CATS Brexit Guidance

There has been some consternation about whether UK PART-FCL theoretical knowledge examinations will remain valid under conditions of a ‘hard’ Brexit deal. For students wishing to continue their examinations in a European PART-FCL state guidance has been sought from a European PART-FCL member state, Austro Control.

There follows a reply to Dr Stuart E. Smith, Head of Training of CATS, from Austro Control:
“By way of derogation from Commission Regulations (EU) No 1178/2011 and (EU) No 1321/2014, the competent authorities of the Member States or the Agency, as applicable, shall take account of the examinations taken in training organisations that are subject to oversight by the competent authority of the United Kingdom but which have not yet led to the issuance of the license prior to the date of application referred to in the second subparagraph of Article 10(2) of this Regulation, as if they had been taken with a training organisation subject to the oversight of the competent authority of a Member State.”

“Although the Article refers to “examinations taken in training organizations” we [Austro Control] interpret this provision in a way that theoretical knowledge examinations taken with the CAA-UK are to be considered as if they had been taken with Austro Control, as this is the only way this article makes sense, since there are no examinations in training organizations foreseen by the Aircrew Regulation, except for the issue of class or type ratings according to FCL.725 (b) which then again would not “lead to the issuance of a license”.

“We are aware that there are different interpretations, but this is the way we understand this Article, because it would not make sense to refer to the Aircrew Regulation, if the provision was not meant for the Aircrew Regulation.”

This infers that students already part-way through the UK theoretical knowledge examination system may continue their examinations with Austro Control should they choose to do so.

Dr Stuart E. Smith
Head of Training, CATS

We are attending the Flyer Magazine Pilot Careers Live Show at Manchester Concorde Centre on Sat 6th July - hope to see you there.

International Civil Aviation Day - Working Together to Ensure No Country is Left Behind

7th December each year is recognized globally as International Civil Aviation Day (ICAD).

The theme "Working Together to Ensure No Country is Left Behind" was established on a recurring basis for the 2016-2018 ICAO triennium, in order to highlight the enormous transformational power of air connectivity to improve people’s lives.

The image shows diplomats from 54 world powers as they risked war torn skies to meet in Chicago in 1944 (above), where they drafted the visionary Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention) which established ICAO. It was formalized in the Convention’s preamble that civil aviation should be developed as a tool for world peace and prosperity, and in the decades since its ability to connect the world’s peoples and cultures and improve the prosperity of local populations has only become more relevant. Today more than 10 million passengers take to the skies on over 100,000 flights each and every day in aviation’s global network, numbers which are all set to double in the next 15 years based on current forecasts.