Page 30 - InterPilot 2019 Issue 3

PAGE 30
do prediction and awareness of en-route
wake vortex to pilots and controllers. It was
noted that there are not enough reports of
this issue and although there were report-
ing systems (ICAO and others) for en-route
wake vortex encounters (and other incidents)
they are not widely used or known to Pilots
and operators. The new RECAT system was
discussed and it was mentioned that there
appears to be a discrepancy between EURO-
CONTROL/EASA and the FAA as to how to
deal with airplanes that do not have a RECAT
category yet (for example, those in the certi- groups, ATM and Functions.
fication process), or have 2 categories in Doc
8463.
REMOTELY PILOTED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS
PANEL (RPASP)
This was the second of three Panel meetings
planned for this year. The contents of Work-
ing Paper 3 dominated the meeting. ICAO has cember 2019 and 31 January 2020. The final
adopted a policy limiting panels and commit-
tees to not more than one meeting per year.
This will potentially have a significant impact
on the work of the RPAS Panel (RPASP) and
its delivery of SARPs, Procedures, and guid-
ance material. The revised proposal from the
Panel will be for one formal meeting, such as
a Panel Meeting, to be held in March of each
year and then an informal meeting, such as
a Working Group of the Whole (WGWHL),
to be held in the October/November period
each year. Regardless of if the proposal is
approved, the deadlines for all the work on
the SARPS and guidance material will now be
delayed considerably. At best, there will be a
two-year delay, making it 2026, but it is pos- sues were withdrawn from that State Letter
sible there may be a four to five-year delay. and marked for future work as well as other
Work continued in the working groups devel-
oping Standards and Recommended Prac-
tices (SARPS) and guidance material for the
integration of international IFR operations by
Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPAs).
Working Group 5 is the Operations Group
and IFALPA assisted in the work to con-
vert the existing Part IV to Annex 6 into the
required format as requested by the ICAO
Secretariat. This is now broadly aligned with
Annex 6 Part I. It is a long process and only
the first four chapters have been completed.
The next meeting will hopefully see the other
chapters completed. In the meantime, the
WG will look at what is needed in the form of
Appendices and Attachments. There is con-
cern with ensuring other Panels understand
IFALPA@ICAO
the operations. An example is the ATMOPSP
believing the Loss C2 Link is just a communi-
cations failure, when the C2 link encompasses
much more than just communications, and so
needs to be classified as an emergency.
PERFORMANCE BASED NAVIGNATION STUDY
GROUP (PBNSG)/25
This was primarily another editorial meeting
to try and complete the rewrite of the PBN
manual. Nearly 600 comments were reviewed
and validated by the two editorial working
The schedule for completing this rewrite has
now slipped and there will be a further review
of the document at the November meeting
in Cologne. From there, it will be sent out to
various ICAO Panels (NSP/SASP/ATMOPSP/
FLTOPSP/IFPP) for comment between 01 De-
meeting in March will complete the docu-
ment and any further meetings will be deter-
mined by ICAO after that date.
PERSONNEL TRAINING AND LICENSING EX-
PLORATORY MEETING (PTL EM)
ICAO convened a group of experts in an
exploratory meeting regarding personnel
training and licensing the week of July 8. The
Personnel Training and Licensing Exploratory
meeting (PTL EM) was held as a direct re-
sponse to the concerns raised by States and
International Organizations on amendment
proposals distributed in State Letter 2018/77
to Annex 1 and PANS TRG. A number of is-
items that have been in the same domain.
The objective of the PTL EM was to determine
the scope of the subjects needing develop-
ment by an expert group in training and
licensing, and to make those recommenda-
tions to the ANC to determine what kind of
group would best satisfy those needs. There
were about 45 experts from several State
Regulatory agencies, International Organiza-
tions, and the ICAO Secretariat.
Design and Operations Working Group
(ADOP/WG)
IFALPA was called upon to comment on
several papers during this busy meeting.
The Standards and Recommended Practices
(SARPS) for the Standardized taxiway nam-
ing convention presented by Airports Council
International (ACI) and IFALPA have been
IFALPA@ICAO PAGE 31
completed and it remains to finalize the
guidance material. Work has been started
on amendments to the Aerodrome Design
Manual.
There was an update from the Wildlife
Hazard Management Expert Group (WH-
MEG) and it was agreed that there is a
need to work on a standardized taxonomy
of what should be reported as wildlife
strikes.
There were discussions concerning the
need for a risk-based approach for autho-
rized UAS and protecting airports from
unauthorized UAS and how to address this
serious issue. Other discussions included
proposed amendments to Annex 14 relat-
ing to Taxiway lighting requirements for
CAT II operations below 350m, various
lighting requirements, providing guidance
for converting a taxiway into a standby
runway and the progress on the develop-
ment of the Heliport Manual.
OBSTACLE LIMITATION SURFACE TASK
FORCE (OLSTF)
The Task Force continues to review the
current Obstacle Limitation Surfaces (OLS)
and has proposals on revised surfaces that
would reflect the type of operations and
aircraft in use today. In addition, as the
new surfaces; Obstacle Free Surface (OFS)
and Obstacle Evaluation Surface (OES) will
require an Aeronautical Study. The Task
Force has now developed a full description
of an Aeronautical Study and how it will be
conducted.
The package of the proposed changes to
the Standards and Recommended Prac-
tices (SARPs) and guidance material will
be submitted for Aerodrome Design and
Operations Panel (ADOP) and (Instrument
Flight Procedures Panel) IFPP’s endorse-
ment in the third quarter of 2021, and sub-
mission to the Air Navigation Commission
(ANC) by no later than the first quarter of
2022 for the SARPs to be effective by 2024.
Instead of the usual two years applicability
date, the Task Force has suggested that,
in order for the States to make changes to
any zoning laws and legislation, that the
applicability date should be 2028.