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UK CAA/NATS survey of unlicensed & uncertificated sites

From the NATS AIS website, but otherwise poorly promulgated:

Unlicensed & Uncertificated Sites
Unlicensed Sites listed in the UK AIP

The Civil Aviation Authority and NATS are conducting a survey to validate the list of various unlicensed airfields and aerial sporting activity locations published in the Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) and depicted on CAA VFR charts. The reason for this survey is to establish whether existing published sites in the AIP are still current, operating, accurately reflected in AIS products, and to identify a principal point of contact for each site.

Upon closure of this survey on 28/02/2018, the CAA will establish definitive criteria for what constitutes a ‘significant’ activity at unlicensed sites, and subsequently arrange for the revision of all future AIS products based on that criteria from March 2018 onwards.

All site owners or landowners where established aircraft and/or aerial sporting activities at unlicensed sites are requested to take part in this survey by completing the Unlicensed & Uncertificated Sites Form

Unlicensed sites which fail to complete this survey by 28/02/2018 may result in a location that is currently published in the AIP, and depicted on CAA VFR charts, being removed from the NATS AIS database and all future AIS products, including CAA VFR charts. The CAA therefore requests that all users of unlicensed sites ensure that the site owner or land owner is aware of this survey

Glenswinton, SW Scotland, United Kingdom

Unlicensed sites which fail to complete this survey by 28/02/2018 may result in a location that is currently published in the AIP

I thought that unlicensed airfields are already not in the AIP.

I like the “aerial sporting activity locations” i.e. farm strips In reality most of them hardly want to be in any database because most of them are on the 28 day rule and the last thing they want is people flying there

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

I thought that unlicensed airfields are already not in the AIP.

Maybe not in the UK, but in Sweden about 2/3 of the airfields in the AIP are unlicensed.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Yes, most land and water aerodromes in Scotland are unlicensed too. The essential difference between here and the rest of the UK is that there is effectively no private land in Scotland as far as aircraft are concerned. In other words, provided that visiting aircrew exercise their land access rights responsibly, there’s nothing I can lawfully do to shoo them away.

Glenswinton, SW Scotland, United Kingdom

I’m surprised to hear that. I thought “Right to Roam” only applied to humans on foot, maybe with dog, horse or pedal cycle, but not motor vehicles.

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

Precisely. The exclusion in Section 9 (f) of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 is limited to motorised vehicles or vessels (other than vehicles or vessels constructed or adapted for use by disabled persons while being so used).

We might argue that an aircraft is a vehicle in the widest sense of the word, i.e. “a thing used for transporting people or goods”. However the phrase “vehicle or vessel” implies that the former should be construed in the usual, somewhat narrower sense, of “a thing used for transporting people or goods on land, such as a car, lorry, or cart”.

Where British legislators mean “vehicle, vessel or aircraft”, they always write precisely that, as for instance in the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949, the Air Navigation Order, the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010… to name but three of dozens or hundreds of examples.

We could also argue that failure of aircrew to obtain prior permission might be a breach of their Section 2 duty to exercise land access rights responsibly, but that duty is balanced by the landowner’s reciprocal obligations in Section 3.

In such a sparsely populated country whose inhabitants are more than usually disposed to tolerate eccentricity, the above is unlikely ever to be tested in Court. However, there’s no doubt in my mind that Scottish land access rights and responsibilities do extend to aircraft, whether motorised or not.

Glenswinton, SW Scotland, United Kingdom

I reckon there is a plan to provide a free LPV approach to every farm strip in the UK, funded by the EU just before the UK leaves

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

a free LPV approach to every farm strip in the UK

Well, there’s already a free LPV to every licensed airfield if you have Garmin GTN

EGKB Biggin Hill

It’s just a housekeeping exercise, undertaken every 10 years or so. I would say long overdue looking at some of the strips still marked on the 1:500000 VFR chart.

Peter wrote:

I thought that unlicensed airfields are already not in the AIP.

Shocker. At least 3 unlicensed aerodromes on this one AIP plate!

Fly safely
Various UK. Operate throughout Europe and Middle East, United Kingdom

A bit of a difference between shown on a chart, and having a comprehensive entry in the AIP.

Biggin Hill
14 Posts
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