27 April 2018
David Hoy has sent in this report on the first year of the Independent Flight Examiners’ Association (IFEA).
The Independent Flight Examiners’ Association was set up just over a year ago to represent the interests of all Authorised UK Flight Examiners, to allow examiner networking, and to help provide standardisation and improved standards within the examining fraternity.
The CAA has up ’til now, stepped further and further back from providing an oversight of testing in the UK. The founding officers of IFEA therefore saw the need for an independent organisation to fill that gap and provide a crew room in the cloud for examiners to share their experience, knowledge and wisdom.
The answer is ‘enormously’. IFEA has held six meetings with various departments within the Authority over the last twelve months, explaining and arguing various cases, not least of which were the concerns that test fees were now inadequate and had not kept pace with the CAA’s own charging schemes or inflation.
Because of this ‘lobbying’, the CAA provided two fee increases, the second of which has been implemented on 1 April this year. Not bad going when one considers the previous seven years had produced no improvements. IFEA will continue to fight in this regard.
In terms of standards and standardisation, the interest from the Authority has not been as strong as IFEA would have hoped but since the CAA has been reduced to only three full-time CAA employed examiners, this clearly leaves little time for them to oversee the active examiners and provide the guidance so sorely needed.
That said, an ever-increasing number of all the still-active examiners are now IFEA members, with many contributing to the IFEA forum. This has proven invaluable to the new and old examiners alike using the knowledge and wisdom of everyone in answering questions that even the CAA can’t answer on occasion! No examiner is on his own any longer.
A big issue at the end of last year was that of insurance. The CAA, without consultation, initially mandated that all CPL and IR examiners must provide their own insurance cover as the CAA was withdrawing its own.
After much discussion, several meetings, emails and telephone conversations, the CAA relented and replaced the word ‘mandated’ with ‘recommended’ and then, after more lobbying from IFEA, finally agreed to continue providing their previous levels of insurance cover for most categories of examiner.
Nonetheless, several examiners chose to purchase the extra cover. IFEA recommends Crispin Speers in London and has negotiated preferential rates for IFEA members.
So, what next for 2018? With the rather haphazard introduction of PBN and licensing requirements scheduled to come into effect on 25 August, IFEA recognised the need to educate its members. Steve Oddy, Jim Thorpe and Lawrence Fordham have all helped in this area.
Last week, IFEA had its most recent meeting with Clive Richardson who is now responsible for all examining activity authorised by the CAA. Clive has come from industry and has a broad depth of experience from Flight Instructor to Airline Pilot and appears very much the new broom at Aviation House.
IFEA hopes to have quarterly meetings with Clive and his examiner team with a view to enhancing the examining process. This can only benefit the industry we serve and eventually the travelling public who rely on examiners to make the right decisions.
IFEA has its Spring Meeting and AGM at Aeros, Coventry on Friday 11 May. Steve Oddy, an ex-CAA staff examiner and the IFEA Standards Officer, will present a paper on the regulations and requirements of PBN, followed by guest speaker Timothy Nathan, who will present on some of the practicalities of using different avionics.
At the Spring Meeting, there will also be presentations on examining for the PPL (Aeroplanes) and for Gliders.
To date, it must be said that IFEA membership has been somewhat skewed towards CPL and IR test examiners, but this is starting to change and the momentum is something that the organisation is very keen to promote.
IFEA is looking to hold more dialogue with the CAA over standards and standardisation amongst the examiners, and to broaden the dialogue to best represent the whole flight examiner community. We have welcomed our first A380 TRE and our first Gliding Examiner this year also.
So onwards and upwards. IFEA seems to be making a positive difference and if nothing else continues to provide the ethereal ‘crew room’, whose door the CAA closed when they disestablished the test centres and failed to replace retiring staff examiners.
The best way forward now for flight examiners to get heard and to best represent their interests is for as many examiners as possible to join IFEA. IFEA is a not for profit organisation and welcomes new members.
Independent Flight Examiners’ Association (IFEA)
