For us, it’s 525 kg!

STATEMENT ON RUMOURS ABOUT THE "600 KG MICROLIGHT" GOING AROUND THE AISLES OF THE AERO FRIEDRICHSHAFEN 2024 SHOW

For us, it's 525 kg!

The editorial “Our regulatory choices” is perfectly clear and transparent. It reflects the federation’s widely known policy.

In 2019, the choice made by the FFPLUM and the DGAC was to preserve the whole of French microlight regulation and its declaratory system by moving from 450 kg (475 kg) to 500 kg (525 kg). On the occasion of the 2024 edition of the AERO Friedrichshafen show, the web is echoing a move of French microlight regulation to 600 kg that the federation is supposedly behind. This is absolutely false! The reality is quite different.

It is a fact that some manufacturers and pilots have been pushing on this subject for several years, and we cannot ignore either that 14 European countries out of 27 are at 600 kg for their microlights, with a more restrictive regulation. Moreover, many French projects developing very innovative engine technologies (turbine, electric, solar, hydrogen...) are currently taking shape thanks to the flexibility of microlight regulation, but with great difficulty staying within the weights of French microlight regulation.

To meet these new expectations, the question was raised of defining a new French regulatory framework for the 525 kg to 600 kg band, on the precondition of "not touching a single hair" of the current regulatory framework for microlights under 525 kg.

It is with this in mind that the DGAC will shortly publish an order allowing experimentation, within a precise regulatory framework and on a case-by-case basis, for this type of machine weighing more than 525 kg. These will mostly be expensive, high-end machines for a very small public that is not representative of the great microlight family.

The additional regulatory requirements for these machines between 525 and 600 kg provided for in this framework will be strengthened construction rules for the manufacturer, a supervised maintenance requirement for the owner/operator, and specific additional training for the pilot. There is therefore no question of generalising the 600 kg microlight in France, but rather of drawing lessons from the innovative framework of this experiment in order, possibly, to define a future regulatory framework for machines between 525 kg and 600 kg.

What is certain: there is no question of changing the regulation for microlights under 525 kg, in the interest of our freedoms and our fundamentals!

And to make things even clearer, if some people dream of one day flying a non-certified 600 kg machine, it will necessarily come with new regulatory requirements.