Peter wrote:
Individual ATCOs are obviously not stupid and they don’t want to be complicit in some cock and bull scheme which decimates GA in the UK.
I doubt they care about the decimation of GA, they probably are more likely allergic to filling in a MOR and all the other paperwork bullshit that they will be stuck with if you bust their airspace :-)
This is actually a massive urban myth that many instructors perpetuate- there is no such thing. Pilot in command is pilot in command, it’s just a student on an approved course does not need a licence.
One FI I had told me that, adding that if he sends say 3 students solo he gets paid 3 lots of the instructor hourly rate. He said the most he ever managed was 5 at the same time. That was in the good old days, about 20 years ago.
they probably are more likely allergic to filling in a MOR and all the other paperwork bullshit that they will be stuck with if you bust their airspace
Yes; plus the recently introduced disciplinary offence regime for ATC if they fail to report a bust.
given the ridiculously low instructor pay, which typically pays zero for the teaching time that is not spent in the air, surely you don’t begrudge them the only time they get paid for anything else but sitting in the right hand seat?
Of course not; my point was that they do keep saying the student is flying on their (the instructor’s) license.
Accordingly, they frustratingly block flying in vis worse than 10km, cloudbase below 3000ft, etc, IME… I have known people who waited all summer to do their QXC, because the vis was say 5k, and had to more or less re-do their PPL after something like that.
And relevant to this topic, GPS is allowed in most of the PPL. I recall a post (can’t find it now; probably by the late Dave Phillips) which listed just a couple of exercises in the PPL in which dead reckoning was specifically required. The rest could be done with a GPS.
Instructor pay is indeed poor (they got £10/day in my time, plus some £20/hr flying) but that is due to supply and demand. Loads of supply…
Blackbushe Radio is A/G. You don’t need any clearance or permission to enter an ATZ with A/G or AFIS. Just monitor the appropriate channel and call your position and height on entering and leaving the zone. Rule 11 of The Rules of the Air Regulations 2015.
Interesting… At the Gasco course the example of an ATZ bust at Barton (which is “Info”) was presented. The pilot got busted by the CAA for it, after an eye witness in the circuit reported him. So it would appear his crime was that he didn’t call them on the radio (while avoiding a line of CBs or some such).
Of course. In the UK, ATZs of uncontrolled aerodromes are effectively like RMZs, no more and no less.
On topic, just saw this video posted last night….
Transponder off all the time, whilst doing 60 degree bank turns, etc… great, innit?
Apparently, they are operating JUST under the 2500-foot shelf of the London TMA….
Anyway, I would assume they used to do that (tranponder off) even before the recent “tightening” of bust prosecution…
OT1: Losing 300 feet in just a short 60 degree bank turn doesn’t look too ATPLish, does it?
OT2: I guess one could argue if doing these things, including loops, at just 2000 feet AGL is a bit low, no? On the other hand, these are the things you get when you have such vast impenetrable controlled airspace around flying school’s bases…
It has always been normal to turn off a transponder if doing aerobatics – because the rapid climbs supposedly trigger RAs in TCAS systems of airliners flying in the CAS above. But of course it also protects the pilot from getting busted if he nips into CAS at the top of a loop or whatever…
7004 did you say. 
Once upon a time controllers would allow a little more tolerance if you were squawking your intentions.
It used to be 7004 and disable alt on ATC request for their TAS/CAS warinings (you may have to disable ELT as well)
