The meeting was chaired by Steve Moore, General Manager of General Aviation. He was supported by 8 members of his team. On the GNZ side we had the full exec team, plus the NOO, NAO and Membership Development Committee Chair.
There was a 14 item agenda to get through covering airworthiness, operations and general.
On the airworthiness side the main item of interest is the mandate that would require all aircraft operating in controlled airspace to be equipped with ADS-B OUT by 31 December 2021. A ray of hope here is the CAA is looking to begin testing for approval of some low powered, non-TSO'd, cheaper GPS modules, suitable for installation into GA aircraft / gliders. A significant potential cost issue is the ATD (approved technical data) necessary to permit ADS-B installations. CAA is going to visit Trig in the near future to discuss available options for GA VFR, and the question of ATD. There is some hope that Trig will be able to provide a generic ATD for glider installations of their ADS-B equipment that would satisfy CAA.
On the operations side progress was pushed for, on such issues as;
- eligibility of microlight pilot certificate holders to tow gliders using a microlight aeroplane
- commercial Glider Pilot Rating issued by GNZ (part 115 Operations)
- the perennial issue of airspace
Good discussions were also held around GNZ plans to improve and modernise student, instructor and engineer training as well as better and more useful ways to report and receive stats from incidents and accidents.
On the whole GNZ has an excellent relationship with the CAA and we are seen as an exemplar Part 149 organisation.
