13 July 2022
The flying world of Kent came close to being annihilated earlier this week when no fewer than eight coastal airfields and strips were covered by a new application for airspace.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Bristow Helicopters want to make an existing Temporary Danger Area along the Channel coast into a permanent airspace change. Bristow operates drones in Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS) operations to monitor migrant crossings by sea.
The proposed airspace change as first issued, affecting a large chunk of land from Folkestone to beyond Deal
How the airspace change was revised to over the sea only
But whoever drew up the chart of the airspace change proposal added a chunk of extra airspace over land affecting the eight airfields and microlight strips. They included the proposed new air strip at Little Mongeham. Heart attacks all round!
Various aviation associations kicked into gear, including the LAA and BMAA, and also the All-Party Parliamentary Group for General Aviation.
The MCA/Bristow airspace team either realised their mistake or changed their minds and a day later a revised chart was issued, pretty much following the existing TDA.
The Airspace Change Proposal is ACP-2021-088 and can be followed here.
It’s a big beast! The drone is Bristow’s Scheibel Camcopter. Photo: Bristow
Bristow Helicopters has been operating a Schiebel S-100 Camcopter drone on the BVLOS flights from Lydd London Ashford Airport on behalf of HM Coastguard since March 2022, integrating safely with normal Lydd Airport traffic.
The Schiebel S-100 Camcopter is a sub 200kg UAS employed by military and civilian organisations with some 400+ units operating worldwide. The drone can operate for up to 6 hours during both day and night under adverse weather conditions.
Electronic conspicuity is provided by a dedicated transponder module consisting of a Mode S/ADS-B out transponder. The UAS ground station is also equipped with a VHF radio to allow UAS crews, air traffic control agencies and other manned aircraft to communicate directly on the appropriate channel. Live payload feeds from these on-board sensor suites are exported securely to HM Coastguard command centres to provide real time situational awareness to incident commanders.
