CAA on General Aviation – Details, episodes & analysis

Spring is now upon us and it’s time to start thinking about returning to flying! If you’ve had the winter off, we’re here to guide you through the important things to consider before getting back into your aircraft.

For this episode we’re joined by James Shipp and Tom Gravett from the CAA General Aviation Unit to discuss pilot currency, aircraft airworthiness and airfield conditions.

If you have any feedback or suggestions for areas that you’d like us to cover in this podcast, please get in touch at gapodcast@caa.co.uk.

Related information

• Safety Animation – Returning to flying, pre flight checklist
• Safety Animation – Loss of Control: Stall and Spin Awareness
• Safety Animation – Flying in Cloud
• The Skyway Code
• Safety Sense Leaflet - Care of Passengers
• Safety Sense Leaflet – Loss of Control: Stall and Spin Awareness
• Clued Up – Weight and Balance
• Astral Aviation Consulting Workshop – Skill Fade

As the temperatures drop in the winter months, there are a number of challenges that come with flying in cold and unpredictable conditions.

For this episode, we’re joined by Joe Hadley and Richard Crockett from the CAA General Aviation Unit to cover the intricacies of winter flying.

If you have any feedback or suggestions for areas that you’d like us to cover in this podcast, please get in touch at gapodcast@caa.co.uk.

Related links:

• Winter flying | Civil Aviation Authority
• The Skyway Code | Civil Aviation Authority (caa.co.uk)
• Flying in Winter - YouTube
• Safety Sense Leaflet: Winter Flying
• Winter weather — Astral Aviation Consulting
• Pre-flight planning - Airspace Safety
• Carbon monoxide in general aviation
• Podcast on active carbon monoxide detectors
• Clued Up: Carbon Monoxide
• Flying with an active carbon monoxide detector - YouTube
• Night rating for aeroplanes
• Clued Up: Night Flying
• Clued Up Update: Night Flying

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has launched a once in a generation consultation on proposals to simplify General Aviation (GA) pilot licensing and training.

In this episode we invite Laurence Baxter from our General Aviation Unit back in to discuss in more detail the role of the working group and a deeper dive into the wider work of this project.

If you are involved in GA in any capacity; we would like to hear from you. You may be a pilot, an instructor, a pilot in training, running a flying school or have any GA licence from the CAA. If so, we would ask you to read and respond to this consultation and help shape the future of UK GA flying.

Our consultation is open for comments until 16 December 2022.

https://consultations.caa.co.uk/corporate-communications/ga-pilot-licensing-training-phase-1

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has launched a once in a generation consultation on proposals to simplify General Aviation (GA) pilot licensing and training.

In this episode we speak with Laurence Baxter from our General Aviation Unit to learn more about this work.

If you are involved in GA in any capacity; we would like to hear from you. You may be a pilot, an instructor, a pilot in training, running a flying school or have any GA licence from the CAA. If so, we would ask you to read and respond to this consultation and help shape the future of UK GA flying.

Our consultation is open for comments until 16 December 2022.

https://consultations.caa.co.uk/corporate-communications/ga-pilot-licensing-training-phase-1

The CAA spent a day at the Women's World Gliding Championships 2022.

We spoke with Liz Sparrow, Director of the Championships and Pete Stratten, CEO of the British Gliding Association learning about how the event came to be in the UK and learning more about the scrutineer process behind competition gliding.

We also spoke with Simon Smith, the Chief Tug pilot at The Gliding Centre, at Husband’s Bosworth airfield talking about the safety factors associated with tugging gliders.

Women are underrepresented in aviation generally with only 6-7% of glider pilots being female. The championships was an opportunity to reach beyond the parameter of the event and aim to engage with the community and actively encourage more women and young people to consider gliding as a route into aviation.

You can learn more about the WWGC 2022 and all the associated events taking place.

WWGC2022 The Womens World Gliding Championships 2022

Video about the Championships

The British Gliding Association

For more information on the work of CAA and STEM visit:

STEM | Opportunities in Aviation (caa.co.uk)

To subscribe to SkyWise visit http://skywise.caa.co.uk/

To get in touch please email GApodcast@caa.co.uk

This episode includes updates on our project to update our suite of Safety Sense Leaflets and the work that has gone into the temporary airspace restrictions for the Commonwealth Games.

A recent AAIB investigation has highlighted the importance of being properly qualified to fly in cloud. Our podcast and animation cover the safety guidance and resources that pilots should be aware of.

Flying in Cloud

We discussed before our current CAA project on Carbon Monoxide. Recently published data reports are available on the CAA website at:

Carbon monoxide in general aviation

Our new suite of Safety Sense Leaflets is taking shape. You can access these on the CAA website.

Aeronautical Information Service - NATS to sign up for NOTAM

NATS UK | Aeronautical Information Circulars (AICs) (ead-it.com) – for AI Circulars

https://airspacesafety.com/

WWGC2022 | The Womens World Gliding Championships 2022

Light Aircraft Association (LAA) Rally

To subscribe to SkyWise visit http://skywise.caa.co.uk/

To get in touch please email GApodcast@caa.co.uk

We have now published our final report on our review of airspace in the Cotswold region. Join Nikki Deeley and Emma Simpson from the Airspace Classification team to learn more about which volumes of airspace the process will seek to amend, as well what other activities can be used to improve UK airspace.

For more information see

Cotswold region final findings report 2022

The airspace classification information on the CAA website

This episode includes updates on recent work across three areas; Airworthiness, a Carbon monoxide project and STEM.

Airworthiness

We published our latest Virtual Voyage session in April with a special focus on Airworthiness. This is available to view on the Virtual voyage | Civil Aviation Authority (caa.co.uk). As part of this session, we share details of our previous GA Continuing Airworthiness Management Organisation (CAMO) Roadshow.

For those of you interested in participating in the next CAMO roadshow please complete this registration survey.

 We also shared a presentation on the GA B3 Licence. Aimed at GA maintenance organisations, engineers and mechanics and anyone who has any feedback on the GA Airworthiness licensing system, please can we ask you to complete this B3 licence awareness survey. 

The information shared in the survey will be used to better understand if there is a role for the CAA here to better support GA maintenance organisations.

We really appreciate your input, thank you.

Carbon monoxide project

We discussed with Thomas Weir the current CAA project on Carbon Monoxide. All the information on this project and reports produced are available on the CAA website at:

Carbon monoxide in general aviation | Civil Aviation Authority (caa.co.uk)

STEM

To read the historic aviation magazines mentioned visit;

Historic Aviation | Civil Aviation Authority (caa.co.uk)

For more information on the work of CAA and STEM visit:

STEM | Opportunities in Aviation (caa.co.uk)

SkyWise

To subscribe to SkyWise visit http://skywise.caa.co.uk/

Contact us

To get in touch please email GApodcast@caa.co.uk

In this episode, we talk with the CAA’s policy lead on our project on cost sharing, we hear an update from Ed Bellamy on the Safety Sense Leaflet project and our latest published documents including Piston Engine Icing.

We also talk with Justin Willcocks on good flight planning preparation along with references to advice and guidance and how to use the radio.

Updates and resources mentioned in this episode:

• Cost sharing flights | Civil Aviation Authority (caa.co.uk)
• Safety Sense Leaflets | Civil Aviation Authority (caa.co.uk)
• SSL: Aerodrome sense
• Clued Up: Unstable Approaches
• Clued Up: Rejected Take Offs
• Trim runaways
• Take off decisions - go or no go? - CAA Safety files
• CAP1950 GA Landing Issues
• Arrivals, departures and RT — Astral Aviation Consulting 
• SSL; Distraction and Interruption
• SSL: Care of Passengers
• Take-off - Loss of Control — Astral Aviation Consulting
• Landings - Loss of Control — Astral Aviation Consulting
• Stalling - Loss of Control — Astral Aviation Consulting
• Spinning - Loss of Control — Astral Aviation Consulting
• Wheel spats - Loss of Control — Astral Aviation Consulting
• Loss of Control — Astral Aviation Consulting 
• SSL; Radiotelephony
• GA Podcast: Talking Radiotelephony
• Radiotelephony — AstralAviation...

We chat about the latest on our active carbon monoxide detector project. In particular our latest survey which we launched at AeroExpo in June. We also hear from members of the GA community on their thoughts on what sort of carbon monoxide detector they fly with and why.

If you have any feedback or suggestions for areas that you’d like us to cover in this podcast, please get in touch at gapodcast@caa.co.uk.

Related links:

• General Aviation Pilot Survey - Flying with Active Carbon Monoxide Detectors 2023
• Further information on the work of the CAA on Carbon Monoxide is available via our website: Carbon monoxide in general aviation | Civil Aviation Authority (caa.co.uk)
• Infographic on recommended active carbon monoxide detectors