Philip Lardner <philiplardner>
Training & Flight Safety, Irish Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association,
www.ihpa.ie writes:

I just learned from the BHPA of the latest ill-thought-out madness
to come out of Europe. Eurocontrol have released a consultation document aimed
at harmonising the rules of the air throughout European airspace. Unfortunately,
whoever wrote the document has no understanding of the nature of the sports of
hang gliding and paragliding, and the new rules (as proposed) will effectively
render our sports illegal.

The deadline for submissions is the 12th April 2010.

Readers can go to the BHPA website at
http://www.bhpa.co.uk/bhpa/news/notices/sera2010.php and read up on the
issues facing our sport, and read the draft BHPA response and call to action.
The more individual pilots who respond directly to Eurocontrol, the better.

We'd appreciate it if you could publicise this and ask pilots to respond
directly to Eurocontrol a.s.a.p. using the Consultation Response Sheet on the
BHPA website.

http://paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=30584

http://www.gliding.co.uk/bgainfo/consultation

CIVL President John Aldridge writes:

In Europe responsibility for regulatory matters is delegated by
the FAI to Europe Airsports (EAS). However everyone can make comment on these
proposals directly. Go to this Eurocontrol webpage to download a copy of each of
the four consultation documents:

http://www.eurocontrol.int/enprm/public/standard_page/enprm10002.html

One FAI member reported: The (informal) advice I have received from quite a high
level in our (Civil Aviation Authority) is that they are completely over-worked
at Eurocontrol so they put out this SERA proposal to see what sort of reaction
they would get. If they received not much reaction, then it must be OK, if they
received a lot of reaction then they must think again.

If this is true then the more adverse comments they receive then the less likely
it is that we (the hang gliding and paragliding community) will suffer these
additional restrictions.

If this is true then the more adverse comments they receive then the less likely
it is that we (the hang gliding and paragliding community) will suffer these
additional restrictions.

Philip Lardner writes further:

Europe Air Sports (EAS) have been delegated responsibility for
this by CIVL according to John, but I can't see any mention of it on the EAS
website (or any contact details to ask!)

My understanding is that the more responses Eurocontrol receive about SERA the
better, forcing them to give the problem closer attention so that it includes
hang gliding and paragliding and sport aviation in general, or at least clarify
whether or not it affects us.