for managing aviation in US. EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) is the EU's organisation for managing aviation in EU. The airworthiness requirements for small rotorcraft is defined by EASA in CS 27 [3] similarily the FAA defines them in 14 CFR Part 27 [4] and refers to it normal category rotorcraft regulations. You will find that 14 CFR Part 27 and CS 27 are very similar with very subtle differences as there will be in other countries such as Russia, China, etc. Regulations such as 14 CFR Part 27 and CS 27 refer to rotorcraft less than 3175 kg (7000 lbs). Most privately flown helicopters fit into this category, but these types of helicopters can also be used for commerical operatins.
Commercially flown large helicopyers usually fit into to regulations such as EASA CS 29 (large rotorcraft category) and 14 CFR Part 29 (transport category rotorcraft). This category is for rotorctaft greater than 9072 kg (20000 pounds) and 10 or more passenger seats. Most of the regulations will be based on even similar to 14 CFR Part 27 and CS 27 but will be more more stringent and stricter to account for the larger weight. Large commerical helicopters covered by these regulations can be certified to two different standards known as category A and category B or in some case both standards for different operating conditions such as different take off weights. Category A is the higher of the two standards requiring higher safety and low risk of a forced landing.
Smaller aircraft or experimental aircraft in some countries have local airworthiness requirements which only allow these aircraft to fly locally or nationally but do not have international or wider legal authority. An example would CAP regulations which are UK CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) regulations [5] that apply with the UK. The CAP 750 is very similar to 14 CFR Part 27 and CS 27 but less stringent requirements that only apply to very light helicopters under 750 kg. In some future articles I will cover CAP 750, very light helicopters and experimental helicopters
Another UK CAA regulation was CAP 658 which applied to model aircraft used solely for recreation. Possibily with recent increase in the use of drones by general public CAP 658 has been superseded by other CAP documents which apply to drone or other unmanned aircraft for both recreational and commercial operations. In some future articles I cover the documents that superseded CAP 658 and other unmanned aircraft regulations in more detail.
Please leave a comment on my facebook page or via email and let me know if you found this blog article useful and if you would like to see more on this topic. Most of my blog articles are on:
Mathematics
Helicopters
VTOL UAVs (RC Helicopters)
Sailing and Sailboat Design
If there is one or more of these topics that you are specifically interested in please also let me know in your comments this will help me to write blog articles that are more helpful.
References:
[1] http://www.eiteog.com/EiteogBLOG/No6EiteogBlogRange.html
[2] The Private Pilot's License Course: Air Law Operational Procedures Communications, Jeremy M. Pratt, 2011, Airplan Flight Equipment Ltd
[4] https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-C
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