A Letter from the President:
Dear Friends and Fellow European Microlighters
The European Microlight Federation has come a long way since its conception at Long Marston in England in 2003. We are now one of the largest and most energetic of the pan-European sports and recreational aviation organisations with 26 member associations from 23 European nations representing some 40,000 microlighters. I must pay tribute to my predecessor, Dominique Méreuze, whose strong leadership and clear direction have brought us to where we are today.
We have achieved a great deal in 5 years. We have succeeded in our primary aim of remaining outside of the control of the European Aviation Safety Agency and in Annex II, while also broadening the scope of Annex II to include an allowance for emergency recovery parachutes in microlight aircraft. We have successfully worked with Europe Air Sports to modify the European insurance proposals, so reducing their cost and impact on microlight aircraft. We have worked together to extend mutual recognition based on the excellent standard set by France. We have responded on behalf of our members to the many consultations produced by EASA over the last five years. We gained a high level of representation on the EASA MDM032 working group. In all this we have maintained a degree of unanimity which gives strength to our arguments. In general we have successfully defended the freedoms and privileges of European microlight pilots while making our presence felt in European aviation.
The EMF is now seen as a key player in
European sports and recreational aviation, an important member of Europe
Air Sports and a force to be reckoned with. This will be increasingly
important in the next five years as EASA turns its attention to the
aircraft we fly.
During the last five years we have learned much about the regulatory process and about each other. This has only been achieved as a result of the efforts of individual delegates to the EMF. Some deserve particular recognition. Board member Jan Fridrich of the Czech Republic has been our strong voice at EASA, Louis Berger of Belgium has been our eyes and ears in Brussels, Past President Rieteke van Luijt has created and maintained our database on Flying Microlight Aircraft in Europe and Past President Dominique Méreuze has been our presence on the Board of Europe Air Sports. Other delegates have contributed their specialist technical or regional knowledge to the working groups which have dealt with particular regulatory issues.
Having spent much of the last five years trying to remain outside the influence of EASA, at our General Conference in Amsterdam we finally agreed that we should now apply our combined knowledge and experience to the drafting of a regulatory framework for microlights which might be acceptable to both ourselves and EASA. In part this was recognition that the output of the MDM032 Working Group was unlikely to serve the needs of microlighting. However, it also stemmed from a belief that we have learned enough about EASA and the way this agency operates to be able to hold a sensible and constructive dialogue, something we were ill-equipped to do five years ago. We are in the early stages of this project but we are confident that when we have had time to develop our proposals EASA will welcome them.
At the same time our delegates to the Amsterdam General Conference
reaffirmed their support of the US LSA category. EASA itself has
recognised the paradox that European manufacturers have dominated the US
LSA market with aircraft that cannot be flown in Europe. Now that it is
clear that the proposed ELA1 regulations for sub-1,000 kg aircraft will
not encourage the successful sub-600 kg LSA category the EMF will be
lobbying for the creation of a stand-alone LSA category for Europe. It is
estimated that as many as 15,000 of our members could benefit from this.
In short, we are of the view that the time has come to turn from our successful defence of the status quo to the development and promotion of a regulatory framework which meets the needs of our members now and in the future.
With this task in mind I would like to thank all Delegates to the EMF for
their efforts to date and wish every European microlighter best wishes for
safe and happy flying in 2009,
Yours sincerely
Keith Negal
President