Airworthiness and Maintenance

Airworthiness and maintenance support for BGA clubs and their members

To support clubs and their members, the BGA provides an airworthiness management and maintenance organisation that holds a CAA Continuing Airworthiness Organisation (CAO) approval as well as BCAR national approvals. The approvals are underpinned by the Exposition and other technical information.

Guidance for Aircraft Owners

Please note that with effect from 1 Jan 2021, EASA aircraft registered in the UK are described as Part 21 aircraft and non-EASA aircraft are described as non-Part 21 aircraft. BGA documents will be updated in due course.

General guidance on airworthiness and maintenance for owners is available here.

Technical Information

Please click on the highlighted text to go to the relevent information.

EASA Easy Access continuing airworthiness rules. EASA’s continuing airworthiness rules, AMC and GM have been collated into a single document.

BGA Airworthiness Exposition. The BGA airworthiness exposition defines the organisation, procedures and referenced manuals upon which the BGA approvals are based.

Maintenance Programme, Annual and ARC. Detailed guidance is available here.

Airworthiness and Maintenance Procedures (AMP). The BGA airworthiness and maintenance procedures provide information and guidance for owners, pilots and inspectors, and those planning to be an inspector.

Airworthiness Instructions and Compendium. This is a generic description that includes information about Airworthiness Directives, Mandatory Modifications, Inspections, Service Bulletin and Tech Note listings for BGA approved types.

Glider Type Data. This includes guidance on Type Certificate Data Sheets and BGA data.

• BGA glider data
• Type certificate data sheets (TCDS)

Forms. The airworthiness forms including ARC template, etc are available here.

BGA Technical News Sheets (TNS). BGA Technical News is published to highlight, using text and photos, general and specific airworthiness matters including those reported by owners and inspectors. This is a very useful publication for any aircraft owner and anyone involved with aircraft maintenance. After opening the link, ticking the ‘chronological’  checkbox will put the latest TNS at the top of the list.

Occurrence Reporting – Airworthiness and Maintenance

Through reporting incidents, accidents and occurrences, others can be helped to avoid similar experiences in the future. That includes reporting airworthiness and maintenance related safety concerns.

Details on how to report an Airworthiness or Maintenance Occurrence are available here.

BGA Inspectors

Information about the BGA inspector authorisation and ratings is available here.

The BGA inspector experience assessment checklist is available here.

Technical Committee

A volunteer Technical sub-Committee, appointed by and reporting to the BGA Executive Committee, provides policy guidance as well as expert opinion and practical aeronautical engineering input. The technical committee can be contacted via the BGA office.

Chief Technical Officer

The BGA Chief Technical Officer is employed by the BGA to provide support to the BGA airworthiness system, owners and BGA inspectors. The CTO can be contacted via the BGA office.

Communication

The CTO regularly publishes ‘BGA Technical News’. Where owners and inspectors have provided the BGA office with up to date contact details, the BGA office will supply individuals with relevant airworthiness and safety information. The BGA office contact details are here.

Courses and Seminars

Details of airworthiness courses and seminars are available here.

Buying and selling a glider

Guidance is available on the buying and selling a glider webpage.