General aviation in the United Kingdom
It includes a strong vintage aircraft movement, and encompasses a range of air sports, such as racing, aerobatics, and parachuting, at which British teams and individuals have succeeded in international competition.
The growth in CAT is also making access to larger airports more difficult for the GA sector, and smaller aerodromes are vulnerable to closure and re-development for more profitable uses.
The planning process has become a mechanism for addressing local aerodrome-related environmental issues which, particularly regarding noise, are the main subjects of public criticism levelled at GA.
The British Business and General Aviation Association interprets it to be "all aeroplane and helicopter flying except that performed by the major airlines and the Armed Services".
[5] The first aerodrome in the UK was established by the Aero Club at Muswell Manor on the Isle of Sheppey, and in May 1909 it was the venue of the first flight conducted in the country by a British pilot, John Moore-Brabazon.
[6] In 1910, the Aero Club was granted the Royal prefix, took responsibility for controlling all private flying in the UK, and started issuing the first British pilot licences.
[11][12] With an expanded infrastructure in place, GA became established after the war when manufacturers such as Cessna and Piper introduced light aircraft designed for the private market.
[29] The CAA concludes that a severe reduction in GA would give "some merit to the argument that pilot recruitment would be threatened", but that the data on flying hours "does not support such a gloomy outlook.
These cover the whole spectrum of civil and military aviation, examples being the de Havilland Dragon Rapide airliner of the 1930s, and the World War II Spitfire fighter.
There are many post-World War II aircraft which could also be considered historic under a looser definition, including for example 60 ex-military jets such as the Hawker Hunter.
[41] Handicapped air racing is open to any propeller-driven aircraft capable of maintaining a minimum speed of 100 miles (160 km) per hour in level flight.
These range in size from regional airports to the smallest farm strip, although 84 per cent of GA flights operate from 134 of the larger aerodromes in the first four categories.
Airports generally have long, fully lit, hard-surfaced runways, full air traffic control, and navigation and landing aids.
[55] At the more rurally located airfields, the lighter end of aviation, such as microlight and gliding activities, becomes increasingly prevalent, and there are few or no commercial operations other than flying schools.
The smallest airfields are too small to feature on general purpose Ordnance Survey (OS) maps, and lack basic facilities such as fuel and maintenance.
[56] The majority of airstrips are basically single short grass runways with no supporting facilities, although the presence of a hangar is not uncommon at the larger examples.
[53] The sector was estimated to employ nearly 12,000 people and directly contribute £1.4 billion to the UK economy in 2005, making it roughly seven per cent of the size of the CAT industry.
The lighter end of the GA spectrum: microlights, amateur built, and airships and balloons, have in particular shown strong growth, although the last of these activities was severely curtailed during the foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001, when access to farmland was denied .
However, twin piston-engined aircraft numbers have declined significantly, reflecting pressures on the light air-taxi segment from increasingly flexible and cheaper scheduled services, and a more sophisticated corporate charter business.
The decline in asset utilisation has led to speculation that the economic health of the GA industry is weakening, though the lack of data on profitability makes this difficult to confirm.
[74][75] The objective of regulation is to "promote high standards of safety in all aspects of aviation", and this is the main area of interaction between the CAA and the GA sector.
In all cases the CAA/EASA retains responsibility for safety regulation, but representative bodies, particularly of sectors that are not included in the scope of EASA, are granted greater oversight of their activities.
The British Gliding Association was until recently responsible for glider airworthiness, now formally regulated as a result of EASA legislation, and still retains control of pilot certification.
[87] In addition to the European-wide Joint Aviation Regulations Flight Crew Licensing (JAR-FCL) standard, the CAA also issues UK-specific national licences.
[89] The NPPL is easier to obtain than the JAR-FCL licence, has less stringent medical requirements, is more restrictive in the privileges it grants, and is valid only for flights in British-registered aircraft flying in UK and French[90] airspace.
Difficulty with access to larger airports is compounded by a decline in the number of aerodromes generally, and existing sites are often threatened with closure and re-development for more profitable uses.
[110] In addition to this de facto loss of facilities, the number of aerodromes in the UK has been in decline over the last 50 years, as a result of increasing urbanisation and the closure of airfields built during World War II.
Alternative and more profitable uses for land can also lead to existing aerodromes being threatened with closure, for example North Weald, or actually being closed, as happened to Ipswich Airport.
[119][120] Little Gransden is just one example of a GA airfield required to comply with planning restrictions on the number of movements permitted, thereby inhibiting further development.
[125] Half of the 2,000 noise complaints made annually to the CAA concern GA operations, most of which relate to aerobatics, helicopters using private sites, air balloon incidents, parachute dropping, and alleged low flying.
