Following a 10-week public consultation on plans to reform pilot licensing, the UK CAA has now published its latest update, confirming that responses have proven broadly favourable to its proposals and the Authority will now move forward to enact changes.
The consultation, launched in March 2024, proposed a number of key changes to pilot licensing, including:
- Reduced minimum flight time for PPL(A) – down from 45 to 40 hours – including allowing credit from prior experience gained flying microlight aircraft.
- A 35-hour PPL training programme for Approved Training Organisations – proposed to provide a faster route for individuals progressing on to commercial pilot licence training.
- A single sub-ICAO PPL licence, combining the best elements of the current LAPL and NPPL sub-ICAO licences.
- A reduction in the number of theoretical knowledge exams, potentially down from nine to seven, with the overall number of questions remaining the same.
- Retaining the flight experience element for the revalidation of the SEP, TMG and microlight class ratings, and alignment of the requirements across all three ratings.
- Additional changes to other licences and ratings including the instrument rating, sailplane licences and aerobatic ratings.
The CAA says it received 640 responses to the consultation, with a high proportion being broadly in favour of the proposals and it is now commencing work in developing appropriate Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC), Guidance Material (GM) and other CAA publications (CAPs) to support the planned changes to regulation.
The CAA confirmed that where necessary the AMCs and GM will be consulted upon, likely in late 2024 or early 2025, ahead of commencement of Phase 3 of the project, which will focus on working with the Department for Transport on implementing the decisions set out in the consultation. Legislation will then be brought forward in 2025 in the form of Statutory Instruments.
A full report on the proposed changes will be published in the next edition of Flight Training News.
The proposals and consultation responses can be accessed here
