LegalizeCommission Regulation (EU) 2018/395 of 13 March 2018 laying down detailed rules for the operation of balloons pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 216/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council
Article 1
Subject matter and scope
Article 2
Definitions
For the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions and, unless terms are defined otherwise in this Article, the definitions of Article 2 of Commission Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011 (2) apply:
(1) ‘balloon’ means a manned lighter-than-air aircraft which is not power-driven and sustains flight through the use of either a lighter-than-air gas or an airborne heater, including gas balloons, hot-air balloons, mixed balloons and, although power-driven, hot-air airships;
(2) ‘gas balloon’ means a free balloon that derives its lift from a lighter-than-air gas;
(3) ‘tethered gas balloon’ means a gas balloon with a tether system that continuously anchors the balloon to a fixed point during operation;
(4) ‘free balloon’ means a balloon that is not continuously anchored to a fixed point during operation;
(5) ‘hot-air balloon’ means a free balloon that derives its lift from heated air;
(6) ‘mixed balloon’ means a free balloon that derives its lift from a combination of heated air and a lighter-than–air, non-flammable gas;
(7) ‘hot-air airship’ means a power-driven hot-air balloon, whereby the engine does not create any portion of lift;
(7a) ‘commercial operation’ means any operation of a balloon, in return for remuneration or other valuable consideration, which is available for the public or, when not made available to the public, is performed under a contract between an operator and a customer, where the latter has no control over the operator;
(8) ‘competition flight’ means any air operation with a balloon performed for the purposes of participating in air races or contests, including practising for such an operation and flying to and from air races or contests;
(9) ‘flying display’ means any air operation with a balloon performed for the purposes of providing an exhibition or entertainment at an advertised event open to the public, including practising for such an operation and flying to and from the advertised event;
(10) ‘introductory flight’ means any air operation, against remuneration or other valuable consideration, that consists of an air tour of short duration for the purpose of attracting new trainees or new members, performed either by a training organisation referred to in Article 10a of Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011 or by an organisation established with the aim of promoting aerial sport or leisure aviation;
(11) ‘principal place of business’ means the head office or registered office of the operator of the balloon within which the principal financial functions and operational control of the activities referred to in this Regulation are exercised;
(12) ‘dry lease agreement’ means an agreement between undertakings pursuant to which the balloon is operated under the responsibility of the lessee;
(13) ‘national licence’ means a pilot licence issued by a Member State in accordance with national legislation before the date of application of Annex III (Part-BFCL) to this Regulation or of Annex I (Part-FCL) to Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011;
(14) ‘Part-BFCL licence’ means a flight crew licence which complies with the requirements of Annex III (Part-BFCL) to this Regulation;
(15) ‘conversion report’ means a report on the basis of which a licence may be converted into a Part-BFCL licence.
Article 3
Air operations
However, the first subparagraph shall not apply to design or production organisations which are compliant with Articles 8 and 9, respectively, of Commission Regulation (EU) No 748/2012 (3) and which operate the balloon, within the scope of their privileges, for the purposes of the introduction or modification of balloon types.
The first subparagraph shall not apply to the following operations with balloons:
(a) cost-shared operations by four individuals or less, including the pilot, provided that the direct costs of the flight of the balloon and a proportionate part of the annual costs incurred for the storage, insurance and maintenance of the balloon are shared by all those individuals;
(b) competition flights or flying displays, provided that the remuneration or any other valuable consideration for such flights is limited to the recovery of the direct costs of the flight of the balloon and a proportionate part of the annual costs incurred for the storage, insurance and maintenance of the balloon and that any prizes gained do not exceed the value specified by the competent authority;
(c) introductory flights with four individuals or less, including the pilot, and flights for the purposes of parachute dropping, performed either by a training organisation referred to in Article 10a of Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011 that has its principal place of business in a Member State, or by an organisation created for the purposes of promoting aerial sport or leisure aviation, provided that the organisation operates the balloon on the basis of either ownership or a dry lease agreement and provided that the flight does not generate profits distributed outside the organisation and that such flights represent only a marginal activity of the organisation;
(d) training flights performed by a training organisation referred to in Article 10a of Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011 that has its principal place of business in a Member State.
Article 3a
Pilot licences and medical certification
A Member State may authorise student pilots who follow a balloon pilot licence (‘BPL’) training course to exercise limited privileges without supervision before they meet all the requirements that are necessary for the issue of a BPL in accordance with Annex III (Part-BFCL), subject to all of the following conditions:
(a) the scope of the privileges granted shall be based on a safety risk assessment carried out by the Member State, taking into account the extent of training necessary for the intended level of pilot competence to be achieved;
(b) the privileges shall be limited to the following: (i) the whole or part of the national territory of the authorising Member State; (ii) balloons that are registered in the authorising Member State;
(c) the holder of such an authorisation who applies for the issue of a BPL shall receive credits for training conducted under the authorisation on the basis of a recommendation from an approved training organisation (‘ATO’) or a declared training organisation (‘DTO’);
(d) the Member State shall submit reports and safety risk assessments to the Commission and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency every 3 years;
(e) the Member State shall monitor the use of authorisations issued under this paragraph to ensure an acceptable level of aviation safety and take appropriate action in case of identifying an increased safety risk or any safety concerns.
Article 3b
Existing pilot licences and national medical certificates
When a Member State reissues licences and associated privileges, ratings and certificates in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article, the Member State shall, as applicable:
(a) transfer all privileges already endorsed in Part-FCL licences to the new licence format;
(b) convert the privileges for tethered flight or commercial operation associated with a Part-FCL licence into a tethered flight rating or a commercial operation rating in accordance with the provisions of Point BFCL.200 and BFCL.215 of Annex III (Part-BFCL) to this Regulation;
(c) endorse the expiry date of a flight instructor certificate associated with a Part-FCL licence into the pilot’s logbook or issue an equivalent document. After that date, those pilots shall exercise instructor privileges only if they comply with point BFCL.360 of Annex III (Part-BFCL) to this Regulation.
Article 3c
Credit for training that commenced prior to the date of application of this Regulation
In respect of issuing Part-BFCL licences and associated privileges, ratings or certificates in accordance with Annex III (Part-BFCL) to this Regulation, training that commenced prior to the date of application of this Regulation in accordance with Annex I (Part-FCL) to Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011 shall be deemed to comply with the requirements of this Regulation, provided that the BPL is issued by 8 April 2021 at the latest. In that case, the following shall apply:
(a) BPL training commenced on balloons representing the hot-air airship class, including the related testing, may be completed on those balloons;
(b) training hours completed in the hot-air balloon class in balloons other than group A of that balloon class shall be fully credited towards the requirement in point BFCL.130(b) of Annex III.
Article 3d
Training organisations
Article 4
Transitional provisions
Certificates, authorisations and approvals issued to operators of balloons by Member States before 8 April 2019 in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 or in accordance with provisions of national law compliant with Article 10(2), (3) and (5)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 shall remain valid until 8 October 2019.
Until 8 October 2019, any reference made in this Regulation to a declaration shall also be understood as a reference to the certificates, authorisations or approvals issued by Member States before 8 April 2019.
Article 5
Entry into force and application
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
It shall apply from 8 April 2019.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
ANNEX I
DEFINITIONS
[PART-DEF]
For the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions and, unless terms are defined otherwise in this Annex, the definitions of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011 as well as of point FCL.010 of Annex I (Part-FCL) to that Regulation, shall apply:
‘acceptable means of compliance (AMC)’ means non-binding standards adopted by the Agency to illustrate means to establish compliance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1139 and its delegated and implementing acts;
‘alternative means of compliance (AltMoC)’ means those means that propose an alternative to an existing AMC or those that propose new means to establish compliance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1139 and its delegated and implementing acts for which no associated AMC have been adopted by the Agency;
‘pilot-in-command’ means the pilot designated as being in command and charged with the safe conduct of the flight;
‘crew member’ means a person assigned by an operator to perform duties on board the balloon or, where the duties are directly related to the operation of the balloon, on the ground;
‘flight crew member’ means a licensed crew member charged with duties essential to the operation of an aircraft during a flight duty period;
‘psychoactive substances’ means alcohol, opioids, cannabinoids, sedatives and hypnotics, cocaine, other psychostimulants, hallucinogens and volatile solvents, excluding coffee and tobacco;
‘accident’ means an occurrence associated with the operation of a balloon which takes place between the moment of the commencement of the inflation of the balloon and the moment of complete deflation of the balloon, in which:
(a) a person suffers fatal or serious injuries as a result of being in the balloon or as a result of direct contact with any part of the balloon, including parts which have become detached from the balloon, but excluding any injuries arising from natural causes or which are self-inflicted or inflicted by other persons; (b) the balloon sustains damage or structural failure which adversely affects its structural strength, performance or flight characteristics and requires major repair or replacement of the affected component; or (c) the balloon is missing or is completely inaccessible;
‘incident’ means an occurrence, other than an accident, associated with the operation of a balloon which affects or could affect the safety of its operation;
‘serious incident’ means an occurrence associated with the operation of the balloon which takes place between the moment of the commencement of the inflation of the balloon and the moment of complete deflation of the balloon, in which there was a high probability of an accident;
‘critical phases of flight’ means take-off, final approach, missed approach, landing and any other phases of a flight which the pilot-in-command determines as critical for the safe operation of the balloon;
‘aircraft flight manual (AFM)’ means the document containing the applicable and approved operating limitations and information with respect to the balloon;
11a. ‘flight time’ means the total time from the moment the basket leaves the ground for the purpose of taking off until the moment it finally comes to a rest at the end of the flight;
‘dangerous goods’ means articles or substances which are capable of posing a risk to health, safety, property or the environment and which are shown in the list of dangerous goods in the technical instructions or which are to be classified as such in accordance with those instructions;
‘technical instructions’ means the latest applicable edition of the ‘Technical instructions for the safe transport of dangerous goods by air’, including the supplement and any addenda, published by ICAO in document 9284-AN/905;
‘operating site’ means a site selected by the pilot-in-command or the operator for landing, take-off or external load operations;
‘refuelling’ means the refilling of fuel cylinders or fuel tanks from an external source, excluding the replacement of fuel cylinders;
‘night’ means the period between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight. Civil twilight ends in the evening when the centre of the sun's disc is 6 degrees below the horizon and begins in the morning when the centre of the sun's disc is 6 degrees below the horizon;
‘balloon specialised operation’ means any operation, which can be commercial or non-commercial, with a balloon the main purpose of which is not the carriage of passengers for sightseeing or experience flights, but parachute operations, hang-gliding dropping, flying displays, competition flights or similar specialised activities;
17a. ‘class of balloons’ means a categorisation of balloons taking into account the lifting means used to sustain flight;
17b. ‘proficiency check’ means the demonstration of skill for the purpose of complying with the recency requirements as established in this Regulation, including oral examinations as may be required;
‘traffic load’ means the total mass of passengers, baggage and carry-on specialist equipment;
‘balloon empty mass’ means the mass determined by weighing the balloon with all the installed equipment as specified in the AFM;
‘wet lease agreement’ means an agreement between operators pursuant to which the balloon is operated under the responsibility of the lessor;
‘commercial passenger ballooning’ (CPB) means a form of commercial air transport operation with a balloon whereby passengers are carried on sightseeing or experience flights for remuneration or other valuable consideration;
‘group of balloons’ means a categorisation of balloons, taking into account the size or capacity of the envelope;
‘skill test’ means the demonstration of skill for the purpose of issuing a licence or rating, or extension of a privilege, including oral examinations as may be required;
‘assessment of competence’ means the demonstration of skill, knowledge and attitude for the initial issue, revalidation or renewal of an instructor or examiner certificate;
‘solo flight’ means a flight during which a student pilot is the sole occupant of the balloon;
‘tethered flight’ means a flight with a tether system that anchors the balloon to a fixed location during operation, with the exception of a tether which may be used as part of the take-off procedure.
ANNEX II
BALLOON AIR OPERATIONS
[PART-BOP]
SUBPART BAS
BASIC OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS
In accordance with Article 3, this Subpart establishes the requirements to be met by any operator of balloons, other than the design or production organisations referred to in the second subparagraph of Article 3(1).
The competent authority shall be the authority designated by the Member State where the operator has its principal place of business or, where the operator has no principal place of business, the place where the operator is established or resides. That authority shall be subject to the requirements of Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 in accordance with Article 1(7) of that Regulation.
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