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UK airspace conference for GA

General Aviation pilots are being invited to a major conference in Central London to discuss the future of UK airspace. Organised by the CAA, the event will take place at the headquarters of the Royal Aeronautical Society on 15th July 2013. It follows a similar event held at the end of 2012 for the commercial aviation sector.

The CAA said it was keen to maintain a constructive dialogue with all airspace users as it begins implementing elements of its Future Airspace Strategy, a major project to ensure the UK copes with increasing airspace demand and technological changes over the coming decade.

The conference will hear from a range of speakers, including, Andrew Haines the CAA Chief Executive and Martin Robinson, the Chief Executive of AOPA. The event, will, however, include discussion sessions with audience participation strongly encouraged.

The event will take place between 12:00–18:00 on Monday 15th July at the Royal Aeronautical Society, 4 Hamilton Place, London W1J 7BQ.

For more information and to reserve a place contact [email protected]

EGBJ, EGBP, EGTW, EGVN, EGBS

I will try to go there.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I've been today.

As with all these events, it was great for "networking" and meeting up with old colleagues.

The actual conference was a bit vague. A number of speeches were made, most of which were not particularly to the point.

The basic idea, as far as I could see, was that the CAA had apparently proposed some tightening of the Class G rules in order to provide more "safety" for airline ops in Class G. One GA speaker made a very good case that if you change the Class G rules it won't be Class G anymore...

The old issues like Mode S were debated peripherally.

The UK IMC Rating came up for about 500 milliseconds; the CAA man said they are still working on retaining it.

The prospect of PRNAV ("PBN") in CAS came up briefly. It appears to be an idea which is still being floated. However, speaking to some people personally afterwards, the view was that this is unlikely for a very long time because many airliners, let alone business jets, are not PRNAV approved. PRNAV would exclude about 99% of light IFR GA from access to any such airspace.

The CAA came across as relatively pro-GA which was as on previous occasions I have been to.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

What were the proposed class G changes?

EGTK Oxford

No idea. Maybe there is some publication out there.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

One thing mentioned was the possibility of a (presumably handheld) ADS-B radiator for a few hundred £.

As with the old UK CAA "promise" of a Mode S transponder for a few hundred quid (which was never going to happen because the market price was about £2k and no serious player will ever bomb the market price so long as the stuff is selling and dealers - who have the de facto installation monopoly - need supporting with margins) I don't believe this. Obviously it's possible technically but how can you have an unapproved RF radiating device, sold officially?

I see the USA is mandating ADS-B for 2020 - great news for the owner of the known universe (Garmin).

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

One thing mentioned was the possibility of a (presumably handheld) ADS-B radiator for a few hundred £.

Money's not the only thing that makes this extremely unlikely, the RF field of a 200W (peak) transmitter close to the body won't comply with any RF field exposure standards

LSZK, Switzerland

One thing mentioned was the possibility of a (presumably handheld) ADS-B radiator for a few hundred £

Was this to be optional or mandated? Presumably it would only be of any real use to non full TCAS equipped aircraft if every GA aircraft had it installed?

I hear from a friend that the President of the GA Alliance went out as far as to claim:

  1. Class G belongs to GA and must not be taken away.

  2. GA cannot operate at all in any other class of airspace.

Obviously GA does not OWN Class G airspace, and neither do airlines OWN Class A or any other classification of controlled airspace. Therefore airspace needs to be shared with everyone else. The airlines understandably desire a known traffic environment, and the USA functions well with lots of Class E instead of Class G.

So were his claims a step too far, or was it fairly reasonable?

I think he made very good points. Class G has to remain Class G.

On a personal level, and as the owner of a TCAS equipped aircraft, I have less sympathy with the "anti transponder" view. I think the Mode S war was badly managed by the CAA; had they mandated Mode C, one would have got all the advantages of TCAS "protection" and visibility to ATC, without most of the extra cost, because so many people already had Mode C.

The business of allowing Easyjet (one of the speakers there) ops in Class G is obviously controversial. If you give some place (Southend is an obvious candidate) Class D then you have to fund enough ATC staffing to support crossing clearances for GA on a nice summer day, which is not going to happen (see Solent on a nice day - radio contact is impossible).

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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