Update on CAA Operator Registration and the new General Exemption E5006 (ORS 1345)

<p>If you are one of the 18,500 members who registered with the CAA as an Operator via the BMFA prior to the 10^th February, then you should be receiving your operator number within the next few days.  The automated email sent to the first 2000 BMFA members uploaded by the CAA earlier this week included reference to the requirement for a Flyer I.D. (which members are exempted from in accordance with CAA General Exemption E 4972).  This has now been amended to reduce confusion.</p>
<p>The purpose of the original Exemption from Operator requirements (E 4973) was to make it possible for members to register with the CAA as Operators via their Association membership process up to a cut-off point (originally stated as 31st January, but in practice the 10th February) when we uploaded our data to the CAA.</p>
<p>The facility for members to register with the CAA as an Operator via the BMFA membership system remains available for all new/renewing members, as the CAA have now published a further exemption: (see <a href="https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/1345.pdf">https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/1345.pdf</a>) to permit this. </p>
<p>It was always intended that a new Exemption would be issued to allow members to continue registering as Operators via their Association membership process ready for the next upload of data (which was proposed to have a cut-off date of 18^th April, but is now 30^th May) with the anticipation that there would be a further exemption to take us to the 1^st July when the new EU regulations will be implemented.  There will be no further exemptions from any DMARES requirements beyond that point.</p>
<p>However, in an effort to simplify the process, the CAA has decided to issue an exemption intended to cover members registering as Operators via their Association after the 1^st February until the next scheduled upload (30^th May) and beyond that to the point at which the new EU regulations become effective on the 1^st July.</p>
<p>Given the way in which so many members have cooperated with the CAA’s DMARES, the CAA have decided that it would be pragmatic (and much simpler) to word the new exemption to apply to all Association members rather than have a complicated and confusing set of applicability criteria determined by membership joining and/or bulk upload dates.</p>
<p>The CAA advises anyone who has already registered as an operator to follow the intent of our original agreement and label their aircraft in accordance with the ANO once they have received their Operator ID (despite this not being reflected in the wording of the latest exemption!).</p>
<p>Once we receive the uploaded data back from the CAA, our plan is to update members records in GoMembership to include their CAA Operator number which will also be incorporated onto the electronic membership document.</p>
<p>We are now working with the CAA in anticipation of agreeing an Authorisation (in accordance with Article 16 of the EU regulations) which will incorporate the key points of our existing permissions/exemptions into a single document, to become effective from the 1^st July.  We will keep members updated on progress with this, but we are optimistic that very little will change.</p>