Ending 2021 with clear objectives

The CAA’s General Aviation Unit continues to make considerable progress in its aim to radically improve the regulation of General Aviation (GA) in the UK.

We made significant progress in Q4 of 2021 on several tactical projects, including: the Air Worthiness Skyway Code (to be published in 2022); the Carbon Monoxide Detectors (CODE) project, on which a quarterly update will be published by March; reviewing our approach to how we might enable greater delegation to the BGA; examining the possibilities around Unleaded Aviation Fuels; several lines of work to support Historic Aircraft; reviewing our stakeholder engagement arrangements along with colleagues at Department for Transport; and looking at Airfield Innovation.

We are now also developing a number of strategic projects including; simplification and rationalisation of licensing and training, the review of Pilot Medical declarations and soon to start the simplification and rationalisation of maintenance organisations. The latest updates from the GA Team were shared with the General Aviation Partnership and can be reviewed on the GA webpages.

Sophie O'Sullivan, Head of GA & RPAS said “Over the course of 2021, the GA Team were able to re-focus and re-prioritise aligned with what we believe the UK GA community of pilots wants. The insight and learnings we have gleaned from the findings of CAP1985: UK General Aviation opportunities after leaving EASA - a consultation. We are looking forward to continuing with this work and build and develop on new initiatives. With COVID-19 restrictions continuing to ease we hope we will be able to meet with more of you in the coming weeks and months.”

Achievements over the past three months include:

CAP2270: Consultation on Cost Sharing regulations for private pilots.

• In December, we launched a consultation into proposed changes to the current cost sharing regulations for private pilots. The consultation closed on 12 January 2022 and the team are now reviewing the 1260 responses received.

We have continued to seek out opportunities to engage with our GA stakeholders and pilots, be this in person or virtually.

• In October, we ran the Autumn Virtual Voyage series for the GA community. These three live sessions with an audience of 1,350 included presentations and updates on the GA consultation, UK-EU transition impact on licensing, Licensing and Medical updates as well as animations and live Q&A’s each night.
• We launched our ‘Community in Spotlight’ Led by the GA & RPAS Unit, this activity proved an opportunity for General Aviation Partnership (GAP) members to talk about their community and membership organisation. Community presentations are combined with an on-site visit by the General Aviation (GA) team to get to know members of the community, the membership organisation and to talk about any current successes and challenges. Our first Community in Spotlight was the British Gliding Association.
• The Display Authorisation Evaluators (DAE’s) symposium was held in December including a virtual address from Sir Stephen Hillier, Chair of the CAA who also attended a live panel Q&A alongside other members of the CAA.

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: VFR Moving Maps and SSL: Winter Flying
• Our new and improved information on planning and preparation for flying in Winter
• In collaboration with the Department for Transport, we have published Flying Heritage. A deep dive into the work of the GA team in the world of historic aviation as well as interview with the Minister for Aviation, Robert Courts, MP and several case studies.

Astral Aviation Consulting (AAC), a third-party supplier, is providing support on GA Safety promotions. Activities over this past quarter include:

• An article on inadvertent entry to IMC, as well an on-demand workshop on the same topic.
• An article on weather forecast decision making, as well as an on-demand workshop on the same topic with Simon Keeling from Weather School.
• A video on pre-flight preparation and planning with The Flying Reporter, Jon Hunt.
• A free downloadable pre-flight planning checklist, which Jon uses in his video.
• Articles on situational awareness and stress management.
• An on-demand workshop on Human Factors, with guest presenter Katy Lee.

You can sign up for their upcoming workshops here, with the next topics of focus being Return to Flying and GA Reporting: Mythbusting.