The UK Civil Aviation Authority's (CAA) General Aviation (GA) Unit has continued to work to follow its remit of regulating only when necessary and deliver on our top-level principles for better GA regulation.
Achievements over the past three months include:
- In September 2021, we started a year- long active Carbon Monoxide (CO) detector trial with the UK GA community. The trial focuses on a monthly survey that we issue to registered members to help us to understand to what extent carbon monoxide affects UK GA. We have now collated and reviewed the first three months of survey data (September - November 2021). The report for this period is available on our website. Consistent data gathering is critical for the success of the trial, and we thank our survey participants for their continued support of this project. For further information on risk of carbon monoxide, please see Carbon monoxide in General Aviation or contact: code@caa.co.uk
We have continued to seek out opportunities to engage with our GA stakeholders and pilots, be this in person or virtually.
- The CAA GA Unit, supported by the Military Aviation Authority, staged a successful Pre-Flying Display Season Symposium at the Defence College Shrivenham in March 2022. The Symposium was attended by over 200 personnel from across the UK and European display community. It aimed to engage with the Display Community so as to: Identify lessons from the previous display season and to disseminate best practice to Display Authorisation Evaluators, Display Pilots, Event Organisers and Flying Display Directors; provide Human Factors training and provide the display community with an opportunity to share feedback with regulators, in order to further improve the Flying Display environment.
- Our ‘Community in Spotlight’ series continues. Following our first engagement with the British Gliding Association, members of the GA management team visited the Light Aircraft Association at their headquarters at Turweston Aerodrome in February to talk about current successes and challenges.
- The GA team supported Aviation Minister Robert Courts on a visit to the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre where he visited the Avro Lancaster restoration team and looked at the importance of inspiring the next generation of aviation and aerospace enthusiasts. Reach for the Sky is a special joint CAA and DfT magazine exploring this, and further information is available. Historic Aviation | Civil Aviation Authority (caa.co.uk)
We have continued to share with the GA Community resources and materials to support the UK GA flying community to operate safely. This includes:
- The latest publication of the new Safety Sense Leaflets. SSL: Fuel Handling and Storage
- Over this quarter several improvements and modifications have been made to the GA webpages on the CAA website. Of note, we have spilt Safety Publications & Information from Safety Topics to help make this easier to navigate. We continue to look for ways to add illustrations where we can and have improved how we display our new Safety Sense Leaflet page and our new Clued Up Magazine and Article
- Issuing a Mandatory Permit Directive (MPD) for MT-03, MTOsport, MTOsport 2017, Calidus and Cavalon gyroplanes,
- Publishing an MPD for Reality Escapades and Sherwood Scouts,
- And an MPD for Europa Aircraft.
Astral Aviation Consulting (AAC), a third-party supplier, is providing support on GA Safety promotions. Activities over this past quarter include:
- Human Factors (HF) for GA Pilots Workshop.
- Return to Flying Workshop.
- Reporting Mythbusting Workshop.
- Six Articles on: maintaining Situational Awareness, Stress Management, Normalisation of Deviance, Return to Flying, Fatigue and Pilot Currency.
- Pre-flight planning video and checklist, made in conjunction with the Flying Reporter, Jon Hunt.
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