16 September 2021
Proposals to simplify licensing and review medical requirements for General Aviation pilots, plus support for businesses, skills and innovation in the sector, have been outlined by the government today.
The reforms are to bolster the UK’s GA sector and are part of wider post-Brexit regulatory reforms as the UK develops as an independent trading nation, said the government announcement.
The changes come out of a detailed consultation by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on UK General Aviation opportunities after leaving the EU.
Robert Courts, Aviation Minister, said, “I want the UK to be seen as the best place in the world for General Aviation with a flourishing, wealth-generating and job-producing sector.
“General Aviation is the grassroots of the wider aviation sector and fundamental to attracting the next generation of pilots and skills into the sector.
“The host of reforms announced today will help to cut unnecessary red tape for the sector which, alongside government investment, will help us continue with our ambitious goals to develop one of the UK’s most important sectors.”
The announcement also referred to the government’s General Aviation roadmap published earlier this year. The Roadmap sets out the govt’s vision and strategic priorities for the sector during recovery from the pandemic.
4 comments
Is it me or is it every time the government wants to simplify something it ends up being more expensive. Like the simplification of the capital gains tax system. There were too many rates starting at taper relief to 10% so they simplified it to one rate at 28%. We risk a licence system which alienates those less than super fit, who have no ambition to be an airline pilot or a top gun. I often hear muted that there should be just one licence for flying light aircraft, what should that be? To be IAO compliant it would have to be at PPL level. Would that work for everyone?
Well, I live in hope that it might work for me! As the holder of an elderly “brown” CAA PPL (and having spent a fortune to gain the long-abandoned BCPL in order to become an FI), I managed to survive the introduction of, firstly, JAA and then EASA, licences. The nadir was being told by EASA that I was no longer qualified to fly the aircraft types on which I had instructed for years: I naturally accepted they had become more complex overnight without my having noticed. Then along came NPLs, LAPLs and, for all I know, a few other PLs: heaven alone knows what the difference is between them all, except that holders can probably fly aircraft that I may not, even if I had taught them to fly originally. My dream is that my old CAA PPL might, one day, regain the privileges to which I was originally entitled, without first having to “upgrade” to a sequence of now obsolete licences; the fees, however, would doubtless be prohibitive! Hopefully, I shall not end up flying only a drone…
I’ll believe it when I see it, but as my grandmother used to say “fine words butter no parsnips”.
Too little too late. Since the CAA left EASA and without much argument it seems, the UK is categorically not the best place in the world to learn to fly as much as we would like it to be. VAT, extortionate landing fees, ridiculous fuel prices and a CAA which has forgotten who pays their salaries. Yes, the standard of training is admittedly high at the best schools but will the UK ever return to its place at the top? Unlikely with this leadership.