A Word from our New Delegate

At the November AGM of the BMFA East Anglia region I was elected to succeed Peter Jenkins as regional delegate to the BMFA Council which is the governing body of the association. Quite an awesome responsibility not least because Peter had worked hard on behalf of clubs in the region to represent their views.

So before feeding back on a couple of important matters from the 2 national meetings I have attended to date a short bit about who I am …

I have been an aeromodeller since childhood with the obligatory breaks for family and work returned to the hobby some 10 years ago. My main interests are RC Scale both indoor and outdoor together with general sport RC flying with the South Norfolk MFC. I particularly enjoy free flight CO2, electric and small diesel powered models.

Professionally I latterly worked for Norfolk County Council fulfilling a number of roles in education. Other interests include active membership of our local church, school governance and trusteeship of a substance misuse recovery charity in Norfolk.

If you would like to contact me to discuss any BMFA matters please do so via paul.hoey1@yahoo.co.uk

The following updates you on essential BMFA Council Business covers:

  • East Anglia Regional members representing or supporting our GB teams at 2018 world championships
  • The National Centre – Buckminster Lodge
  • A new on line membership system for 2019
  • The RC Achievement Scheme
  • Draft EASA regulations for the flying of unmanned model aircraft. The briefing by Dave Phipps, CEO of the BMFA is quite long and is essential reading. No doubt there is more clarification to come so we await the final regulations.

The 1st meeting of the Council in January was largely concerned with appointing people to key positions including for our region:

  • Mike Woodhouse as Team Manager for our Free Flight Team to the 2018 World Championships. Mike being multi talented has also been selected to represent Team GB in the F1B class for rubber powered models
  • Steve Kessell (Kelling Club in north Norfolk) as Team Manager for our Scale Team to this year’s world championships.

The National Centre near Grantham is clearly becoming well used and established due largely to the work of Manny Williamson. An encouraging report was given of its development including proposed residential facilities and the high level of bookings for events in 2018. Council agreed that a feasibility study be undertaken into the benefits of the centre having charitable status. The main benefit would be the ability to apply for grants.

Council also agreed to move to a new on line membership system that will greatly improve efficiency for members, clubs and head office in Leicester. The proposed system is used by many other national organisations but will take some adjustments to the way in which membership and club affiliations are managed. A key benefit will be a significant reduction in postal costs. Each year HQ staff have to fill and stamp 15,000 envelopes.

A dedicated project team has been established who are working on the roll out plan led by Andy Symonds. Area delegates were very clear that good communication with and support for clubs and members will be essential to enable a smooth transition. The system will go live in the summer ready for the main membership renewal period from December to February.

At the moment there is nothing for clubs to do other than to be aware there will be a new system and await guidance from the BMFA.

The third area of discussion has been around the RC Fixed Wing Achievement Scheme. There are probably 2 main concerns. Firstly there is, like in many sports, an ageing and declining number of active instructors and examiners and the second is the consistency of standards across the country. A long debate amongst Area Delegates as to what constituted a consecutive 2 rolls in the B Certificate illustrated the variation in interpretation. The Achievement Scheme review group have updated much of the documentation and it is now proposed to create videos for candidates, instructors and examiners illustrating the expected standard.

I suspect from the discussions to date this will continue to be a lively debate.

Finally, we have all been awaiting further updates on EASA.

 The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has now published the Technical Opinion and Draft Regulations for Unmanned Aircraft. All of the documents can be found on the EASA website here: https://www.easa.europa.eu/document-library/opinion-012018

Model aircraft remain within the scope of these Regulations, but thanks to the lobbying carried out on behalf of the model flying community by Europe Air Sports, the Basic Regulation (which underpins these regulations and specifies what they should regulate) does include an article which offers our established activities some protection:

(20c) Model aircraft are considered as unmanned aircraft within the meaning of this Regulation and are used primarily for leisure activities. The delegated and implementing acts adopted under this on the basis of Regulation and concerning unmanned aircraft should take into account that such model aircraft have so far had a good safety record, especially those operated by members of model aircraft associations or clubs which developed specific codes of conduct for such activities. In addition, when adopting those delegated and implementing acts, the Commission should take account of the need for a seamless transition from the different national systems to the new Union regulatory framework so that model aircraft can continue to operate as they do today, also by taking into account existing best practices in the Member States.The other important change agreed to the Basic Regulation is that it no longer mandates the registration of each individual aircraft – just the pilot.

The Basic Regulation gained political agreement on 22nd December, 2017 and is expected to come into force in Summer 2018.

It is anticipated that the EASA Opinion and Draft Regulations for Unmanned Aircraft will be adopted by the European Commission in the final quarter of 2018 with the final ‘Decision’ scheduled for the first quarter of 2019.

There are three options available for model flying within the regulations:

Operation within the Open Category

This Open Category is intended for those operating as individuals outside of an association or club. Model flying will fall within subcategory A3 (away from uninvolved people) of the Open Category and can be conducted with aircraft up to 25Kg within the C3, C4 or ‘privately built’ classes.

The C4 class was specifically developed to reflect conventional model aircraft and imposes a minimum set of technical requirements (the aircraft should not be capable of automatic flight and consumer information to raise awareness of the regulations must be included).

The minimum age restriction has now been removed (this is to be left to Member States to decide) as has the requirement to register individual aircraft, but the height limit of 120 metres remains. There is also a requirement for some form of online competency training with an online test to try and ensure that the pilot is aware of the law and the requirements for safe operation.

Electronic identification and geoawareness (probably involving the use of a phone app) is only mandatory if ‘required by the zone of operation’.

Operation within designated ‘Zones’

 Article 11 provides Member States with an option to designate specific ‘zones’ for model flying to take place, primarily for those pilots who are not members of a model aircraft association or club. These zones could define different operating parameters to those required by the Open Category (such as an increased altitude limit for instance). The relevant paragraph from Article 11 reads:

 

  1. Member States may define airspace in which UAS operations are exempted from one or more of the ‘open’ category requirements of this Regulation, and in which operators are not required to hold an authorisation or submit a declaration.

 

Operation within the Specific Category

 In recognition of the good safety record established over many years by model flying associations throughout Europe, the proposed regulations allow competent authorities (in our case the Civil Aviation Authority) to issue an operational authorisation (within the Specific Category) to model associations and clubs which can define deviations from the regulations to reflect established custom and practice

and operating parameters (such as altitude limits). This is outlined in Article 6:For UAS operations conducted in the framework of model clubs or associations, the following apply.

 

  1. the competent authority may issue an operational authorisation, in accordance with UAS.SPEC.040, to a model club or association without further demonstration of compliance, on the basis of the model club’s or association’s established procedures, organisational structure, and management system;

 

  1. operational authorisations granted under this Article shall include the conditions and limitations of, as well as the deviations from, the requirements of the Annex (Part-UAS) to this Regulation;

 

  1. this authorisation shall be limited to the territory of the Member State where the authorisation was issued.

It is anticipated that the associations currently recognised by the CAA (BMFA, LMA, SAA and FPVUK) will operate under this type of authorisation and our hope is that this will enable us to continue to operate as we do today. To benefit from an authorisation of this type, the regulations do place some responsibilities on model clubs and associations, but these are now slightly less onerous than those proposed originally:

UAS.SPEC.055 Responsibilities of model clubs and associations

Model clubs and associations that hold an operational authorisation defined in Article 6 of this Regulation shall:

 

  1. make available to their registered members appropriate procedures to comply with the conditions and limitations defined in the operational authorisation issued by the competent authority;

 

  1. assist UAS remote pilots, who are registered members of the club or association, in achieving the minimum competency required to operate the UAS safely in accordance with the procedures defined in paragraph 1;

 

  1. take appropriate action when informed that a registered member does not comply with the conditions and limitations defined in the operational authorisation and, if necessary, inform the competent authority;

 

  1. provide, upon request from the competent authority, the documentation required for oversight and monitoring purposes.

Conclusion

 From the outset, we argued to exclude model flying from the scope of these regulations but could not gain political support for this. However, a compromise was reached with recognition being given to model flying within the Basic Regulation. The result of this was that EASA was then compelled to incorporate more favourable provisions for model flying within their regulations for unmanned aircraft.

Whilst not an ideal outcome, the draft regulations are perhaps a little more proportionate than those originally proposed. The provisions within the ‘Specific Category’ provide the majority of Member States with sufficient flexibility to allow model flying to continue largely as it does today, but this will ultimately depend upon interpretation and implementation within individual Member States and the level of co-operation from governments and national regulators.

As such, representatives from the UK Model Flying Associations are working in co-ordination to negotiate with the Department for Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority to try and ensure that any changes to UK regulations are fair, proportionate and based on a genuine assessment of the level of risk. These negotiations remain ongoing at the present time.

What about Brexit?

 At present (as with all things Brexit) it is unclear whether the UK will remain part of the EASA regulatory system or not. At present the indications are that the UK will either remain bound by the EASA rules or will choose to replicate them in national law.

 ENDS

 

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