National CAA policies around Europe on busting pilots who bust controlled airspace (and danger areas)

I am most reliably informed that exactly one UK forum owner consented to the audience with the Pope (whose name cannot be posted).

The general theme which comes across very obviously and strongly in the UK CAA approach to this matter is the great reluctance to be open about it. It took, AFAICT, several FOIA applications, some going to appeal, to get them to publish anything at all. Eventually they started publishing the site we all know Local copy of data to date.

This approach is consistent with what we see on social media generally: attempts to discredit / squash discussion. And it is either CAA/NATS people (posting under well known nicknames) or people who pop up to do the same while not active on any other topics (indicative of particular occupations in aviation).

I don’t understand why the CAA wanted to keep this scheme under wraps. Surely, any honourably run “pilot punishment” scheme can be fully documented and run in the open. With ubiquitous social media these days, the news will spread like wildfire, and you get the maximum FUD effect. The heavily invested pilots (who won’t give up flying) will be scared and will be very careful about going anywhere near CAS. The fact that many simply turn off their transponders should have been blindingly obvious, but was missed, presumably because it was assumed that every true Brit will die for the Queen without a moment’s hesitation and would never do anything so awfully ungentlemenly. The non-invested pilots will give up flying, which is an acceptable result (not ethically great, but most new PPL holders give up fast anyway, so weeding out those who made two mistakes in 2 years is probably not going to reduce activity much.

The cat is out of the bag now.

So this was not posted there?

I agree this is not a ban but it is a “policy statement” AFAICS.

This forum is very selective about who can make personal attacks.

That statement is always used by someone who got into trouble by going over the Guidelines, had loads of posts deleted, and didn’t like the fact that the moderator also participates in the forum as a pilot.

Unfortunately, somebody has to do the job. Traditionally, on the internet, this is solved by the moderator running a second persona, say “Mr Mod” or “John Smith” and then the real person can participate without being associated with the removal of those who want to push their luck, and getting beaten up for doing his job.

Traditionally, people seem to prefer their executioner to wear a hood and get really upset if they know who it is

Lots of forums do this so maybe we should also? It would have saved an awful lot of hassle. I don’t think people here would like that very much, however.

The conversation continues in a civilised way, as you’d expect on EuroGA.

BTW, posting on EuroGA is not mandatory, if it causes emotional grief.

request from a member

It is not a little disingenuous to say “member”, of the guy who practically owned the site for many years

Timothy, one hopes that with your inside knowledge of the system, you may be able to comment on some of the substantive points raised?

I have been affected (as posted further back) but hundreds of others are also now on their “last life” as a result of the Gasco enforcement step, so really that is not related. This topic would never be suppressed because it has a massive bearing on aviation safety.

We’ve had other threads here which hugely p1ssed off some people (usually ones in the aviation business), but they do a greater good.

I have absolutely no idea why any reasonable person would want to suppress this one, when the data is there for all to see? The impact on people flying in the UK is dramatic.

Early this year, when this thread started, there was only informed speculation that something weird was going on in the UK, and apparently nowhere else. Now, no speculation is required. One can obfuscate and diffuse the debate but as I say the data is there for all to see.

To any veteran of aviation forums, or forums generally, EuroGA is a really democratic place on the map, and the “participating moderator” angle imposes additional requirements to implement the moderation policy evenly. Anything less would result in me getting lynched.