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US pilot moving to London

Flying around the UK is really no problem. Stick to Class G, when you feel more confident ask for transits of CAS (usually this is Class D).

Yes; there is PPR but it’s just a phone call. In some cases a website booking.

The UK GA scene is much poorer than the US one. Many people really struggle to hang in there, and the CV19 restrictions have pushed many over the edge. So you see a lot of UK GA social media campaigns to boycott some airfield because they charge more than £15. Used to be £10 for many years.

The FARs are a very constant presence in the US scene. They hardly change over decades. I have an FAA CPL/IR, with the IR done in Arizona, so I know the “culture” there. You can find what you need in the FAR-AIM, with only really obscure edge cases – example – being debatable, and then only in Europe where some local “FAA rep” is trying to make money. Here in Europe, the regs change more often than a whore’s knickers, and 99% of people have no idea where to find the latest ones. I certainly don’t. Google is of little use because it tends to find old versions, or BS posted on forums. BS posted here has a short half life

In the UK, the top law is the Civil Aviation Act, and the Air Navigation Order sits below that. For pilot briefing, the AIP is the standard thing (as in all of Europe, supposedly) which, while not primary law, would make it impossible in any country with a decent justice system (the UK, some others, but definitely not all of Europe, and in some big countries the AIP is evidently almost worthless for due diligence) to prosecute, because the AIP would, in the UK, amount to sufficient due diligence.

I have some trip reports here and the infringements policy link is worth a read. The UK changed a few years ago and an ex RAF ATCO is running an exceedingly hostile no-prisoners system, with basically no tolerance even for a few-seconds bust. So get a decent satnav app and use it Personally, I tend to plan intra-UK flights to be fully flyable on the autopilot, end to end, at one level.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

ex RAF ATCO

For the OP, the translation of that is ‘ex-military controller’ From a US pilots perspective these are the regulatory things that I’d be paying attention to:

Transition altitude (TA) is low and variable with airspace limits randomly set to either local altimeter setting or flight level. Lots of opportunity for confusion and there can easily be planes in the same piece of sky flying on different altimeter settings.

Associated with the TA issue is that ASOS and AWOS don’t exist, and neither does ADS-B In traffic. Many US pilots in busy Class E areas have become accustomed to traffic avoidance being primarily with ADS-B.

There is a redundant system of airspace names associated with airports, CTR, CTA, TMA, ATZ etc, in parallel with the normal ICAO lettered airspace class definitions that in the US eliminate the need for a lot of extra acronyms.

Last Edited by Silvaire at 17 Jan 18:35

Peter wrote:

The UK changed a few years ago and an ex RAF ATCO is running an exceedingly hostile no-prisoners system, with basically no tolerance even for a few-seconds bust.

For completeness, the CAA claim they changed their ways a little recently (Aug 21). But not sure if we got feedback on the new regime..

Nympsfield, United Kingdom

Their stats (link in my writeup) show no change (except for a gradual increase in the % of warning letters, whereas originally they just top-sliced the first 20 each month – the gasco hotel room capacity – and sent them to gasco) but they do show a recent increase in how many get sent down to the “gasco charity course”

There are widespread rumours that the guy running it was moved (and it would be absolutely astonishing if that wasn’t the case, given the torrent of bad stuff going on) but none of my contacts has been able to confirm it. Anyway, the system has been set up and is running. 100% MOR filing required of ATC.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Everything @Adam has said. I’ll probably get shot down for that, but here goes:

Don’t bother flying in the UK, especially the South-East. It’s just a pain. Would be a bit different if you were to move to Scotland and/or owned and airplane. And yes, I lived there and did that. Get an EASA license (or a validation, not too sure how that works these days, used to be easy) and go fly somewhere where it’s actually nice and fun, like France and Spain. Both are a short trip on one of many LoCo airlines. My 2c.

Also, check the various excellent threads on here about the current licensing situation UK / EASA.

172driver wrote:

Get an EASA license (or a validation, not too sure how that works these days, used to be easy) and go fly somewhere where it’s actually nice and fun, like France and Spain. Both are a short trip on one of many LoCo airlines. My 2c.

:) on a Eurostar train, even faster!

EGTR

There is a redundant system of airspace names associated with airports, CTR, CTA, TMA, ATZ etc, in parallel with the normal ICAO lettered airspace class definitions that in the US eliminate the need for a lot of extra acronyms.

I can’t speak for the UK but I believe it’s much the same as France. Really there are only the ICAO airspace categories, but they get given all these OTHER names as well. So round Nice we have the CTR (D to the ground, close in) and the TMA, which is a much bigger random hodge podge of C, D and E, following no logic that I can detect.

For example, immediately above the airport is D up to 3500, then C from there to FL115. The ocean to the east is D from infinity to 1500. But to the west, it’s D from infinity to FL095, then E down to FL065. And so on – it’s a lot more complicated than that.

I THINK the way it works in France is that when they need to designate airspace, they have a dice with two each of C, D & E, and they just roll it to see what they get.

For VFR flying we also have the SIVs. These are for VFR only, and randomly overlap with other airspace. So just picking one spot on the chart, it’s G up to FL075, then D from there to FL145. The SIV stops there but it continues to be the Nice TMA (D) from there to infinity. Honestly I have no idea how this is meant to work, I just stay below the non-G stuff.

Last Edited by johnh at 17 Jan 20:02
LFMD, France

Don’t bother flying in the UK, especially the South-East. It’s just a pain

Obviously, I don’t agree, but for sure the UK doesn’t have Greek islands, the Adriatic, the Alps, etc. But those places cost hundreds or thousands in avgas to get to. You can get very high value in the UK out of GA, especially as the roads are quite crowded. A lot of flying day trips would take 3-4 days by car or train.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

SIV is not just for VFR it works well for IFR also.
The difference is in VFR you can ignore it altogether or you can listen in or you can let them know you are there, get weather and traffic info etc. In IFR OCAS you have to establish 3 way communication and monitor. They are really helpful. However in France the information people are often the same as the control people so entering.and leaving CAS is pretty seamless.
Most of us just draw a straight line on a chart and apart from.“P” areas you pretty much get to fly that line.
@johnh have you bought the VFR Complimentaire pack yet. If not you’ll find it very useful for VFR. IFR is even simpler.

France

If you live in the south east and want to fly, you can’t really avoid flying in the south east :-) It’s not that bad!

There are lots of interesting places to fly into within a relatively short amount of flying time from anywhere in the south east, e.g. Old Warden (where the Shuttleworth collection is based) which is an excellent day out.

Andreas IOM
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