NEWS!

The new UK CAA e-Exam process is bedding in now, however, FRTOL examining arrangements are not part of PPL e-Exams implementation.  

As FRTOL is not in scope of e-exams:

• FRTOL examiners should continue to use the VHF Communications paper (Subject 090) they have access to. 
• FRTOL Examiners should recognise a TK exams pass achieved in VHF Communications (Subject 090) delivered by e-exams. 
• A paper based VHF Comms paper pass undertaken by an FRTOL Examiner will always count towards licence issue.

Further information here (scroll down to the bottom of the page).

On 26th November 2020 UK CAA has issued CAP413 23rd edition incorporating amendments to 26 November 2020. This document has an effective date of 21 January 2021.

Changes include updates to Chapter 2 Radiotelephony and Chapter 4 Aerodrome Phraseology.

Following on from ICAO Circular 353 UK NATS has issued Aeronautical Information Circular (AIC) Y 140/2019 which outline the plan for the transition of the naming of instrument approaches from ‘RNAV’ to ‘RNP’ – so what’s it all that about then?

Well according to the ICAO Performance Based Navigation (PBN) definition:
“Area navigation based on performance requirements for aircraft operating along an ATS route, on an instrument approach procedure or in a designated airspace.”
and within the construct of PBN lies ‘Navigation Specification’.
‘Navigation Specification’ can either be aRea NAVigation (RNAV) or Required Navigation Performance (RNP) – What’s the difference?

RNP has onboard performance monitoring and alerting and RNAV does not. So what has been traditionally called RNAV approaches are in fact RNP approaches.

This transition is all about changing the name on the plates that NATS produces in the UK eAIP and of course what they are called on the radio. CAA has issued CAP 413 Supplementary Instruction 02/2020 for the RTF.

What more info? why not Pass Your Message! and we’ll explain.

After the recent publication of Edition 23 of the UK CAA’s CAP 413 on 9th April 2020 (effective from 8th June 2020) the UK CAA has published Edition 23 Corr (sic). We’re not sure what Corr actually means, perhaps Correction or Corrigendum either way CAP 413 Edition 23 Corr was published on 8th June 2020 (effective from 17th August 2020).

So what is the difference between Edition 23 and Edition 23 Corr and indeed Edition 22?

Very helpfully UK CAA have added a list of the revisions between Edition 22 and Edition 23 on Page 1 of Edition 23 Corr (if you take your page numbering from the document itself) or Page 21 of 365 (if, like we do, you open the pdf version in a document reader). They have also underlined in red the amended text throughout the document.

1. Definitions and Glossary previously in Edition 23 on Page 29 of 368 has been removed and added to CAP 1430 – UK Air Traffic Management Vocabulary although at the time of writing (10th June 2020) the current version of CAP 1430 on the CAA website was Version 2 effective 12th October 2017 so expect a new version…
2. Military Callsigns updated paragraphs 2.39 to 2.47 inclusive (Page 49 of 365)
3. Aerodrome Phraseology for Helicopters vocabulary boxes updated to reflect callsign placement for rotary wing aircraft i.e. the surface wind now preceding the clearance. In fact this has been done throughout the document but to quote the document “The intention is to show that while there is a preferred order of delivery, there are circumstances under which it may be prudent to deliver the phraseology in another order, for example to emphasise a particular issue i.e an aircraft needing an immediate clearance or it will need to go-around. For that reason, some examples of these differing phraseologies are retained in the manual. These can be found at paragraphs: 4.47; 4.52 and in the table at paragraph 4.84 – Helicopter Operations”
4. Emergency Phraseology : The placement of the callsign in the minimum fuel transmission has been changed to reflect the requirements of EASA Safety Information Bulletin (SIB) 2018 – 08. i.e. callsign was placed after the words MINIMUM FUEL and it is now afterwards e.g. “G-ABCD MINIMUM FUEL”
5. Military Specific Phraseology has had a complete administrative re-write

Happy Reading!

In an e-mail to training organisations today UK CAA shared the content of the roadshows conducted during January and February 2020 along with responses to the initial questions raised.

The new PPL e-Exam system will be launched with a small number of training organisations at the end of March. UK CAA have created a PPL e-Exam website.

The conduct of the UK PPL Theoretical Knowledge (TK) exams is currently by Ground Examiners who hold paper copies of all the PPL examinations. A pass in each subject is recorded by the DTO/ATO and entered on to the PPL application form and signed by the Ground Examiner.

The UK CAA are in the process of rolling out a new E-Exam system where the applicant and DTO/ATO will be provided with a login each which will be used to conduct the exams on line digitally. The results then being held by UK CAA. This is similar to the system currently in use for ATPL, CPL and IR TK exams.

The implementation is planned for the first half of 2020 and UK CAA is currently busy communicating this to ATOs/DTOs by means of a roadshow.

What this space!