BMAA Newsletter 26/03/2021

BMAA Newsletter 26 March 2021

Getting back into flying – SAFELY

In just a few days recreational aviation can once again start in England, that’s on the 29 March, next Monday. Sadly instructional flying cannot restart until two weeks later on the 12 April. This means that those pilots who have not flown for a while due to lockdown, and possibly the winter weather before that too, don’t have to option to first get a check flight with an instructor before flying on their own once more.

What to do? Some pilots will feel right at home taking to the air once more. Others however will feel that having a flight with an instructor before taking that step to go off on their own would be a good thing. If you fall into this group, and now is the time to be honest with yourself, there is nothing forcing you to fly before the 12 April and so perhaps it is better to wait until then. It’s every pilot’s own decision, but be sure to make the right one!

For some guidance on what to think about before you do fly again please read the BMAA guidance on the BMAA website using this link. https://www.bmaa.org/after-covid-19

BMAA AGM

You will no doubt remember that the BMAA AGM will be held remotely on the morning of the 8 May 2021. Please register for the event on the website and if you have a question to be raised at the AGM please submit it ahead of time. Both the registration and the question forms are on the page at this link.

https://www.bmaa.org/the-bmaa/bmaa-agm-2021

And from the CAA:

Launch of Cellma; CAA Medical Records System

As of Monday 29 March the new CAA medical records system, Cellma goes live. Now we have this new system we are encouraging all GA pilots to register for the CAA Customer portal. This will now replace the current paper forms with an online form e.g. complete self-declarations and have a self-service functionality and ability to view own medical records.

To align with the launch of the new Cellma system, we can also report that from Monday, the 2000kg criteria will be an option for national licenses and work continues to complete our transition of this option to Part FCL licenses by 12 April. We are also taking steps to regularise the use of the sub 2 tonne criteria for both national licenses and Part FCL with an ANO exemption. We plan to also complete this by 12^th April.

Clued Up; Return to Flying magazine

The digital edition is now available and will be sharing this today via our external communications channels. We understand from the printers the 10,000 hard copies are now landing on doorsteps

CAA Roadshows

During this week and for two days next week the CAA are putting on a virtual roadshow which as well as giving guidance on getting SAFELY back into the air has more information about other CAA activity. I’ve been and it’s worth the 90 minutes or so to take a look. The agenda includes:

• Getting back in the air safely
• Understanding Human Factors
• The future of aviation
• Life after EASA and an update on the GA consultation

To book a place, it’s FREE, use one of these links for the day that you prefer.

Licence extensions

The CAA will be up-issuing the licensing exemption that can extend the validity of your licence if you haven’t been able to gain sufficient flight time to revalidate by experience during the period of validity. The details are to be included in an update of the document 1418, linked from here. The new end date will be the 31 July 2021. It doesn’t extend the time that you have to take your hour of instruction, but it does allow further time to build up to the minimum of 12 hours.

Enjoy your weekend getting ready to fly once again.

Geoff Weighell CE BMAA