Results of the DC3 petition

[hobby]

It would appear that the CAA have issued exception certificates allowing commercial flights to be undertaken in vintage aircraft such as the DH89A. The DC3 has not yet received such a UK exemption certificate because NO ONE HAS YET APPLIED FOR SUCH A CERTIFICATE! The No.10 website also indicates that should such a DC3 exemption certificate be applied for it would probably be granted thus allowing pasenger flights in DC3 acft over the Uk to be resumed.

Hooray!! Three times and hats off.

[DaveB]

This almost beggers belief! :o

Dropping it down to E&S for further comment ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Garry Russell]

Well :o .... that almost sounds as if the authorities have become realistic...a little human even :think:

Or is it supposed to be one for the first day of next month

Garry

[Tom Everitt AFG]

There was never any question that an exemption would likely be granted to allow the DC-3 to continue operating, even from the very first time this whole issue arose back in 2006. The only real question mark was which exemptions would be issued and which areas the aircraft would have to comply with.

Unfortunately there was a rather short sighted view from some quarters that it was better to cash in on the hype around evil Europe spoiling our fun again, cease DC-3 operations and thus avoid having to pay for the modifications.

Tom.

[Chris558]

Yes I just recieved my e mail about this. I wonder why AA have not applied for the exemption?

[DaveB]

Hi Chris..

Read Tom's last paragraph above again and it may become more obvious ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Tomliner]

I have also received this email and view of Tom's comments,perhaps someone from the relevant DC3 operator would like to clarify the situation.Having said that,I did take the opportunity to take a flight which involved several circuits over Edinburgh and vacinity last June.Hope the old girl will be returned to pax carrying duties in the future EricT

[delta558]

Forgive me for being obtuse here, but wouldn't an exemption mean that the modifications would not have to be done at all? i.e. it wouldn't cost anybody anything?

[Tom Everitt AFG]

Only certain aspects of EU-Ops would be exempted. For example I'm told that an exemption would have been granted for the escape slide requirement on the basis that it was an unrealistic requirement for the aircraft type.

However, where the aircraft can comply with minimum effort, then (rightly, i think) it should comply. So the fitting of TCAS, a bullet proof door, etc would most likely not have been granted exemptions and the operator would be liable for the cost of these modifications.

There had been some discussion about stopping the DC-3 before I left AA, however being the company to end commercial DC-3 ops would not have gone down well. This EU-Ops issue would have been the perfect cover story, however now it appears no effort has been made to pursue any exemption there will no doubt be a few tricky questions to be answered. I'm rather glad I'm out of it!

Tom.