Dear Members,

Next week, the Extraordinary General Assembly is coming up. VC's most important body will gather. As members, you are the bearing structure of our association and you form the central body for groundbreaking decisions.

In these challenging times, it is even more important for us as the Executive Board not to work behind closed doors, but to get in touch with all of you directly. We look forward to exchanging ideas with you on 11 November from 10 a.m., to hearing your wishes and suggestions for the association, but of course also to hearing about your worries and needs, which unfortunately have increased since the Covid outbreak.

Oliver Löwe
Director Membership Affairs

The last regular General Assembly in May was marked by some technical problems. To prevent this from happening again, we have done a lot to ensure that the upcoming one goes smoothly. To mention just one change: We have engaged an established external service provider for the presentation and voting tool. This means that votes can be carried out in a technically and legally secure manner. You have already received the invitation and the agenda for our meeting by email. In addition, we have summarised the most important points for you in the article below.

We are also working on more information and transparency for you on another channel: The first episode of our new VC podcast will soon be available on many of the known platforms, and it is already available here! I was invited to be the first guest to answer our host and VC press officer Leila Belaasri's questions on the topic of membership fees and the General Assembly. We would appreciate if you listened in.

On behalf of the entire Executive Board I can say: We are very much looking forward the interaction with you next week! I hope for an interesting exchange of views, constructive discussions and good results at the Extraordinary General Meeting.

Log in and join in: Extraordinary General Meeting on 11 Nov. from 10 a.m.

More than 400 members have already registered and over 100 voting transfers have been filed for the extraordinary General Assembly. We very much appreciate your great interest in VC, as our association lives from and through its members.

To let you know what the main issues of next week's meeting will be, we have put together an overview of the most important topics on the agenda:

We would like to add the regular possibility of online General Assemblies to our statutes. Important: We do not want them to become the norm on a regular basis! But as we have seen, there is a need for them to be possible.
We would like to decide on a clarification as to when reappointed board members are entitled to vote.
The new membership fee calculation must be completed with a change to the bylaws.
The membership fee changes need to be amended with inputs from members' lives in crisis.
The association's regulations on member's support to keeping their licence current are to be adapted based on findings from the last 12 months.
The Advisory Council has requested proposals to improve the clarity of bylaws in the area of its activities.
And then, as always, we have some minor editorial changes.

We will be sending out the access data shortly. Please pay particular attention to the information on browser settings and virus scanners to ensure smooth participation.

If you have any questions about the extraordinary general meeting or any other issues, please do not hesitate to contact the member services team.

VC has its own Podcast now

The first episode of our new podcast series has been recorded! VC press officer Leila Belaasri hosts the podcast, and our Director Membership Affairs Oliver Löwe is the first guest on the topic of membership fees and the extraordinary General Meeting. It's definitely worth listening in, we also appreciate your feedback, suggestions and of course your topic requests.

You can listen to the podcast on all the usual platforms such as Spotify, Deezer, Apple or Google Podcasts, on some of them it will unfortunately still take a little while for the podcast to be activated. But at podcast.de you can already listen to the first episode without registering, just click here.

FAA SAFO warns against inadvertent Activation of Go-Around Mode in Boeing 757/767

On 20 October, the FAA issued a SAFO for the two Boeing models 757 and 767, which warns against the inadvertent activation of the go-around mode. EASA has adopted this as a SIB. The safety alert stems from the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) findings on the February 2019 accident of a Boeing 767-300BCF in Texas. The NTSB had been able to track the possible inadvertent activation in the simulator.

According to the FAA, the accident occurred as follows (shortened version): the aircraft's go-around mode was activated after the aircraft had descended to approximately 6,300ft MSL during descent with target altitude 3,000ft. According to FAA, neither the position nor the phase of flight were consistent with a scenario in which a pilot would intentionally select go-around mode. None of the pilots made a go-around callout until here. Shortly after the go-around mode was activated, the flight data recorder shows manual elevator inputs that overrode the autopilot. These inputs turned the aircraft into a steep dive that the pilots were unable to recover from even after leaving the cloud layer.

NTSB has published a short video on Youtube with an animation of the accident:

NTSB Animation - Rapid Descent and Crash into Water Atlas Air Inc. Flight 3591

To SAFO 21006:

Boeing Model 757 and 767 Airplane Inadvertent Pilot Activation of Go-Around Mode

NTSB website with details and complete Accident Investigation Report:

Rapid Descent and Crash into Water Atlas Air Inc. Flight 3591 Boeing 767-375BCF, N1217A

Airbus Safety First Magazine: Training Pilots for Resilience

What does resilience actually mean for cockpit crews? How is it defined and what factors play a role in having or obtaining the highest possible level of resilience, which is particularly advantageous in critical situations? What does a flight training focus on "tasks" or "competencies" have to do with this and why is debriefing so important?

All these and even more questions are being raised and answered in a new article in the Airbus Safety First Magazine:

Training Pilots for Resilience

Skills Decay after a long Abscence

With air traffic slowly recovering, EASA has published several "Practical Scenarios" to help stakeholders return to normal operations, describing hazards, threats, consequences and mitigation measures.

These publications are intended to help those employees who have been off duty for a long time and whose skills may be significantly affected as a result. Now Practical Scenario 4 has been published, which deals specifically with the activities of cockpit and cabin crews. It specifically targets crews returning to flight duty after a period of absence of more than six months.

To Practical Scenario 4

Overview - Guideline and all 4 Scenarios

News from Associations, Organisations and Regulators

OPS Group - Airspace Warning Iran

EASA has withdrawn its Conflict Zone Information Bulletin (CZIB) concering the Iranian airspace. Usually, CZIBs are mere collections of information from national authorities and thus no own assesments of conflict zones. Since several national warnings remain in force, OPS Group is asking:
EASA withdraws Iran airspace warning. Why?

ICAO - High-Level Conference on Covid19

On the occasion of the ICAO High-Level Conference on COVID-19, IFALPA has issued a joint statement with several other organisations (IFATCA, IATA, ACI and others) welcoming Ministers’ commitment to taking effective measures to safely restore international connectivity and support the revival of the global economy. The focus is on the need to implement pragmatic approaches such as mutual recognition of vaccines and interoperable solutions for proof of health status, as well as the commitment to climate protection and the goal of worldwide CO2-neutral aviation by 2050:
Industry Statement for the High-Level Conference on COVID-19
The High-Level Conference on COVID-19 can be found on ICAO TV (free registration necessary):
ICAO High-Level Conference on COVID-19 (HLCC 2021)