Rules of the Air — Page 96, Lesson 162

Let's start with the history, because it explains why the rules look the way they do. I want you to picture aviation in 1920. An aeroplane flying at 80 or 90 knots was travelling at a speed people had never imagined before. And here's the key point: those early aircraft flew without radios. Either radio hadn't been invented yet, or when it had been, there wasn't an aeroplane big enough to carry the equipment. So the rules of the air, just like the rules of the road, evolved as aviation advanced. Simple rules were developed to try to reduce the risk of collisions. Because there were no radios, visual signals were required at aerodromes to convey information to pilots. Procedures also evolved to allow orderly flight in the vicinity of aerodromes, and to permit visual navigation en route. So you had a system built entirely around what a pilot could see and what could be shown to him visually. Now, between the 1920s and the Second World War, individual states passed legislation to enforce the rules that had become established in those states. Each country had its own set of rules. But then came the expansion of commercial aviation during and after the war. The need for standardization became evident. And this was one topic that was seriously addressed at Chicago in 1944. That's the Chicago Convention, and it's the foundation of international air law. Now let's move to the applicability of the rules. The rules themselves are detailed in Annex 2 of the Chicago Convention. Annex 2 details the ICAO Rules of the Air. As I mentioned, these rules were primarily written in the early days for non-radio traffic, so some of the requirements may now seem out of date. But here's the important part: there is still a considerable amount of non-radio traffic in general aviation. Those airmen are equally entitled to the protection afforded to commercial air transport. And of course, there is always the possibility of communication failure. So even a modern jet with full radio equipment could lose that communication, and the rules still need to work for that situation. Now, the scope of these rules. The ICAO Rules of the Air apply to aircraft bearing the nationality and registration marks of an ICAO Contracting State, wherever they may be. So if an aircraft is registered in a state that is a party to the Chicago Convention, those rules follow that aircraft around the world. But there's a crucial qualifier: providing they do not conflict with the rules published by the State having jurisdiction of the territory overflown. In other words, the rules of the country you're flying over take precedence. If you're over another state's territory, their published rules win over the ICAO rules. Let me make sure you've got the key terms. "Nationality and registration marks" — that's the country code and registration number painted on the aircraft, which identifies which state the aircraft belongs to. An "ICAO Contracting State" is a state that has ratified the Chicago Convention. And "jurisdiction of the territory overflown" means the legal authority of the country whose airspace you are physically flying through. So the whole picture is this: the rules started as simple visual procedures for slow, radio-less aircraft. They became national laws. Then in 1944 at Chicago, they were standardized internationally. And today, Annex 2 gives you the ICAO Rules of the Air, which apply to your aircraft wherever you fly, as long as they don't contradict the local rules of the state you're overflying. That's the foundation you're building on.