GA Pilot Licensing & Training Simplification – Phase 1: Strategic Direction; Consultation Response Document

The CAA have published CAP 2532: GA Pilot Licensing Simplification – Phase 1 Consultation Response.

The Executive Summary:

This paper sets out the findings from the consultation on the strategic phase of the GA pilot licensing and training simplification project and sets out key decisions to proceed with the second detail phase of the project.

The consultation was run between 18 October and 16 December 2022, was widely promoted by CAA communications activity, and elicited 1,246 unique formal responses.

Overall direction:

85% of respondents agreed with the need for licensing system simplification, including over half agreeing strongly, indicating a clear mandate from the community to proceed with this project.

74% agreed that this review should go beyond just a simple consolidation of the UK and retained European regulations.

ICAO-compliant PPL:

82% of respondents who had a view (53% overall) supported our proposal for consolidating the full PPL and undertaking a gold-plating assessment of the retained Part-FCL provisions against the requirements in ICAO Annex 1.

Sub-ICAO aeroplane licence consolidation:

90% of those who had a view supported our proposal to consolidate the NPPL(A) and LAPL(A) into a single sub-ICAO aeroplane licence, and even counting those who were undecided still suggests a two-thirds majority in favour.

Sub-ICAO helicopter licence consolidation:

85% of respondents who had a view supported our proposal to simplify the NPPL(H) and LAPL(H) to create a single sub-ICAO helicopter licence.

Syllabus consolidation creating ICAO PPL and PPL(Light):

70% of those who had a view believed our proposal would work in their opinion, with several leaving statements such as; ‘fantastic idea’, ‘very smart’, and ‘just what is needed’ in the comments.

Only 1 in 20 thought the idea was unworkable or was in excess of what is necessary.

IR(R) rating for sub-ICAO licence holders:

65% overall (nearly 90% of those who had a view) supported our proposal of extending the IR(R) to sub-ICAO licence-holders.

Commercial ballooning:

There was strong support (65% of respondents who had a view) to maintain a single balloon pilot licence such as the Part-BFCL Balloon Pilot Licence (BPL) with an appropriate rating for commercial non-passenger operations.

A single balloon pilot licence with a rating for commercial passenger operations was the approach preferred by 58% of the respondents who had a view; suggesting support for the UK Part-BFCL BPL framework.

Sailplane licensing:

There was overwhelming support (88% of respondents who had a view) for proceeding with the implementation of the Sailplane Pilot Licence (SPL).

Honouring/converting licences from the legacy system:

Aside from the unsurprising dislike for ‘immediate mandatory conversion’, there were no overwhelming views towards the other three options.

The most popular (40% in favour) was the ‘deemed valid’ option whereby we would accept the legacy licence as valid as the equivalent new licence; but the second preferred option was our preferred approach of ‘deemed valid until a sunset’, with 25% in favour.

Next steps:

We will brief the community on these findings and also take forward some of the reflective questions set out in this paper to guide further discussion and exploration.

AOPA will continue to be involved with the next steps of this process. During the Phase 1 Working Group, the "AOPA member" was formally representing AOPA and not operating in an individual capacity as stated in the paper.