AOPA Iceland, a relative newcomer to the business of IAOPA-Europe, is already seeing the benefits of involvement with the AOPAs of other countries. The chairman of AOPA Iceland, Valur Stefansson, attended the Regional Meeting in Poland in October, and here gives a resume of the situation as seen from Iceland:
"The general aviation sector has had its ups and downs this year. The battle against the Part M regulations being forced upon the GA sector, and originally designed for commercial aviation, is important. These regulations do not improve safety at the GA level and only provide costly and burdensome paperwork. We have had to combat lack of understanding from the Iceland CAA and the Ministry of Transportation, and assume that fear of the EU is the underlying cause of their not requesting exemptions for Iceland’s GA fleet. We reason that because Iceland’s borders lie at least 440 miles away from the nearest EU border, Iceland should not be set under those rules.
"We agree fully with Mr. Eric Sivel, the Deputy Director of Rulemaking of EASA, when he admitted that the Ministries and the relevant CAAs in various countries have interpreted the rules to narrowly, and that is the big problem. We are still optimistic and hope that one day we can work together with the ICAA and the Ministry of Transportation for better GA regulation.
"Co-operation with other AOPAs in Europe is of enormous value to AOPA Iceland. Attending the Regional Meeting and seeing the unified measures taken to improve the standing of GA in Europe makes us feel that we’re not alone fighting the battle. At least we see the effects of belonging to a larger AOPA group when issues are debated with the ICAA. We are not alone!
"ICAA has granted an exemption to commence work with Annex II as 1,200kg, in accordance with suggestions from EASA itself in an NPA. Because of this exemption we have enjoyed a great summer, with lots of flying done, landing competitions and fly-ins – and without any volcanic eruptions. A fantastic airshow was held at Reykjavik airport in August, with thousands of attendants celebrating the 70th anniversary of the airport. There we enjoyed the company of a few WW2 veteran pilots from the No 269 Squadron that were here during the war, including the first pilot to ever land at the airport, Hugh Eccles.
"Safety, fantastic freedom and fun. Those are the aspects of GA we want to promote, and we want to have the ICAA by our side in doing that, instead of fighting us because of EU bureaucracy that they are misinterpreting."