Consultation Hub

For comments on the proposal that the CAA continues its existing policy to recognise certain EASA Form 1s as equivalent to CAA Form 1s in certain limited circumstances, namely for maintained parts released by the Original Equipment Manufacturer or authorised agent for use on aircraft falling within the scope of Part-ML, where a component cannot be repaired by an organisation holding a UK approval. Currently this is managed by CAA ORS9 Decision No. 24 that was issued in December 2022 with an expiry date of 31 December 2024. We proposed in the consultation to extend this policy until 31^st December 2029.

To achieve the policy objective the CAA proposed to amend the current end date within Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) to UK Regulation (EU) No. 1321/2014 (the UK Continuing Airworthiness Regulation), specifically in Part-145, and Part-ML to reflect the 2029 deadline. The amendments clarify that specified EASA Form 1s (only) are ‘equivalent documents’ as permitted by the terms of the regulation to which the AMC applies.

We received 31 responses.

We received strong support of (90%) for the CAA to continue its policy of recognising certain EASA Form 1s as equivalent to CAA Form 1s in certain limited circumstances.

We received significant support (77%) for the proposed wording of AMC1 ML.A.501(a)(ii) Classification and installation.

We received significant support (70%) for the proposed wording of AMC1 145.A.42(a)(i) Components.

We received comments suggesting that the new decision should be issued indefinitely. This is not considered a viable option as the UK would be unilaterally accepting parts from the EU without any sort of reciprocal arrangement. However, the CAA will review annually the need for the new decision and will continue encouragement for foreign organisations to obtain CAA approval. We will also seek to look at a more permanent solution for beyond December 2029.

We received several comments relating to widening the scope of the decision to include Part-CAMO/Part-M aircraft. This was not in the scope of the original decision and given the targeted requirement of the use of Article 4 (1A) within the UK Regulation (EU) No. 1321/2014, we are unable to extend this provision further outside the scope of Part-ML.

We received comments to clarify where the EASA approved organisation must be located. By means of a typographical correction made to the AMC to align with the original decision, we have clarified within the AMC that it must be an EASA approved organisation based within an EASA member state.

We have decided to issue a new decision following the policy set by the original Decision 24 and thereby amend the current end date to 31^st December 2029 within AMC to UK (EU) Regulation 1321/2014. The new decision will apply as follows:

• Provided that the component is not available from a CAA approved organisation, a maintenance organisation in a state with which the UK has a bilateral safety agreement, or an organisation based in a state with whose NAA the CAA has a working arrangement, components of Part-ML aircraft released on an EASA Form 1 by the component’s original equipment (or their approved agent) manufacturer based in an EASA member state may be fitted to a UK registered aircraft.

We asked industry and academia to apply to participate in three hydrogen working groups created as part of the Hydrogen Challenge:

• H2Wo(1) Hydrogen Propulsion Systems – hydrogen combustion, hydrogen electric and hydrogen fuel system.
• H2Wo(2) Hydrogen Aircraft Safety & Certification – standards as guidance, Special Conditions and Human Factors/Flight Ops.
• H2Wo(3) Aerodromes and Airports – infrastructure, fuelling/de-fuelling and airport safety

These will facilitate collaboration with industry and academia to improve understanding of hydrogen-related risks in aviation, identify gaps in regulations and policies, and propose new recommendations to develop net-zero regulations and policies.

We received a total of 117 applications to join the one or more of the three working groups.

All applicants were contacted and asked which groups they wanted to attend. Selected applicants will be sent invitations for the first meetings which we hope to hold in October 2024.

We ran a consultation, CAP2974G, from 13 March to 22 May 2024 asking the UK General Aviation (GA) community for their views on our proposed strategic direction for pilot licensing and training simplification - Gyroplanes.

The consultation covered the following themes:

• Differences training and whether to add these into the Air Navigation Order 2016 as requirements rather than suggested minimum hours.
• Crediting of theoretical knowledge (TK) and flight training towards gaining an NPPL microlight as previously allowed under CAP804.
• Relaxing the restricted Flight Instructor Gyroplane (FI(G)) supervision to also include the local area to allow some flexibility in allowing restricted FI(G) to be able to gain the experience to remove the restriction.
• Maintaining the privileges of the gyroplane rating and whether to align with the new suggestions in the Aeroplane consultation paper.
• ATO requirement for FIC and how this can be made more proportionate for FIC(G).
• Creating gyroplane specific TK examinations and moving them to the eExams system.

We received 20 responses to this consultation. All respondents answered the survey questions and some left detailed comments.

• Differences training: The vast majority agreed with the proposals to incorporate the differences training, currently in Standards Document 44 (SD44), into the Air Navigation Order 2016 as requirements.
• Crediting of TK and flight training towards gaining NPPL(M): Nearly all respondents agreed with both of these proposals with only 1 individual being undecided on the flight training proposal.
• Relaxing the supervision of restricted FI(G): 70% of respondents agreed with the new proposed wording to relax the supervision and include the local flying area.
• Maintaining privileges: Only 4 respondents had a view on this topic.
• ATO requirement for FIC: 50% of respondents agreed with our approach.
• Creating gyroplane TK and moving onto eExams platform: These proposals received mixed views from respondents.

We will be proceeding with the next phase of this project to develop and move forward with proposed changes:

• We will begin work on drafting the proposed amendments to the ANO, in co-operation with the Department for Transport. 
• We will begin work on updating Standards Document 44 to capture the changes.
• We will update the PPL(G) Air Law and Gyroplane Technical examination papers and reformat the NPPL(A) Microlight examination papers for gyroplanes. Once updated these will be sent to all Ground Examiners for Gyroplanes.
• We will commence a project to amend CAP1667, to align with the DTO requirements.

We have published our consultation response document, setting out these findings in more detail: CAP3032G