CAA Call for Input: Review of UK UAS Regulations Aug 2023

[steve too]

10 hours ago, nudge said:

Personally i wonder if we could have a website that allows you to pre-log your intention to fly, ie. log on in the morning to state where and when you will be flying that day. This would eliminate the need for modules or a phone signal and the authorities would still know who was flying where and when

 

Such a Flight Information and Notification System was in the 2018 DfT Consultation.

[steve too]

9 hours ago, MattyB said:

... but make it just onerous and costly enough that all but the keenest recreational users can’t be bothered ...

 

Tactical Geofencing, UAS Flight Authorisation, Digital Logbook, Legal Recording etc.

 

(various U-Space documents)

 

[leccyflyer]

None of which ought to be anything to do with model aircraft flying.

[steve too]

11 hours ago, MattyB said:

... responses to this “consultation” are reviewed, analysed and duly ignored by the CAA… 

 

CAP 2609 makes interesting reading. Anybody who puts theses in comment boxes should look at the qualitative summary where such theses are boiled down to a couple of bullet points.

[Peter Jenkins]

2 hours ago, steve too said:

 

Tactical Geofencing, UAS Flight Authorisation, Digital Logbook, Legal Recording etc.

 

(various U-Space documents)

 

As far as I understand, there is another bit of analysis going on for flight crew licencing for the professional drone operators.  I would think that they would accept our current method of training as set out by the BMFA/LMA and leave us to regulate ourselves.  The BGA operates in a similar fashion but is far more rigorous than we are.  It may be that it will soon be a case where any pilot signed off to fly unsupervised will have to have passed the A Test.  Grandfather rights should enable those who have been flying for yonks to keep flying but we all have to do the RCC every five years or every year if you are an Examiner.

[steve too]

1 hour ago, Peter Jenkins said:

As far as I understand, there is another bit of analysis going on for flight crew licencing for the professional drone operators.

 

https://consultations.caa.co.uk/rpas/remote-pilot-competence-in-the-specific-category

 

 

[Keith Billinge]

AS Model flyers we should not be subject to any of this regulation. It's been proven that we have a brilliant track record for safety and security and we dont need remote ID and regulation by the government.

 

I really hate bad legislation and this is some of the worst I've seen. Talk about a sledgehammer to crack a nut?

This regulation might be necessary if we were killing 100's of people every year, but this remote ID and stuff is much more draconian than the licensing regulations for driving a car. 

The government are going to be able to stop you arming your 251gram model at will. If they decide they don't want you flying today that's it; they'll switch off your model. They can't even do that to people who have killed somebody in a car.

Plus they're getting us to pay for it all.

 

 

[Geoff S]

Well, I've filled in the survey and pretty mind numbing it was.  At my age it probably won't affect me - I'll be long gone before it comes into effect - but it seemed the right thing to do.  Without the guidance offered by the BMFA (for which I'm grateful) it would have been even harder - I had no real idea what a lot of the jargon and acronyms meant, and I have successfully completed and passed the online exam.  Of course, I forgot most of it afterwards but continue simply to be careful and fly safely, which isn't difficult.

 

I fly mostly at official club sites but occasionally fly small electric models in a local field from the footpath when there's no live stock (sheep). I'm sure it wouldn't bother them but out of consideration for the farmer.

[aidan mcatamney]

45 minutes ago, Keith Billinge said:

AS Model flyers we should not be subject to any of this regulation. It's been proven that we have a brilliant track record for safety and security and we dont need remote ID and regulation by the government.

 

I really hate bad legislation and this is some of the worst I've seen. Talk about a sledgehammer to crack a nut?

This regulation might be necessary if we were killing 100's of people every year, but this remote ID and stuff is much more draconian than the licensing regulations for driving a car. 

The government are going to be able to stop you arming your 251gram model at will. If they decide they don't want you flying today that's it; they'll switch off your model. They can't even do that to people who have killed somebody in a car.

Plus they're getting us to pay for it all.

 

 

I agree totally with everything said here.  

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

If the exercise was about safety I’d agree too.  Sadly, commercial interests are the driver and these always take a higher priority. 

[Andy Stephenson]

On 25/12/2023 at 12:09, Peter Jenkins said:

ll have to do the RCC every five years or every year if you are an Examiner.

I understand that examiners only have to do the RCC every 5 years now since an objection was raised saying if rules don't change why should it be necessary.

[Cuban8]

18 hours ago, Andy Stephenson said:

I understand that examiners only have to do the RCC every 5 years now since an objection was raised saying if rules don't change why should it be necessary.

That is the case. I ratified all of my club's examiners for 2024 a few days ago and the quite clear requirement was for all examiners to hold a current RCC. This was not the case last time although I'm not sure whether it was actively chased up if an examiner held the five year RCC and but didn't repeat the test in 2023.

Edited January 1 by Cuban8

[Dodo]

It’s such a shame that this has arisen the way it has, although, as the positive voices here have said, there’s always hope that it won’t be as totalitarian as it could be.

Look at what the BMFA have found themselves with on their plate to now negotiate - common decency amongst us as a group of fellow enthusiasts should dictate that we respect their efforts as they try to back our corner against what is absolutely and clearly a HM Government money raising venture being pushed through via one of their agencies, the CAA.

 

Do we envy the BMFA’s lot or wish ourselves in their place ?

 

Whether or not they are “taking a knife to a gunfight” remains to be seen but who cannot applaud them for trying for all of us ?

 

(One thing I am certain of however is that the CAA / HM Govmt realises just who has the gun and who has the knife..)

 

What follows are purely my thoughts, which are in no way any more relevant, (or then again for that matter) of any lesser value perhaps than that of the wiser or more assertive head’s amongst us. Just my take, no more, no less.

I’ll try to be comprehensive, but entertaining.

 

For what it may be worth, I believe that there is a background to how our specific problem has developed within a wider context.

 

Just as the Global Warming is melting the icecap, the little, well-loved berg of our hobby is now starting to crack and creak for, I believe, a variety of domestic reasons.

 

(Picture a solitary polar bear, stood alone and bewildered with a WOT4 under its arm).

 

Not perhaps a global catastrophe in the making, but a real shame for us feeling the squeeze due to external circumstances not of our making.

 

My personal position in this is that I have just retired, having just, fortunately, managed to navigate by the skin of my teeth another set of “now you see it, now you don’t” type shenanigans - the personal pension scheme.

Managed to do a lot of full sized gliding when younger, was in a few glider syndicates and picked up a PPL on the way too, all done over time and as cheaply as I could budget for, but it scratched the itch whilst I awaited the great day when I could really indulge my first love no, not the wife, the model aeroplanes.

(Hope she doesn’t read this, but I think I’m safe as it’s far too long & rambling for her to have the patience..)

 

Over many years of saving and looking forward to retirement, I’ve grabbed some model plans here, some mouldings there and all the bits & bobs that excitingly will come in for later.

With workshop all prepared, I have gone from stood, mug of tea in hand, surveying my happy large stockpile of future projects to following this debate and thinking: 

 

“Oh great, I’m on the verge of being under great scrutiny now for my unobtrusive little hobby, where I may cause a raised eyebrow for perhaps being considered “a dronist” as sensationalised and stoked up in the Daily Mail.  Perhaps I should jack it all in, buy a natty little red jacket and join the local hunt, so i can enjoy smashing my way through fields, hedgerows and gardens with a pack of wound-up dogs so that I won’t cause public offence with my two meter, plan built slope glider that I fly in the middle of nowhere..”

 

But of course, it isn’t about that, it’s about the money.

 

However, back to the back story as I see it:

 

Firstly, we are in a definite minority because “airmindedness” and a fascination with all that flies has been steadily going out of fashion and public perception since it’s heyday in the fifties or sixties when flying was the exciting new thing. For those that don’t get the aeroplane thing I would imagine that we are lumped in with the trainspotters and those that giggle at fire engines.

 

Yes, we love it (as do many of our hobbys newcomers fortunately), but, the sheer wonder of flight IS fading amongst the populace and we are a minority group that there is no societal need to support.

 

In fact, not being large enough to be of worthwhile consideration is an absolute boon in terms of the government / CAA’s move into selling the lower airspace from above our heads as before now it has had no commercial value to exploit.

 

Financially, there’s no doubt that the UK is very much in the doo-dah. 

 

Prior to COVID & Brexit, we had “Austerity” and there was a great deal of hand-wringing & heartache over trying to make cuts to public services and freeze salaried pay etc.

 

I saw a programme on TV at the time where an eminent maths professor said “the UK national debt is a very large number indeed and a sum of money that is hard to visualise. Let me provide a visual..”

 

He then turned to an old-fashioned, Victorian style roll top bath that was filled to the brim with water.

 

He said “imagine the volume of water in this bath is the national debt”

 

He then produced an egg cup out of his jacket pocket and dipped it into the bath to fill it and said “the volume of water in this egg cup bears comparison to the extent of the savings being made by the unpopular cuts being currently made in the name of Austerity”

 

I remember thinking that if that was my credit card under those circumstances, then I would be concerned, (and hopefully unless someone was going to come round and knee cap me for money before tea-time, then I wouldn’t have let it get that high in the first place).

 

I also remember mentioning this to dear old dad who is in his 90’s now and rightly or wrongly he replied “we’ve been very lucky during our lifetime to have lived through an unprecedented period of peace without a world war which in turn has given the successive politicians an unprecedented period of time as never before to have got it all around their necks without something more pressing and nationally unifying to have come along..”

 

So based on that reply, at least here is something to be eternally grateful for in that the majority of us have never had to nervously pick up a rifle  as our forefathers have.

 

If course, Brexit & COVID 19 have come along afterwards to place further strain on the UK treasury.

 

For whatever reason, the UK is skint and raising cash here and there by whatever innovative means will be of acute interest to the government and a junior minister sprinting to his or her boss with a bright idea to literally make money out of fresh air stands to be amply rewarded (and of course unaffected, renumerated and long gone before any direct fall out affecting them occurs)

 

So, what for them to do ?

 

Raise taxes ? 

Unpopular, and may reflect unfavourably at the ballot box.

 

Possibly bite the bullet over a notion that has been mooted over the last few years to remove the tax relief from the pension lump sum / commutation that you have worked hard for for decades and have looked forward to ? (and quite rightly expected as it was most likely part of the terms & conditions that were signed & agreed to with your employer as part of your contract when you commenced employment). 

 

Again, very unpopular at the ballot box (although one party in particular might just do it to demonstrate appeasement to the perceived have-nots to enhance popularity should there be a vote or two in it).

 

Just as our mainstream hobby is  mainly out of the awareness of the general public, the negative press reporting about various issues concerning “those pesky drones” (Gatwick, Prisons, youth ASB etc) has been put forward at seemingly every opportunity to present a generally negative perception to the public and over the last few years this will have constructively paved the way forward for throwing us aviation hobbyists, without friends or allies, under the bus to ease the lucrative transition into licensing the lower airspace.

 

HM Government is very much aware that big money can be made by effectively selling the lower-level fresh air above our heads and where big money is involved, the feeding frenzy and sharp elbowing will overcome any scruples beyond a bit of sugar coating.

 

This happens with big money business - you only have to look at the undignified scuffling and broken promises of the pensions industry in recent years where the large sums of money involved make such behaviours beyond temptation for those set to profit.

 

As with our issue, this industry enshrines it policies and guidance in unnecessarily impenetrable text to ensure all intentions are obscure and options open for their future benefit. This is how it is done as an operating method and the bonuses and commissions are just too large to let pass.

 

In terms of the lower airspace issue, have any other large organisations demonstrated that they wish to stand shoulder to shoulder with others such as us to provide a bolstered, unified representation ?

 

Have any been approached with this in mind ?

 

Not just the paragliders, kite flyers etc, etc, but what about less obvious ones such as the RSPB who seem to have acquired vast areas of remote rural land over the years - and if we’re talking about “airspace grabs / land grabs” then they must be the experts, having dozens of marvellous remote locations that would have made super flying sites the like of which would never have been made available to us.

 

Believe it or not, our local bird reserve shares it with a well established Wildfowling club - which on the face of it would seem a fairly unhealthy marriage of interests.

 

Once again, you have to ponder whether my aforementioned two metre wooden soarer is more concerning to the public and low flying aircraft than a line of wax jackets & shotguns and upwardly ascending lead pellets.

 

(Upon reflection, probably best not to highlight this as it may ultimately prove advantageous to us in the event of a gaggle of amazon drones traversing the saltmarshes)

 

But in all seriousness, and being such a large land owner, would not the RSPB be concerned that passing commercial drone deliveries would potentially be mincing their avians ?

 

I hope the Canada geese remember to fit their transponders, especially during massed migration season.

 

Given that the “R” in RSPB stands for Royal, they have patronage - perhaps time with this in mind for the patron to, well, patronise, err, represent or whatever the word is.

 

Do we as an air sport have a Royal patron ? (via the “Air Council” or something, forgive me, I thought we had such a patron somewhere in some umbrella aviation organisation)

 

Here’s a thought. If this really is going to be a total farce, could we not go the whole hog and appoint a Royal patron with an aviation background and with, ahem, a fairly open diary - Prince Andrew ?(as a former RN helicopter pilot at least he perhaps would be well positioned to explain to the CAA the difference between rotary and fixed wing..)

 

Once all the large corporations are fed their newly cleansed airspace, the UK/US special corporate relationship nurtured and the sought after UK finances are secured I can see the potential for the following scenario should “air taxi” ever become reality:

 

Enter modern, new-century Englishman resplendent in nike trainers, mis-matched socks and grubby joggers.

He enters his conveyance, doner kebab gripped in one tattooed hand, mobile phone in the other as he absentmindedly flips through successive 8 second video clips on TikTok.

 

As a freshening breeze gathers in the east, the craft lifts into the early evening sky and sails over field, village and countryside, (perhaps even over the crumbling pattern of a former airfield where great deeds were done, but in all likelihood, it won’t warrant a glance).

 

The short journey continues unimpeded by any glancing blow with someone’s plan-built Super Sixty (as there won’t be any) and the craft settles to earth nearby the occupants homestead.

Pausing briefly only to pass water and to stuff the remnants of the kebab (and it’s packaging) down the edge of the seat, it’s time to disembark.

 

As the sun sets in the West, on the short walk home our passenger wonders whether his air-delivered Amazon package has arrived and continues to skip through his TikTok.

A minor news story zips by unnoticed - “Model Flying now outlawed in UK..”

 

All very Orwellian, but thank goodness, we “ain’t there yet”.

 

Please be kind to the BMFA and lets’s hope we can all continue our shared hobby and camaraderie for years to come even if we are forced into some concessions.

 

I’ve been a bit tongue in cheek, but you get the idea.

 

And of course, we can’t live in the past, I can’t remember the author, but I can remember the quote:

 

“The past is a foreign country - they do things differently there”

 

All the best everyone 😊

[Ron Gray]

Cripes, that gave the CAA’s consultancy document a run for its money! 🤣

[Cuban8]

20 minutes ago, Ron Gray said:

Cripes, that gave the CAA’s consultancy document a run for its money! 🤣

Give him a job on BMFA news 🤭

[MattyB]

3 hours ago, Dodo said:

It’s such a shame that this has arisen the way it has, although, as the positive voices here have said, there’s always hope that it won’t be as totalitarian as it could be.

Look at what the BMFA have found themselves with on their plate to now negotiate - common decency amongst us as a group of fellow enthusiasts should dictate that we respect their efforts as they try to back our corner against what is absolutely and clearly a HM Government money raising venture being pushed through via one of their agencies, the CAA.

 

Do we envy the BMFA’s lot or wish ourselves in their place ?

 

Whether or not they are “taking a knife to a gunfight” remains to be seen but who cannot applaud them for trying for all of us ?

 

(One thing I am certain of however is that the CAA / HM Govmt realises just who has the gun and who has the knife..)

 

What follows are purely my thoughts, which are in no way any more relevant, (or then again for that matter) of any lesser value perhaps than that of the wiser or more assertive head’s amongst us. Just my take, no more, no less.

I’ll try to be comprehensive, but entertaining.

 

For what it may be worth, I believe that there is a background to how our specific problem has developed within a wider context.

 

Just as the Global Warming is melting the icecap, the little, well-loved berg of our hobby is now starting to crack and creak for, I believe, a variety of domestic reasons.

 

(Picture a solitary polar bear, stood alone and bewildered with a WOT4 under its arm).

 

Not perhaps a global catastrophe in the making, but a real shame for us feeling the squeeze due to external circumstances not of our making.

 

My personal position in this is that I have just retired, having just, fortunately, managed to navigate by the skin of my teeth another set of “now you see it, now you don’t” type shenanigans - the personal pension scheme.

Managed to do a lot of full sized gliding when younger, was in a few glider syndicates and picked up a PPL on the way too, all done over time and as cheaply as I could budget for, but it scratched the itch whilst I awaited the great day when I could really indulge my first love no, not the wife, the model aeroplanes.

(Hope she doesn’t read this, but I think I’m safe as it’s far too long & rambling for her to have the patience..)

 

Over many years of saving and looking forward to retirement, I’ve grabbed some model plans here, some mouldings there and all the bits & bobs that excitingly will come in for later.

With workshop all prepared, I have gone from stood, mug of tea in hand, surveying my happy large stockpile of future projects to following this debate and thinking: 

 

“Oh great, I’m on the verge of being under great scrutiny now for my unobtrusive little hobby, where I may cause a raised eyebrow for perhaps being considered “a dronist” as sensationalised and stoked up in the Daily Mail.  Perhaps I should jack it all in, buy a natty little red jacket and join the local hunt, so i can enjoy smashing my way through fields, hedgerows and gardens with a pack of wound-up dogs so that I won’t cause public offence with my two meter, plan built slope glider that I fly in the middle of nowhere..”

 

But of course, it isn’t about that, it’s about the money.

 

However, back to the back story as I see it:

 

Firstly, we are in a definite minority because “airmindedness” and a fascination with all that flies has been steadily going out of fashion and public perception since it’s heyday in the fifties or sixties when flying was the exciting new thing. For those that don’t get the aeroplane thing I would imagine that we are lumped in with the trainspotters and those that giggle at fire engines.

 

Yes, we love it (as do many of our hobbys newcomers fortunately), but, the sheer wonder of flight IS fading amongst the populace and we are a minority group that there is no societal need to support.

 

In fact, not being large enough to be of worthwhile consideration is an absolute boon in terms of the government / CAA’s move into selling the lower airspace from above our heads as before now it has had no commercial value to exploit.

 

Financially, there’s no doubt that the UK is very much in the doo-dah. 

 

Prior to COVID & Brexit, we had “Austerity” and there was a great deal of hand-wringing & heartache over trying to make cuts to public services and freeze salaried pay etc.

 

I saw a programme on TV at the time where an eminent maths professor said “the UK national debt is a very large number indeed and a sum of money that is hard to visualise. Let me provide a visual..”

 

He then turned to an old-fashioned, Victorian style roll top bath that was filled to the brim with water.

 

He said “imagine the volume of water in this bath is the national debt”

 

He then produced an egg cup out of his jacket pocket and dipped it into the bath to fill it and said “the volume of water in this egg cup bears comparison to the extent of the savings being made by the unpopular cuts being currently made in the name of Austerity”

 

I remember thinking that if that was my credit card under those circumstances, then I would be concerned, (and hopefully unless someone was going to come round and knee cap me for money before tea-time, then I wouldn’t have let it get that high in the first place).

 

I also remember mentioning this to dear old dad who is in his 90’s now and rightly or wrongly he replied “we’ve been very lucky during our lifetime to have lived through an unprecedented period of peace without a world war which in turn has given the successive politicians an unprecedented period of time as never before to have got it all around their necks without something more pressing and nationally unifying to have come along..”

 

So based on that reply, at least here is something to be eternally grateful for in that the majority of us have never had to nervously pick up a rifle  as our forefathers have.

 

If course, Brexit & COVID 19 have come along afterwards to place further strain on the UK treasury.

 

For whatever reason, the UK is skint and raising cash here and there by whatever innovative means will be of acute interest to the government and a junior minister sprinting to his or her boss with a bright idea to literally make money out of fresh air stands to be amply rewarded (and of course unaffected, renumerated and long gone before any direct fall out affecting them occurs)

 

So, what for them to do ?

 

Raise taxes ? 

Unpopular, and may reflect unfavourably at the ballot box.

 

Possibly bite the bullet over a notion that has been mooted over the last few years to remove the tax relief from the pension lump sum / commutation that you have worked hard for for decades and have looked forward to ? (and quite rightly expected as it was most likely part of the terms & conditions that were signed & agreed to with your employer as part of your contract when you commenced employment). 

 

Again, very unpopular at the ballot box (although one party in particular might just do it to demonstrate appeasement to the perceived have-nots to enhance popularity should there be a vote or two in it).

 

Just as our mainstream hobby is  mainly out of the awareness of the general public, the negative press reporting about various issues concerning “those pesky drones” (Gatwick, Prisons, youth ASB etc) has been put forward at seemingly every opportunity to present a generally negative perception to the public and over the last few years this will have constructively paved the way forward for throwing us aviation hobbyists, without friends or allies, under the bus to ease the lucrative transition into licensing the lower airspace.

 

HM Government is very much aware that big money can be made by effectively selling the lower-level fresh air above our heads and where big money is involved, the feeding frenzy and sharp elbowing will overcome any scruples beyond a bit of sugar coating.

 

This happens with big money business - you only have to look at the undignified scuffling and broken promises of the pensions industry in recent years where the large sums of money involved make such behaviours beyond temptation for those set to profit.

 

As with our issue, this industry enshrines it policies and guidance in unnecessarily impenetrable text to ensure all intentions are obscure and options open for their future benefit. This is how it is done as an operating method and the bonuses and commissions are just too large to let pass.

 

In terms of the lower airspace issue, have any other large organisations demonstrated that they wish to stand shoulder to shoulder with others such as us to provide a bolstered, unified representation ?

 

Have any been approached with this in mind ?

 

Not just the paragliders, kite flyers etc, etc, but what about less obvious ones such as the RSPB who seem to have acquired vast areas of remote rural land over the years - and if we’re talking about “airspace grabs / land grabs” then they must be the experts, having dozens of marvellous remote locations that would have made super flying sites the like of which would never have been made available to us.

 

Believe it or not, our local bird reserve shares it with a well established Wildfowling club - which on the face of it would seem a fairly unhealthy marriage of interests.

 

Once again, you have to ponder whether my aforementioned two metre wooden soarer is more concerning to the public and low flying aircraft than a line of wax jackets & shotguns and upwardly ascending lead pellets.

 

(Upon reflection, probably best not to highlight this as it may ultimately prove advantageous to us in the event of a gaggle of amazon drones traversing the saltmarshes)

 

But in all seriousness, and being such a large land owner, would not the RSPB be concerned that passing commercial drone deliveries would potentially be mincing their avians ?

 

I hope the Canada geese remember to fit their transponders, especially during massed migration season.

 

Given that the “R” in RSPB stands for Royal, they have patronage - perhaps time with this in mind for the patron to, well, patronise, err, represent or whatever the word is.

 

Do we as an air sport have a Royal patron ? (via the “Air Council” or something, forgive me, I thought we had such a patron somewhere in some umbrella aviation organisation)

 

Here’s a thought. If this really is going to be a total farce, could we not go the whole hog and appoint a Royal patron with an aviation background and with, ahem, a fairly open diary - Prince Andrew ?(as a former RN helicopter pilot at least he perhaps would be well positioned to explain to the CAA the difference between rotary and fixed wing..)

 

Once all the large corporations are fed their newly cleansed airspace, the UK/US special corporate relationship nurtured and the sought after UK finances are secured I can see the potential for the following scenario should “air taxi” ever become reality:

 

Enter modern, new-century Englishman resplendent in nike trainers, mis-matched socks and grubby joggers.

He enters his conveyance, doner kebab gripped in one tattooed hand, mobile phone in the other as he absentmindedly flips through successive 8 second video clips on TikTok.

 

As a freshening breeze gathers in the east, the craft lifts into the early evening sky and sails over field, village and countryside, (perhaps even over the crumbling pattern of a former airfield where great deeds were done, but in all likelihood, it won’t warrant a glance).

 

The short journey continues unimpeded by any glancing blow with someone’s plan-built Super Sixty (as there won’t be any) and the craft settles to earth nearby the occupants homestead.

Pausing briefly only to pass water and to stuff the remnants of the kebab (and it’s packaging) down the edge of the seat, it’s time to disembark.

 

As the sun sets in the West, on the short walk home our passenger wonders whether his air-delivered Amazon package has arrived and continues to skip through his TikTok.

A minor news story zips by unnoticed - “Model Flying now outlawed in UK..”

 

All very Orwellian, but thank goodness, we “ain’t there yet”.

 

Please be kind to the BMFA and lets’s hope we can all continue our shared hobby and camaraderie for years to come even if we are forced into some concessions.

 

I’ve been a bit tongue in cheek, but you get the idea.

 

And of course, we can’t live in the past, I can’t remember the author, but I can remember the quote:

 

“The past is a foreign country - they do things differently there”

 

All the best everyone 😊

 

Wow, that's quite a first post on the forum, and an interesting choice of handle given the topic under discussion...! 😉

 

Edited January 9 by MattyB

[aidan mcatamney]

4 hours ago, Dodo said:

It’s such a shame that this has arisen the way it has, although, as the positive voices here have said, there’s always hope that it won’t be as totalitarian as it could be.

Look at what the BMFA have found themselves with on their plate to now negotiate - common decency amongst us as a group of fellow enthusiasts should dictate that we respect their efforts as they try to back our corner against what is absolutely and clearly a HM Government money raising venture being pushed through via one of their agencies, the CAA.

 

Do we envy the BMFA’s lot or wish ourselves in their place ?

 

Whether or not they are “taking a knife to a gunfight” remains to be seen but who cannot applaud them for trying for all of us ?

 

(One thing I am certain of however is that the CAA / HM Govmt realises just who has the gun and who has the knife..)

 

What follows are purely my thoughts, which are in no way any more relevant, (or then again for that matter) of any lesser value perhaps than that of the wiser or more assertive head’s amongst us. Just my take, no more, no less.

I’ll try to be comprehensive, but entertaining.

 

For what it may be worth, I believe that there is a background to how our specific problem has developed within a wider context.

 

Just as the Global Warming is melting the icecap, the little, well-loved berg of our hobby is now starting to crack and creak for, I believe, a variety of domestic reasons.

 

(Picture a solitary polar bear, stood alone and bewildered with a WOT4 under its arm).

 

Not perhaps a global catastrophe in the making, but a real shame for us feeling the squeeze due to external circumstances not of our making.

 

My personal position in this is that I have just retired, having just, fortunately, managed to navigate by the skin of my teeth another set of “now you see it, now you don’t” type shenanigans - the personal pension scheme.

Managed to do a lot of full sized gliding when younger, was in a few glider syndicates and picked up a PPL on the way too, all done over time and as cheaply as I could budget for, but it scratched the itch whilst I awaited the great day when I could really indulge my first love no, not the wife, the model aeroplanes.

(Hope she doesn’t read this, but I think I’m safe as it’s far too long & rambling for her to have the patience..)

 

Over many years of saving and looking forward to retirement, I’ve grabbed some model plans here, some mouldings there and all the bits & bobs that excitingly will come in for later.

With workshop all prepared, I have gone from stood, mug of tea in hand, surveying my happy large stockpile of future projects to following this debate and thinking: 

 

“Oh great, I’m on the verge of being under great scrutiny now for my unobtrusive little hobby, where I may cause a raised eyebrow for perhaps being considered “a dronist” as sensationalised and stoked up in the Daily Mail.  Perhaps I should jack it all in, buy a natty little red jacket and join the local hunt, so i can enjoy smashing my way through fields, hedgerows and gardens with a pack of wound-up dogs so that I won’t cause public offence with my two meter, plan built slope glider that I fly in the middle of nowhere..”

 

But of course, it isn’t about that, it’s about the money.

 

However, back to the back story as I see it:

 

Firstly, we are in a definite minority because “airmindedness” and a fascination with all that flies has been steadily going out of fashion and public perception since it’s heyday in the fifties or sixties when flying was the exciting new thing. For those that don’t get the aeroplane thing I would imagine that we are lumped in with the trainspotters and those that giggle at fire engines.

 

Yes, we love it (as do many of our hobbys newcomers fortunately), but, the sheer wonder of flight IS fading amongst the populace and we are a minority group that there is no societal need to support.

 

In fact, not being large enough to be of worthwhile consideration is an absolute boon in terms of the government / CAA’s move into selling the lower airspace from above our heads as before now it has had no commercial value to exploit.

 

Financially, there’s no doubt that the UK is very much in the doo-dah. 

 

Prior to COVID & Brexit, we had “Austerity” and there was a great deal of hand-wringing & heartache over trying to make cuts to public services and freeze salaried pay etc.

 

I saw a programme on TV at the time where an eminent maths professor said “the UK national debt is a very large number indeed and a sum of money that is hard to visualise. Let me provide a visual..”

 

He then turned to an old-fashioned, Victorian style roll top bath that was filled to the brim with water.

 

He said “imagine the volume of water in this bath is the national debt”

 

He then produced an egg cup out of his jacket pocket and dipped it into the bath to fill it and said “the volume of water in this egg cup bears comparison to the extent of the savings being made by the unpopular cuts being currently made in the name of Austerity”

 

I remember thinking that if that was my credit card under those circumstances, then I would be concerned, (and hopefully unless someone was going to come round and knee cap me for money before tea-time, then I wouldn’t have let it get that high in the first place).

 

I also remember mentioning this to dear old dad who is in his 90’s now and rightly or wrongly he replied “we’ve been very lucky during our lifetime to have lived through an unprecedented period of peace without a world war which in turn has given the successive politicians an unprecedented period of time as never before to have got it all around their necks without something more pressing and nationally unifying to have come along..”

 

So based on that reply, at least here is something to be eternally grateful for in that the majority of us have never had to nervously pick up a rifle  as our forefathers have.

 

If course, Brexit & COVID 19 have come along afterwards to place further strain on the UK treasury.

 

For whatever reason, the UK is skint and raising cash here and there by whatever innovative means will be of acute interest to the government and a junior minister sprinting to his or her boss with a bright idea to literally make money out of fresh air stands to be amply rewarded (and of course unaffected, renumerated and long gone before any direct fall out affecting them occurs)

 

So, what for them to do ?

 

Raise taxes ? 

Unpopular, and may reflect unfavourably at the ballot box.

 

Possibly bite the bullet over a notion that has been mooted over the last few years to remove the tax relief from the pension lump sum / commutation that you have worked hard for for decades and have looked forward to ? (and quite rightly expected as it was most likely part of the terms & conditions that were signed & agreed to with your employer as part of your contract when you commenced employment). 

 

Again, very unpopular at the ballot box (although one party in particular might just do it to demonstrate appeasement to the perceived have-nots to enhance popularity should there be a vote or two in it).

 

Just as our mainstream hobby is  mainly out of the awareness of the general public, the negative press reporting about various issues concerning “those pesky drones” (Gatwick, Prisons, youth ASB etc) has been put forward at seemingly every opportunity to present a generally negative perception to the public and over the last few years this will have constructively paved the way forward for throwing us aviation hobbyists, without friends or allies, under the bus to ease the lucrative transition into licensing the lower airspace.

 

HM Government is very much aware that big money can be made by effectively selling the lower-level fresh air above our heads and where big money is involved, the feeding frenzy and sharp elbowing will overcome any scruples beyond a bit of sugar coating.

 

This happens with big money business - you only have to look at the undignified scuffling and broken promises of the pensions industry in recent years where the large sums of money involved make such behaviours beyond temptation for those set to profit.

 

As with our issue, this industry enshrines it policies and guidance in unnecessarily impenetrable text to ensure all intentions are obscure and options open for their future benefit. This is how it is done as an operating method and the bonuses and commissions are just too large to let pass.

 

In terms of the lower airspace issue, have any other large organisations demonstrated that they wish to stand shoulder to shoulder with others such as us to provide a bolstered, unified representation ?

 

Have any been approached with this in mind ?

 

Not just the paragliders, kite flyers etc, etc, but what about less obvious ones such as the RSPB who seem to have acquired vast areas of remote rural land over the years - and if we’re talking about “airspace grabs / land grabs” then they must be the experts, having dozens of marvellous remote locations that would have made super flying sites the like of which would never have been made available to us.

 

Believe it or not, our local bird reserve shares it with a well established Wildfowling club - which on the face of it would seem a fairly unhealthy marriage of interests.

 

Once again, you have to ponder whether my aforementioned two metre wooden soarer is more concerning to the public and low flying aircraft than a line of wax jackets & shotguns and upwardly ascending lead pellets.

 

(Upon reflection, probably best not to highlight this as it may ultimately prove advantageous to us in the event of a gaggle of amazon drones traversing the saltmarshes)

 

But in all seriousness, and being such a large land owner, would not the RSPB be concerned that passing commercial drone deliveries would potentially be mincing their avians ?

 

I hope the Canada geese remember to fit their transponders, especially during massed migration season.

 

Given that the “R” in RSPB stands for Royal, they have patronage - perhaps time with this in mind for the patron to, well, patronise, err, represent or whatever the word is.

 

Do we as an air sport have a Royal patron ? (via the “Air Council” or something, forgive me, I thought we had such a patron somewhere in some umbrella aviation organisation)

 

Here’s a thought. If this really is going to be a total farce, could we not go the whole hog and appoint a Royal patron with an aviation background and with, ahem, a fairly open diary - Prince Andrew ?(as a former RN helicopter pilot at least he perhaps would be well positioned to explain to the CAA the difference between rotary and fixed wing..)

 

Once all the large corporations are fed their newly cleansed airspace, the UK/US special corporate relationship nurtured and the sought after UK finances are secured I can see the potential for the following scenario should “air taxi” ever become reality:

 

Enter modern, new-century Englishman resplendent in nike trainers, mis-matched socks and grubby joggers.

He enters his conveyance, doner kebab gripped in one tattooed hand, mobile phone in the other as he absentmindedly flips through successive 8 second video clips on TikTok.

 

As a freshening breeze gathers in the east, the craft lifts into the early evening sky and sails over field, village and countryside, (perhaps even over the crumbling pattern of a former airfield where great deeds were done, but in all likelihood, it won’t warrant a glance).

 

The short journey continues unimpeded by any glancing blow with someone’s plan-built Super Sixty (as there won’t be any) and the craft settles to earth nearby the occupants homestead.

Pausing briefly only to pass water and to stuff the remnants of the kebab (and it’s packaging) down the edge of the seat, it’s time to disembark.

 

As the sun sets in the West, on the short walk home our passenger wonders whether his air-delivered Amazon package has arrived and continues to skip through his TikTok.

A minor news story zips by unnoticed - “Model Flying now outlawed in UK..”

 

All very Orwellian, but thank goodness, we “ain’t there yet”.

 

Please be kind to the BMFA and lets’s hope we can all continue our shared hobby and camaraderie for years to come even if we are forced into some concessions.

 

I’ve been a bit tongue in cheek, but you get the idea.

 

And of course, we can’t live in the past, I can’t remember the author, but I can remember the quote:

 

“The past is a foreign country - they do things differently there”

 

All the best everyone 😊

Fantastic and well worded.  We'll done sir.  

[MattyB]

Finally got round to submitting mine today after leaving it sitting in draft over xmas... Amused to see they issue a 13-digit response ID for all surveys, by my maths that allows for ~36^13 potential submissions. If we get that many even UK Gov may think again! 😉

Edited January 9 by MattyB

[Dodo]

Thankyou Gentlemen and apologies for my overly long post - anyone would think that I’ve suddenly found myself with too much time on my hands !

 

Watch out, if any of you have a new nextdoor neighbour that they haven’t yet met, it might be me 😉👍

[Dodo]

(and as mentioned in the Wildfowling element of my overly long post, in the persona of Dodo, I can’t fly well or run fast, so I will be avoiding the saltmarshes for the foreseeable.. 😐)

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

11 minutes ago, Dodo said:

(and as mentioned in the Wildfowling element of my overly long post, in the persona of Dodo, I can’t fly well or run fast, so I will be avoiding the saltmarshes for the foreseeable.. 😐)

 

Welcome to the forum Dodo.

[Dodo]

Thanks John !

[Martin Dance 1]

Welcome to the forum Dodo, sadly I suspect your observations are correct.

[MattyB]

Only 12 hrs to respond if you have put it off until now... Link below:

 

https://consultations.caa.co.uk/rpas/review-of-uk-uas-regulations-consultation/

 

Remember the example BMFA/LMA responses are in your email if you are a member - I personally do not agree with all of them, but they are a decent starting point when authoring your own responses. Remember that even if you don't write anything in a comments field, your response will still influence the stats associated with each question, and increasing the overall number of responses from model aircraft pilots can only be a good thing.

 

Edited January 10 by MattyB

[David Hazell 1]

Done last night...