7 October 2010
At a special meeting of EASA’s FCL.008 working group in Cologne on October 5th, the future of the UK’s IMC rating became clearer. The meeting was attended by senior EASA representatives, former members of FCL.008, the UK CAA and AOPA. It has been reported that EASA has agreed to ‘grandfather’ IMC rating holders, subject to a satisfactory safety case being made by the UK CAA. Cliff Whittaker, head of Licensing and Training Policy at the CAA, was at the meeting and gave the IMCr the CAA’s full support. During a recent interview, held before the EASA meeting and to be published in the November issue of FLYER, Gretchen Burrett, the CAA’s Group Director, Safety Regulation told FLYER “…we believe there will probably be a way of keeping the IMC rating…It is looking reasonably positive at the moment.” There’s still no real detail on how the grandfathering will be achieved or on the future of the rating for new pilots post 2012. The next step will be for EASA to issue an NPA (Notice of Proposed Ammendment).
