Highlights of EUROCAE High Level Meeting  

27 April, Brussels, Belgium

The visionary outlook EUROCAE has chosen as the topic for the second High Level Meeting reflects the transformations and improvements the organisation has undertaken over the past years. The focus of the two panels, comprised by our high level executives and decision makers from all sectors of aviation, was on the future, vision, priorities and challenges. To this end, the conclusions of this High Level Meeting will be an essential input to further adapt the EUROCAE strategy.

“Our tireless activity in the service of the aviation industry has established EUROCAE as the European leader in the development of worldwide recognised industry standards for aviation and EUROCAE has a deeply rooted culture of celebrating successful achievements” said Francis Schubert, EUROCAE President, during his opening address.

The meeting noted that currently there are several issues facing our industry, capacity and competitiveness as well as environment are priorities while safety will be in no way compromised. As aviation continues to grow, it must do so safely although technology is expected to play an every more important role. During the presentations and discussions, it was mentioned in different ways that the major growth in aviation over the next 20 years is expected to take place in Asia and Africa, and to a lesser extent in Europe. Nevertheless, Europe must keep and pursue the active role it has always shown. Along these lines, how we standardise for the future is very important, while it was confirmed that the technology is ready today.

The discussions looked also at changes in relationship between ICAO and standardisation bodies such as EUROCAE. The goal is that products developed by standard developing organisations (SDOs) are validated by ICAO panels in a way to proof they are fit for purpose to complement and be referenced in ICAO provisions.

There is a need to ensure a balance and synchronisation between industry standards and the performance based regulatory frame, while we understand that also

standards should be non-prescriptive to not hamper innovation and development of solutions.

The availability of standards appears to be a concern and at the same time a priority, as it emerged from the discussions on both panels. EUROCAE is already looking into this increasing demand, aiming to synchronise the development of standards with the regulatory frame and the industry needs as early as possible and actively cooperate with all involved stakeholders. In this respect is was also repeated by several speakers that EUROCAE, as the European leader in this field of standards for aviation, should have a much stronger and formal status within the European standardisation system.

Though there are also disruptive new technologies, this is a positive sign for innovative solutions, which should be taken as an opportunity. UTM and UAS are good examples of the industry that have a system approach and which have an impact already today and even more tomorrow. Much discussion has unfolded on the integration of drones in our current traffic management systems, and the effect on aviation and economic growth in this sector.

To conclude, the meeting agreed that bringing a few quick wins to the industry is needed but a challenge that we are facing today. Technology is ready and will be key for the future to support the targets of SES and globally. Capacity, safety and environmental solutions should be prioritised. Disruptive does not mean to destroy what is working well today, it was seen that different emerging topics include technologies which might shake up our current system. EUROCAE was pleased to note the continuous support from the European Commission and all European organisations, ICAO, the industry and our partners regionally and globally.

EUROCAE Council will further consider these aspects to refine the strategy and the work programme of our organisation.

EUROCAE 55th General Assembly 

On 27 April 2018 EUROCAE General Assembly held its 55th meeting. 

Members acknowledged the positive development of EUROCAE during the last year and participated in the election of the EUROCAE Governing bodies. 

EUROCAE Council

The Council was elected with the majority of votes. The first meeting of the new Council took place immediately after the High Level Meeting.​

Francis Schubert, EUROCAE President

Francis Schubert's leadership was re-confirmed and he was assigned as the EUROCAE President for the third time for a one year term.

Chairpersons Club meeting 2018

The 2018 Chairpersons’ Club meeting was attended by over 20 participants representing over a third of the Working Groups (WGs), both Chairs and Secretaries, with the participation of the TAC Chair, TAC Vice-Chair, and the EUROCAE Secretariat.

Christian Schleifer, EUROCAE Secretary General, opened the meeting stressing the benefits of the new EUROCAE location which shall increase profitability of the WGs. He stated also that the goal of the Chairpersons’ Club meeting is to understand what the WG Leadership needs, and how EUROCAE could best respond to these expectations. First agenda item was the report on the progress the Secretariat made on the action items from 2017.

The participants acknowledge that this forum is perfect for the exchange of information between Working Groups, as well as between Working Groups and the EUROCAE Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). The interface between TAC and the

WGs will also be discussed at one of the upcoming TAC meetings, tobring back the feedback from the exchange with the WG leadership.

The meeting provided an excellent venue to foster additional exchanges, particularly about the EUROCAE Documents (EDs) drafting guide. To ensure the high quality of EDs, such a guide is very important for the WGs, and set the basis for a common approach to standardisation.

The last part of the meeting was dedicated to participants to share their best practices, how coordination with other WGs could be improved, and how to enhance the participation from WG members. These points will be followed up upon by EUROCAE, for a  continuous support of the WGs and the experts, and for a constant improvement of the standardisation activity of the organisation.

EUROCAE WG-98 kicks off new activity on Return Link Service

17 – 18 April 2018, Saint-Denis

EUROCAE WG-98 met in EUROCAE premises to kick off a new activity to develop MASPS for Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELT) Return Link Service (RLS).

Several aircraft disappearances occurred over water, including Malaysian MH370, for which the potential survivors, the wreckage and the flight recorders have not been recovered. As the long-lasting or non-recovery of recorders greatly reduces the likelihood of discovering the actual cause of accidents, and in order to improve the recovery of wreckage and flight recorders following an accident or incident, it is necessary to improve performance standards for new-generation ELTs and their means of activation.

In addition, remote activation from the ground of ELTs offers the possibility to localize in-flight a non-cooperative aircraft and therefore participates to the ICAO Global Aeronautical Distress & Safety System (GADSS) concept of operations.

Over 20 participants joined the first meeting of the WG, which is chaired by Alain Bouhet (Orolia) and Christophe Chatain (ELTA); the Secretariat is provided by Carmen Aguilera (European GNSS Agency) and Manuel Lopez-Martinez (European GNSS Agency).

For further information and to participate please contact anna.vongroote@eurocae.net

Runway Weather Information Systems will be addressed by the new EUROCAE WG-109 

Kick-off meeting: 23-24 May 2018, Saint-Denis, France

The evaluation of meteorological contamination of pavements – by weather contaminants such as water, snow or ice –are among the main data needed to assess aircraft landing and take-off performance on a given runway. The importance of runway contamination assessments has been emphasized by the implementation of ICAO’s Global Reporting Format, which results from years of international work on runway excursion risk reduction and will come into force in 2020. This new, enhanced reporting system heavily relies on a Runway Condition Assessment Matrix (RCAM), which allows determining a code characterising the runway surface conditions from accurate criteria on

the nature of the contaminant and its thickness.

WG-109 is tasked to develop Minimum Aviation System Performance Standards (MASPS) for Runway Weather Information Systems. 

It will define the performances expected from the systems and the way of verifying that the latter reach them. The WG will also consider other possible relevant information needed.

If your organisation is interested to contribute to this WG, please complete the Registration form before 4 May 2018.
For more information, please contact Sergiu Marzac at sergiu.marzac@eurocae.net.

WG-14 new activity to be started

On 5 April 2018 EUROCAE is launching a Call for Participation to inform interested parties about a new activity to deliver Minimum Standard Environmental Test Conditions (categories) and Applicable Test Procedures for Ground Based Equipment. 

ED-14 / DO-160 "Environmental Conditions and Test Procedures for Airborne Equipment" are available and widely used by the aviation community. However, currently the document deals only with environmental conditions and test procedures for airborne equipment. 

As technology evolves and Unmanned Aircraft Systems are integrated into commercial applications, it is considered necessary to review existing environmental qualification standards and requirements for the surface-based equipment (stationary ground, mobile ground, and sea-based) and provide the

environmental qualification requirements for UAS Detect and Avoid, the Command and Control Communications and Control Station Equipment. WG-14 will work in close collaboration with EUROCAE WG-105 and RTCA's SC-135 and SC-228 to develop a document that specifies ground based environments and the procedures required to test for equipment installed in those environments. The main focus is on specifying the environment conditions. In addition, the environmental test procedures will also be specified.

If your organisation has the necessary expertise in this field and is interested in contributing to this activity, please complete the Registration form at the latest by Tuesday, 15 May 2018. 

The start of this new activity within WG-14 will be announced at a later stage, depending on the number of interested participants.

EUROCAE documents

EUROCAE recently published:

• ED-251 "Operational Services and Environment Definition for RPAS Automatic Taxiing
   
• ER-016  "RPAS 5030-5091 MHz CNPC LOS and BLOS compatibility study"

All EUROCAE publications are accessible by clicking the button below