All Weather Operations and Fuel/Energy Planning and Management Consultation Paper

Overview

While the UK was still part of the EU the CAA worked very closely with both ICAO and EASA on developing a performance-based set of regulations that would:

•    Facilitate the use of new technological advances enhancing situational awareness;
•    Facilitate the operation of helicopters in low visibility conditions;
•    Enhance all aspects of initial and recurrent pilot training;
•    Harmonise the UK legislative framework relating to flight operations, flight crew licensing and aerodromes with ICAO amendments to Annexes 6 and 14, in particular amendment 44 to Annex 6 Part I, Amendment 37 of Annex 6 Part II, Amendment 23 of Annex 6 Part III and ICAO Doc 9365
•    Introduce changes to fuel/energy planning and management as a result of new ICAO SARPs to Annex 6 Part I via Amendment 38 to ICAO Doc 9976 Flight Planning and Fuel Management (FPFM) Manual.

The CAA is therefore considering the Acceptable Means of Compliance and Guidance Material to support the regulatory requirements necessary to:

•    Introduce the concept of ‘fuel schemes’ for Commercial Air Transport (CAT) which will take into consideration the interrelationships of the operators’ fuel planning policy, in-flight fuel management and the selection of aerodromes;
•    Amend Annex VII (Part-NCO) and Annex VIII (Part-SPO) to enable a more performance-based approach with regard to the Final Reserve Fuel (FRF) including moving some of the regulatory requirements to AMC and GM;
•    Address fuel issues that are specific to helicopter operations;
•    Allow for a better integration and use of new, advanced technology as well as new operational procedures to support AWOs;
•    Ensure the availability of aerodrome infrastructure (including meteorological equipment), information and procedures to support AWOs; 
•    Allow for the use of enhanced flight vision systems (EFVS) to the maximum extent possible (e.g. EFVS to land) and includes ‘light operational credits’ for EFVS 200 operations, not requiring the use of specific low-visibility procedures (LVPs); and
•    Allow for safe helicopter flights under instrument flight rules (IFR), using of point-in-space (PinS) approaches and departures. 
•    Improve the existing mandatory crew training and checking requirements for air operators by addressing initial and recurrent training and checking, the conditions for the operation on more than one aircraft type or variant, the acceptance of previous training and checking by non-commercial operators, and multi-pilot operations of single-pilot certified helicopters.

The purpose of the consultation is to gain feedback from industry and the wider public on the proposed amendments to:
•    the Air Operation Regulation (UK) Reg (EU) 965/2012) (Air OPS), 
•    the Aircrew Regulation (UK) Reg (EU) 1178/2012 (Part-FCL); and
•    the Aerodromes Regulation (UK) Reg (EU) 139/2014 (ADR).

The Acceptable Means of Compliance, Guidance Material and Certification Standards are necessary to support the implementation of any changes to the regulatory requirements which are anticipated to be laid before Parliament in a Statutory Instrument (SI) Q2/Q3 2024.
 

Why your views matter

It is important to the CAA that the everyone has an opportunity to voice their opinion on matters that could affect them. For this reason, we are asking for comments on this AMC/GM document.

We welcome comments from every sector of the community. This includes the general public, government agencies and all sectors of the aviation industry, whether as an aviator, aviation consumer and/or provider of related products and services.

What happens next

At the end of the response period, we will review all comments and publish a summary of our responses.  

Your feedback will be used to refine the AMC and GM and guide the development of the regulatory changes.

How to respond

Responses to this consultation can be submitted by no later than 10 April 2024.

If you wish to provide feedback, please use the online survey.