APPG makes progress on airfield protection
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for General Aviation has claimed an early win in its battle to protect GA airfields from housing development, announcing that a safeguarding measure has been included in the latest draft version of the UK Government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). However, while the APGG has welcomed the announcement, chairman Grant Shapps MP has said that the Group still harbours concerns over GA...
A Change is Gonna Come
Secretary of State for Transport, pilot and aircraft owner, Grant Shapps MP: After many years of being largely ignored by central Government, and occasional neglect and disinterest bordering on hostility, the UK General Aviation (GA) sector – and the aviation training industry that operates within it – is being offered a vision of a brighter future and imminent practical measures to help GA, from the Government department...
GAAC calls for support from industry
The General Aviation Awareness Council (GAAC) is seeking new stakeholders to take up various roles with the not-for-profit organisation, which provides invaluable assistance to the UK’s General Aviation airfield network. The GAAC was born out of an initiative from two founding members of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA UK). AOPA UK board members David Ogilvy and Jack Scott recognised the need for an organisation...
Boeing, Gliders, and Tomorrow’s Pilots
I’ve always had a thing about arriving at an airfield before a summer’s flying day begins. For me (and I accept it may just be me), there is often a calmness, a stillness, in the air before the airfield awakes and the business of the day begins. There is also the anticipation of the day to come, adventures and achievements waiting to be experienced, memories to be made and challenges taken up. So it is that I find myself on a rather...
General Aviation Infrastructure Network launched
A new national Community Interest Company (CIC), whose mission is to ensure the survival of a minimum viable strategic network of UK General Aviation airfields, has been set-up under the name of the General Aviation Infrastructure Network (GAIN). GAIN also seeks to ensure that airfields identified as part of this network are guaranteed protection from development and change of use and also aims to help vulnerable UK General Aviation...
