GMFC and the CAA – Awareness for Members

One area I perceive we will need to encourage more this year is CAA regulations.

The Air Navigation Order obligations on anyone flying anything over 250g (or less if with a camera) are law. Your BMFA membership assumes compliance. So please, if you haven’t already read the latest position with respect to Flier ID (summarised in the January  BMFA newsletter – paper or online) get your Operator ID on to every model, and ensure you have gained a flier ID by undertaking the RCC test via the BMFA site.

You might be wondering why I make this request now.  Well, first – its BMFA policy and the law. However also in November 2024 the club was contacted as an “interested party” in a CAA / National Police Air Service consultation. They propose to trial large (200kg+)  unmanned helicopters as a means of replacing police helicopters for surveillance/ search activity . Airspace over the Gordano valley will be included in that trail, and if implemented as proposed it would cause a total ban on weekday model flying for a period in late summer 2025. We have responded with a suggestion of how a minor change in the defined  boundary of the test zone could eliminate any chance of collisions, and that this is the sensible way to eliminate any theoretical risk.  But, bottom line, if a CAA Official visits the club to understand how reasonable our suggestion of airspace use is, it would be better if they observed we followed the regulations. Although its never been policy up to now to check, any of us could be asked to demonstrate that model identification at any point.

We’ll obviously keep members aware of any updates to this consultation – I’m hopeful pragmatism of our suggestions will be successful.

Thank you

Doug Dinnett – Chairman