Specialised Operations - SPO
Specialised operations ‘SPO’ is where the aircraft is used for activities such as agriculture, construction, photography, surveying, observation and patrol or aerial advertisement. For further details of SPO criterias consult SPO.GEN.005 of the Commission Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 on Air Operations.
For such operations Part-VIII (Part-SPO) of the Commission Regulation (EU) N0 965/2012 on Air Operations is applicable for aeroplanes and helicopters, unless performed on other-than complex aeroplanes or helicopters as non-commercial activity – in which case Part-VII (Part-NCO) of the Commission Regulation (EU) N0 965/2012 on Air Operations would be applicable; find further more details further down under title: “Applicable Requirements for SPO Operators”.
For the application, deletion or change of an approval according to EASA Part-ORO, Part-SPA, Part-SPO or other changes to be handled with the FOCA according to the EASA regulations applicable to the type of operation, see Changes at Aircraft Operator.
Attention
Holding an AOC does not provide the entitlement to perform SPO.
Applicable Requirements for SPO Operators
The operator must consider the following regulation parts (Annexes), subparts and the respective Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) and the Guidance Material (GM) of the Commission Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 on Air Operations:
*Note that according to SPO.GEN.005 (c) some SPO operations (competition flights or flying displays, parachute dropping, sailplane towing and aerobatic flights) may be subject to compliance with Part-NCO only (instead of Part-ORO and Part-SPO), when performed under certain conditions. These conditions are to be found on the FOCA NCO website in chapter “Marginal Activity”
Necessities for SPO Operators
This paragraph only applies to SPO operators who fall in the green category of the table “Applicable Requirements for SPO Operators” above.
The SPO operator must have:
- a management system in place and describe its operations in an operations manual, including SMS and CMS,
- appointed managers (nominated persons),
- an approved MEL,
- a SPO declaration and associated letter of acknowledgement of the competent authority, and
- further items explained in the following passages.
High Risk Commercial Specialised Operations
Certain commercial SPO operations are classified as high risk. This classification (definition of high risk) is up to the competent authority of the concerned territory. For Swiss territory FOCA established the following:
Definition of high risk commercial specialised operations within Switzerland:
- helicopter sling load operations
- human external cargo operations
- avalanche mining operations
- SPO flights where dangerous goods are carried
- operations for which protective standards (such as e.g. minimum flight altitudes, underflying of riggings, lines or constructions) – irrespective of the associated necessary approvals – are either exceeded or undershot.
Flights conducted with the purpose of performing an airborne inspection of navigational aids and to validate flight procedures are exempt from this requirement (Flight Inspection/Flight Validation in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2017/373).
Index
From here the website is divided into two parts for departmental reasons:
SPO for Swiss Operators
Definition of high risk commercial specialised operations within Switzerland:
SPO for Foreign Operators
The foreign SPO operator is expected to be in compliance with Part-SPO when applying for SPO operations on Swiss Territory. There are some national requirements that may be unknown to foreign operators which have to be considered. Those are published here:
Further Information
Federal Office of Civil Aviation FOCA
Section Helicopter Flight Operations (SBHE)
Section Operation of Complex Airplanes (SBOC)