COPA Board resolutions fight costly regulations

Significant issues face COPA every day. Some are dealt with through negotiation and explanation of the affects on our freedom to fly.
 

Sometimes, negotiation is simply not enough to get our points across, so resolutions from the Board are developed in order to provide direction to the COPA Staff and a clear message to those on the other side of an issue. Here are three examples of such resolutions.

ICAO LANGUAGE TESTING REQUIREMENTS

Transport Canada is working on a regulation to introduce language assessment and testing in Canada to meet a new ICAO standard. The new requirement will involve an assessment to establish a pilot’s ability to understand and speak either English or French and to annotate their licences accordingly, including restricting them to Canadian airspace if they do not meet certain standards.
 

Those who do not meet the standard will be subject to further evaluation, periodic testing and training if necessary.
 

The upcoming requirement has been a contentious issue for COPA, not only because, for our sector, language has not been an issue, but also the language testing has the potential to be very expensive, if not prohibitive for some pilots.
 

COPA called for meetings with Transport Canada as soon as the ICAO requirement was released and meetings are now underway to help Transport develop something that is reasonable for our sector.
 

Staff member Adam Hunt is on the case and reports that significant progress has been made, although a decision is still a few months away and it is not yet assured that cost will not be an issue and that a significant percentage of our members will not be affected.
 

To help emphasize COPA’s concern about this initiative, the Board passed the following resolution:

• Whereas the logistics of how licence holders will establish their language proficiency has not yet been established and,

• Whereas the costs of establishing proficiency and annotating licences with the proficiency level are not known and,

• Whereas the retesting process and its costs are not yet established and,

• Whereas it has not been established that lack of language proficiency has been determined to be a safety issue in Canada and,

• Whereas Transport Canada has not considered the impact of implementing the ICAO Language Proficiency Standard in Canada with the harmonization of licensing standards of the USA such that Canadian pilots will face greater restrictions in flying across Canada than US pilots flying in Canada and,

• Whereas the constitutional issues for Canadians have not been investigated and

• Whereas Transport Canada is not following its established process of consultation and is instead fast-tracking the regulation process in this instance,

• Be it resolved that COPA insist that the implementation of the ICAO Language Proficiency Standard not cause Canadian Licence holders to be subjected to any costs or fees as a result of such implementation, and,

• Be it resolved that COPA insist that the application of the standard will neither cause a current licence holder to lose their licence privileges nor prevent any person from obtaining an initial or any further licence or endorsement in Canada and,

• Be it resolved that COPA will challenge the application of the Standard in its present form in Canada as being contrary to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

406 MHz ELTs

In 2009, satellites will no longer monitor 121.5 MHz. Consequently, ICAO has mandated the carriage of ELTs that transmit on both 406 MHz (satellite monitored) and 121.5 MHz (used for homing).
 

COPA has been extensively involved in finding affordable alternatives as reported in earlier articles. Most recently, a proposed amendment to the CARs that would have relieved our sector from the requirement for flights in Canada was rejected by the government body that oversees the Civil Aviation Regulations Advisory Council, on which COPA is an active participant.
 

In order to help emphasize COPA’s long-standing position that the cost of upgrading to 406 ELTs (currently $3500) is not justified considering the reliability issues that continue with fixed ELTs, the COPA Board passed the following resolution:

• Whereas ELTs have not shown themselves to activate properly in all instances and,

• Whereas other and potentially superior technology is finding its way into the industry,

• Be it resolved that the COPA Board does not support the forced implementation of 406 MHz ELTs and,

• Be it resolved that COPA deplores the decision by the government to renege on its previous decision to not mandate equipage with 406 MHz ELTs.

VFR TRANSPONDER CODE PROCEDURE

In many terminal areas and control zones, including Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa and Winnipeg, NAV CANADA now requires pilots who intend to operate in the airspace to either be on a flight plan or call a special number to obtain a transponder code.
 

The primary reason is to take advantage of new hardware and software at NAV CANADA, called EXCDS, which automates the input and display of data about your aircraft that was previously tracked manually using paper strips.
 

Although in concept the new procedure makes sense, in practice it has proven to be unworkable for our sector. At busy times, the telephones are not answered in a timely manner, pilots cannot always stick to the rigid airline-like schedule requirements and it has proven to be inconvenient. Consequently, many decide to avoid the airspace altogether, which in turn creates safety issues as aircraft cram into the fringes and below the airspace.
 

To emphasize COPA’s disapproval of the procedure, the following resolution was approved by the COPA Board:

• The Board does not support the mandatory VFR transponder code procedure.