ICAO Documents

Summary

1/5/2024 Read time: 7 minutes

ICAO produces a lot of information about international operations. Start with ICAO ANNEX 2 and ANNEX 6 PART TWO. Both are published in ICAO’S E-LIBRARY and are AVAILABLE HERE.

Find a training provider to learn the differences between international procedures (PANS-OPS) and FAA procedures (TERPS).

Details

When I first began researching an international crossing, I was utterly lost in the documents. I had no idea where to start. Somehow, I found myself reading an out-of-date ICAO GOLD Manual. I couldn’t understand what I was reading, and my aircraft didn’t even have Datalink!

Hopefully, this will shed some light on the landscape you are entering and give you some direction, or at least point you to your first bites of the international documentation elephant.

ICAO

THE INTERNATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION ORGANIZATION (ICAO) has been INTRODUCED AND QUOTED several times in this journey. As a refresher, ICAO creates standards, best practices, and procedures to harmonize worldwide aviation operations. They are not a regulatory body, and any of the 193 ICAO member countries (States) can choose to adopt (or not) any recommendation.

ICAO creates a lot of documents covering all things aviation. Due to ICAO’s organization of information and naming conventions, it is easy to get lost in what document is what.

In more technical terms, ICAO produces Documents that contain Articles, Annexes, and Procedures for Air Navigation (PANS). These define international Standards and Recommended Practices, known as SARPs.

Articles, Annexes, and PANS are descending layers of a cake. Articles are pretty general, Annexes expound on Articles, and PANS are for when greater detail is required. Regional Supplementary Procedures (SUPPs) are like PANS but are not worldwide in scope. The icing on the cake is a host of other documents that function as clarification, more exposition, and as NOTAMs: Guidance Material, Manuals, Circulars, State Letters, Electronic Bulletins, and Memoranda—lost yet?

All these documents are numbered and titled. Part of the confusion is understanding how they are named, nested, and referred to. A case in point is the master ICAO Document, Doc 7300/9, AKA The Convention on International Civil Aviation, AKA the 96 ICAO Articles.

Articles

Doc 7300/9 contains 96 Articles. The Articles are like the constitution of ICAO, covering the duties, scope, purpose, by-laws, agreed-upon rules, etc. In 1944, 52 states agreed to 96 Articles on how we would all get along flying internationally. Doc 7300 is currently in revision nine and is publicly available.

Some highlights:

1: States have sovereignty of airspace over their territory.

3: The Convention applies to civil, not state, aircraft. States will not shoot down civil aircraft.

10: States can designate customs airports.

11 & 12: IMPORTANT!!! Aircraft follow the rules of the state in which they are flying.

29: Documents to carry: ARR (of ARROW), Pilot Licenses, Journey Log Book, Gen Dec.

37: States try to have uniform SARPs.

38: SARP differences will be published by individual states (AIPs)

Annexes

The Annexes to Doc 7300 explain these agreed-upon guidelines in greater detail. While the 19 Annexes are part of Doc 7300, they are published as stand-alone documents and referred to by Annex number. While ICAO does not technically produce regulations, many countries point to ICAO SARPs as their regulations, as in – go look it up yourself. So you need to access them or get training to know what is in them.

Here are the annexes; the highlighted ones are the most relevant to flight operations.

Personnel Licensing
RULES OF THE AIR
Meteorological Service
Aeronautical Charts
Units of Measurement
Operation of Aircraft
- Part I: International Commercial Air Transport – Aeroplanes
- PART II: INTERNATIONAL GENERAL AVIATION – AEROPLANES
  - Section 1: Commercial Operations
  - Section 2: International GA Operations
  - Section 3: Additional requirements to Section 2 applicable to:
    - Large airplanes (over 5700 kg or 12500 lbs)
    - Turbojet airplanes
    - Corporate aviation operations
- Part III: International Operations – Helicopters
Aircraft Registration Marks
Airworthiness of Aircraft
Facilitation (airport services)
Telecommunications
- Vol I: Radio Navigation Aids
- Vol II: Communication Procedures, including those with PANS status
- Vol III: Communications Systems
- Vol IV: Surveillance Radar and Collision Avoidance Systems
- Vol V: Aeronautical Radio Frequency Spectrum Utilization
Air Traffic Services
Search and Rescue
Accident and Incident Investigation
Aerodromes
- Vol I: Aerodromes Design and Operations
- Vol II: Heliports
Aeronautical Information Services
Environmental Protection
- Vol I: Aircraft Noise
- Vol II: Aircraft Engine Emissions
- Vol III: Aeroplane CO2 Emissions
- Vol IV: Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA)
Aviation Security
Dangerous Goods
Safety Management

If you are going to study or create a library, Annex 2 and Annex 6 are where to start. ANNEX 2 is $62. ANNEX 6 PART II – INTERNATIONAL GENERAL AVIATION AEROPLANES is a reasonable $160. Read-only online copies are available on ICAO’S E-LIBRARY. The Swiss have a CHEAT CODE HERE.

While riveting, the remaining annexes require wading through a lot of technical information to extract the gems of practical operations. This is where international training providers shine by distilling the information to non-specialists’ terms and staying up-to-date on the ever-changing environment—recommendations to follow.

PANS

Procedures for Air Navigation Services comprise six docs.

Doc 4444: PANS – ATM (Air Traffic Management)
Doc 8168: PANS-OPS (Aircraft Operations)
- Vol I: Flight Procedures
- Vol II: Construction of Visual & Instrument Flight Procedures
- Vol III: Aircraft Operating Procedures
Doc 8400: PANS – ABC (Abbreviations and Codes)
Doc 9981: PANS – ADR (Aerodromes)
Doc 9868: PANS – TRG (Training)
Doc 10066: PANS – AIM (Aeronautical Information)

Bonus: Doc 7030 – Regional Supplements (SUPPs)
2X Bonus: Doc 9613 – Performance Based Navigation (PBN) Manual

PANS docs are addressed to States, regulators, and aviation authorities. They define how to run ATC, how to build instrument procedures, what services airports should provide, how to build an airport, and what aviation publications they should produce.

It is essential to become familiar with the references. However, like the Annexes, you may prefer to explore the contents of the PANS doc via a third-party training provider. These documents were not written to you, the operator, so much information is unnecessary for flying.

You need to know some of the differences between PANS and FAA-produced procedures. After all, most of the world is operating under PANS rules. When you get your FAA license, you learn FAA procedures, so transitioning to PANS can be eye-opening.

PANS-OPS vs TERPS

The FAA produces the US Standard for Terminal Instrument Procedures (TERPS) for the United States. This is the criteria for building departures, enroute airways, arrivals, and approaches. Internationally, ICAO PANS-OPS (Doc 8168 Vol I & II) does the same.

There are differences between the two. In some ways, TERPS can be more conservative; in others, PANS-OPS can be. For example, PANS-OPS has larger safety areas during circling approaches but less margin than TERPS on published courses. Granted, if you fly your aircraft by the book, carry excess fuel, slow down around airports, fly procedures precisely as published, and have working equipment and performance to spare, the differences will not appear. But that is no excuse not to know them.

Here is a sampling:

And on it goes. Have I convinced you to get training yet?

Training Providers

I only recommend what I know. There are two training providers I have personally studied with that I recommend. There are others out there, but for an initial international training event, the interactive nature of their training cannot be beaten, and their ongoing communication about upcoming changes is invaluable.

An initial international course will cover much of the information in this guide, spend a good amount of time on North Atlantic/ Oceanic operations, and get into PANS-OPS/ Europe differences. One downside is that the courses are geared toward aircraft completing the trip non-stop across the ocean (typical customer base). That is one of the catalysts for writing this guide; there is not much information for operators hopping along the Blue Spruce routes down low.

Regardless, getting help navigating the massive pile of information is critical to completing a crossing mission safely and legally.

SCOTT IPC

30 WEST IP

Now that we have laid the foundation of all SARPs, the next step is to turn our attention toward how States take this information, create their regulations, and disseminate that to you.

Aviate

Read ICAO Annex 2 and Annex 6 PART II. Free versions are on the ICAO E-LIBRARY. And remember the Swiss CHEAT CODE.
Consider an international training course.