A quote from an email from Dr. Michael Erb, Managing Director AOPA-Germany, Deputy Vice President IAOPA-Europe
“Dear IAOPA-Europe Colleagues,
An IAOPA-Europe delegation had a meeting with EASA-staff on November 8th, and I am happy to report that we appear to have full support from EASA, which will publish a Safety Information Bulletin (SIB) soon declaring the Cessna Mandatory SIDs as a recommendation. So we have the situation confirmed which was already announced by EASA in August 2012. EASA was represented by its Director Rulemaking Jules Kneepkens, his deputy Eric Sivel and seven further experts. Participants for IAOPA were Martin Robinson, George Done, Dan Akerman, Hans-Peter Walluf and myself.
The problem is that some member states, like Germany, still want to make the Cessna SIDs a must for all approved maintenance programs. EASA says there is little they can do about this right now, as the member states still have the authority for approving the maintenance programs. Other member states already share EASA´s point of view like the CAA-UK in their respective information notice IN–2013/138, see the attachment:
“Therefore, Cessna SIDs for 100/200 series are not mandatory inspections from a regulatory point of view, even though they may be designated ‘mandatory’ by Cessna.”
But we hope that the publication of a Safety Information Bulletin (SIB) is going to resolve the situation, because Article 20 1) j) of EASA´s Basic Regulation EU 216/2008 authorises only EASA to react on safety-issues and to publish safety-related information, the Aviation authorities of the member-states do not have this power any more: The Agency shall in particular “ensure the continuing airworthiness functions associated with the products, parts and appliances which are under its oversight, including reacting without undue delay to a safety problem and issuing and disseminating the applicable mandatory information;”
Best regards
Michael”
