PildoLabs, key factor in the successful last FLAG meeting

On 30 November and 1 December, the third meeting of FLAG, a group of experts from the helicopter sector, took place at the Barcelona Advanced Industry Park.
The event, coordinated by Pildo, brings together the most advanced European operators, as well as regulatory bodies, service providers, helicopter manufacturers, avionics manufacturers and European institutions such as EASA, GSA and Eurocontrol.

The main objective of this group is to establish a work plan for providing guidance material for those operators that want to implement new procedures for helicopters based on GNSS, and in particular on EGNOS, in European airspace.

FLAG was established within the framework of the 5LIVES project, funded by the GSA, and is the main European benchmark and meeting point for the coordination and standardisation of the implementation of PBN operations (GNSS IFR).

In this third meeting, the results of the tasks carried out during the previous months were presented, with special emphasis on the generation of the Safety Guidance Material under EUROCONTROL’s leadership, in which Pildo has actively participated and aims to provide a Safety Assessment for helicopter operations in IFR Low Level Routes (LLR) and PinS procedures in controlled and uncontrolled airspace.

The event was a great opportunity for all the attendees to share the various activities that are taking place and to share and discuss the issues they are facing and that are making it difficult to implement new procedures for helicopters based on EGNSS.

The participants agreed to meet for the next FLAG meeting in mid-2018 where the results of the work carried out up to that date will be presented.