June 14 OPSCHAT Summary

Hi Members,

And non-members reading this and thinking “what did I miss out on by not joining in this OPSCHAT?”

You can watch the full replay on your Member’s Dashboard.

Here’s went down this week in the world of international operations things…

The Big Things

The USA – revised LOA approval process. Basically, if you’re a Part 91 new aircraft you can now get the top 10 things rolled into 1 LOA. No news yet on the process being made easier for older aircraft, but watch this space…

China – Now require proof of ownership of your aircraft if you go there. Because of Russia flying “re-registered” (stolen) aircraft. We’ve not seen any reports yet on what this involves but we think a few extra days for permits to be approved.

Europe – Strikes remain in vogue… LFPG/Charles de Gaulle are going mad with the strikes. Fire services, airport workers strikes. EBBR/Brussels as well as Tunisia are getting in on the action as well with various airports workers and an ATC strike.

Also in Europe – EU-LISA have been having secret meetings, and our little spies have reported back saying that if you make a profit or if there is any business stuff that takes place because of the flight then you need to register. So it’s got a little more annoying again because we thought private flights were exempt but apparently not…

Hawaii – RIMPAC military exercise at the end of June which goes on for 35 days, mainly during the day. There is a big PDF document on it but it’s not particularly useful for seeing what’s really going on. Basically, some delays depending on which way you’re routing, and look out for all the extra military aircraft.

Slots in Europe

It is a mess, and it’s probably going to get worse, because there are loads of staff missing at airports. And there are some ATC problems as well. Which means slots. A lot of slots. NMOC, who run them, have some tips on how to handle all this, and how not to – like yoyo-ing (bad), slot swapping (good), late filing (bad), early filing (won’t help, but good).

Send us your slot questions at news@ops.group if you have any.

EASA Fuel Rules

We think there are two big things to look out for and read up on:

Which policy applies to you: They each have different monitoring and recording, safety measuring requirements etc. The main thing they seem affect is the contingency fuel.
New planning requirements: Particularly for destination alternates seem to have changed – the planning minimas mainly, as have some things like what to include in your arrival routing planning etc (they say what is ‘reasonably expected’)

EGGX/Shanwick

Something which we’re looking into, but here is what we know so far:

Shanwick want you to register with then if you want to get your clearance via ACARS. But there isn’t a CPDLC or ADS-C list as far as we know. We are working on an article on this, and on CPDLC logon things to watch out for, so watch this space.

Danger Club

We’ve been inspired to start talking about Fatigue. So we want to run a Danger Club on this and get folk talking, and help solve it from the bottom up (because some of those at the top aren’t helping…)

If you have any interesting incidents or accidents to share to talk on let us know, or come join us at the next Danger Club meetup!

June 14 OPSCHAT Summary