The second call period for 8.33 kHz radio funding assistance ended on 30 Sep 2017; however, the third period is now open until 31 Dec 2017 and there is plenty of funding still available!

Some points from the CAA:

• If your aircraft has never been fitted with any radio, you can still claim towards the cost of installing 8.33 kHz compliant radio(s), including all necessary ancillaries such as audio panel and headset etc. It seems that some owners mistakenly believed that funding was only available for replacing existing equipment, but that isn’t so.
• Claims can be for up to 2 fixed and 2 hand-held radios per aircraft, plus ancillary equipment. If you’ve previously only submitted a claim for one radio and now wish to fit a further 8.33 kHz compliant radio, you may submit another claim up to the limit of 2 fixed and 2 hand-held per aircraft.
• If the availability of funding has been influential in your decision to re-equip with an 8.33 kHz radio, provided that you place an order in good faith within the third call period, but cannot get the equipment fitted before the end of the year, a claim will still be accepted provided that the installation is completed and the claim submitted within a reasonable period of time.

There have been some who have said that they will still use their 25 kHz radios once 8.33 kHz becomes obligatory. However, the UK has no intention of introducing any extension or derogation towards 8.33 kHz requirements; the UK situation is as follows:

On 1 January 2018 the law changes and all aircraft operating in airspace that requires the carriage of a radio must have 8.33 kHz-compatible equipment fitted and operational.

After this date all 25 kHz radios can no longer be used, although it will probably still be possible to receive most ATIS and VOLMET broadcasts on a 25 kHz radio and to keep it as a 121.5 MHz back-up, it will not be legal to use it for transmissions except on frequencies assigned for:

• The emergency frequency (121.5 MHz)
• The auxiliary frequency for search and rescue operations (123.1 MHz)
• The VHF digital link (VDL) frequencies (136.725 MHz, 136.775 MHz, 136.825 MHz, 136.875 MHz, 136.925 MHz and 136.975 MHz)
• The aircraft communications addressing and reporting system (ACARS) frequencies (131.525 MHz, 131.725 MHz and 131.825 MHz)
• Where offset carrier operation within a 25 kHz channel spacing is utilised

This means that all General Aviation (GA) aircraft fitted with radios (incuding handheld) must comply with this change to UK law to maintain safe communications with ground stations.

So the moral of the story is if you haven’t yet planned your 8.33 kHz compliance programme, you should do so as soon as possible!

Full details about claiming can be found on the CAA website.

The CAA will be releasing a formal situation update shortly, which we will report on the AOPA Website.

Royal Aeronautical Society event Review – The Future of UK Airfields October 2017

The Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) hosted a conference about the Future of UK Airfields in London on 24^th October 2017. The RAeS brought together the GA sector to discuss the issues and help provide some of the answers. The Rt. Hon. Grant Shapps MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for GA (APPG) opened the day and was followed by the then Aviation Minister, Lord Callanan. Laurie Price FRAeS was a capable Master of Ceremonies throughout the day.

The GA Organisations attending the event, including Pauline Vahey for AOPA, Steve Slater for the LAA, Pete Stratten for the BGA and Charles Henry for the GAAC, were keen to make it clear to the Politicians that the airfields and aerodromes across the country support a wide range of activities, including flight training, light aircraft manufacture and maintenance, business aviation and service industries. We painted a bleak picture of a growing number of airfields under threat of closure, in part due to their mistaken planning classification as brown field sites, to be replaced by large housing developments. There are also a number of market and policy conditions hindering the opening of new airfield sites, or the imposition of restrictions on the use of an airfield which make it impossible to operate at a profit or grow business.

It became very clear that the GA sector is in accord, a message which, following the workshops held in the afternoon, will be delivered very clearly to Government. Now we hope that they will listen to the Associations, all of whom will continue to pursue the Government for action to protect the valuable asset that our airfields represent.

Given it was only a few days later Lord Callanan was replaced by Baroness Liz Sugg CBE as Aviation Minister, we will have to wait and see if it has any effect. The clock is ticking as more and more Local Plans to turn airfields into housing estates are approved by the Planning Inspectorate before the impending deadline of March 2018.

GASCo Safety Evenings

GASCo have published their 2017/18 programme of Safety Evenings. You can find details here.

The most up to date consolidation of SERA (Reg (EU) 923/2012) can be found here. 

Note that this is the regulation only, corrected to 12 Oct 17 (SERA Part C Phase 2 implementation);  Acceptable Means of Compliance and Guidance Material can be found here. 

EASA has yet to publish the long-awaited ‘Easy Access’ consolidation, meanwhile the CAA’s own consolidation can be found here.

• Professional Pilot Licences and Ratings for both Aeroplanes and Helicopters – CPL(A) and CPL(H)
• Airline Transport Pilot Licences and Ratings for both Aeroplanes and Helicopters – ATPL(A) and ATPL(H)
• Multi-Crew Pilot Licences and Ratings for Aeroplanes - MPL

The online service will not be available for Private Pilot Licences or any other kind of personnel licences at this time. There is a plan to expand to these areas next year.

It will also exclude applications for:

• Change of state of licence
• Examiner authorities
• Licence verification

The new e-Licensing service has been designed to improve the application process for pilots, provide greater transparency regarding the requirements for issue of a licence, and improve visibility of how the application is progressing.

In most cases you will be able to significantly reduce the amount of paperwork required as part of the process, and we will be removing the need for submission of pilot logbooks to the CAA as part of an application in standard cases.

We have worked with a number of pilots and other organisations to help make sure we provide a genuine improvement to this service and are confident it will be a better user experience.

We have also streamlined our internal processing where possible and hope that use of the new system will enable us to reduce the turnaround times for standard applications and provide licences more quickly than before.

The new system is expected to be launched in early December 2017 and we will look to phase out other means of making an application for these services shortly after, including any other kinds of online or paper applications.