14 April 2021
I’ve been increasingly worried about our relationship and I’ve written you this letter in the hope that we can patch things up. Give things another go, as it were. I’m not sure what I’ve done to upset you. I know I’ve asked some hard questions, including that Freedom of Information request, which is nearly five months old, but we’ve dealt with things like that before, haven’t we? I don’t know about you, but frankly I miss the old days. You must remember them, the days when we could ask each other anything, the days when we could say what needed saying, the days when we could, like old friends, point out those awkward things that lesser friends would gloss over. I know people change with time, and I can only imagine the pain of losing your European friends, but hopefully, like me, you feel there’s something here worth saving.
You can’t imagine how pleased I was when I heard you were running a series of webinars. I registered within minutes and a few weeks ago, with great anticipation, sat down to watch the first of your Virtual Voyages. Let me say right away, I really appreciate the effort you put in. As you know, I believe that communication is the key to a good relationship, and this was a big step in the right direction. Congratulations.
Towards the start of the presentation Neil Winbolt (who came over very well) spoke about the CAA’s top three priorities. Human Factors, Just Culture and Open Reporting. There’s a bit of a problem here. I’d hoped that we could have maybe rekindled things by sharing some fun stuff, but true friends don’t turn a blind eye to important stuff, so I might as well get this out of the way.
“I don’t know about you, but I miss the old days. Do you remember? When we could ask each other anything”
Between you and me, I am not sure that you have really understood the reputational damage you have suffered in the eyes of the General Aviation community over the last couple of years. A lot (but by no means all) of it has been caused by the whole CAP1404 process (that’s the one that deals with pilots after infringements). Honestly, it’s done you no favours and it’s put the whole regulator/regulated relationship back quite a few years. I don’t think I can remember a time over the last 27 years when more people have experienced random transient transponder failures or just plain forgotten to turn them on. Actually, let’s be honest about it… If what I hear being said is true, more people than ever are flying with their transponders turned off. Yup, I know it’s illegal. I know it’s dumb – and I know it’s not the answer. And yes, I very definitely tell anyone who’ll listen that it is a very, very bad idea and that they should know better. But this is where we are right now, and between the two of us, your attitude and actions are a large part of the problem. We all need to fix this. You need to stop acting like that embarrassing friend who’s let the power of being a traffic warden go to their head, and any pilot who flies with a transponder absolutely needs to fly with it turned on (with altitude and Mode S enabled if they have it) all of the time. No excuses. Maybe we could all go on one of those team building things, maybe we’d all benefit from a better understanding of Just Culture? By the way, credit where it’s due, the latest edition of the SkyWay Code is bloody brilliant. Well done.
Next up was a long section related to drones, and how the CAA is handling them. Pretty brave of you I thought coming so soon after that embarrassing Goodwood incident. I winced for you all when I read the AAIB report. So many bullets dodged there, but as I say, good on you for not shying away from it. Thinking about it, maybe we could use that as an example of the application of Just Culture on our away day workshop? I loved the way you wove the serious subject of drones around a game of ‘management buzzword’ bingo, although I confess, I was so focused on leaning into my agile sandbox that I probably missed a couple of paradigm shifts taking a deep dive with the stakeholders.
More seriously, we do need to talk about drones. The whole segregated airspace thing has not got off to a great start has it? The amount of funding available for the sector seems to have generated a modern-day gold rush, and I know it’s not your fault if some of the applicants have been a bit economical with the truth, but it is kind of your job to weed that type of thing out, isn’t it? We all know that drones are here to stay, and if we’re going to work, live and play together then can I humbly suggest that we stick to the traditional meaning of the term ‘temporary’, and that the industry stops taking us all for fools by constantly pretending the only way to save 100 orphans and their cute puppies is to deliver them paracetamol by drone – as long as the weather’s OK and nothing goes wrong that is!
Please get in touch soon. Love Ian.
