Peadar Conroy posted in General Aviation
Hi,
I have been reading with interest the developments in General Aviation Training proposals and look forward to seeing the new annex published this July. I have not seen any comment on what I consider to be one of the major impediments to the future development of small organisation or club-based pilot training, namely the training of Flight Instructors within these organisations. If small organisations are to survive, they will need to be supplied with local, non-professional, part-time or voluntary flight instructors who are authorised to train to the LAPL and PPL and BIR standards. This training will need to be carried out within these organisations by the currently ageing stock of flight instructors and time is running out! If we get to a point where the current stock of non-professional flight instructors retire before they have passed on their skills to the next generation, I fear that general aviation will be badly damaged. I would encourage lawmakers to consider allowing the establishment of a Basic Flight Instructor Rating that can be trained within a Declared Training Organisation by the current stock of flight instructors.
P.
I second this comment. The goal of EASA is to raise the number of PPL pilots with an IR to enhance safety. In the FAA world more than 50% of private pilots have an IR, in Europe it's less than 5%. This is also because ATOs are not very convenient for many people. Being able to receive BIR, E-IR, CB-IR training at DTOs would make the instrument rating more accessible. For change to happen, the change must be managed, and I think this would be an important enabler to get more PPL pilots into instrument flying. Instrument flying makes anyone a better pilot.
Dear Mr Conroy,
thank you for your message.
The question whether to include instructor training in the DTO training scope was indeed discussed during the rule development process - please refer to Chapter 2.3.5.2 of Opinion No 11/2016 and the comment response document for NPA 2015-20 (links see below).
Today, DTOs are allowed to provide training for balloon and sailplane flight instructors. Aeroplane and helicopter flight instructor training still needs to take place in an ATO.
EASA is aware of the flight instructor shortage and will continue to evaluate possibilites for improving the situation. The idea of an alleviated access to basic instructional privileges (a "basic flight instructor rating", as you call it) has already been on the table when initially drafting Part-FCL (but could finally not be implemented) and is now included in another future rulemaking project (rulemaking task RMT.0678, link see below).
We hope this helps.
Links:
Opinion No 11/2016:
https://www.easa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/dfu/Opinion%20No%2011-20…
CRD NPA 2015-20:
https://www.easa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/dfu/CRD%202015-20.pdf
Terms of Reference (ToR) RMT.0678 (see Chapter 3 point XI):
https://www.easa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/dfu/ToR%20RMT.0678%20Iss…
Best regards
Christian Kucher
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