Commercial Pilot Grading Will Make Flying Safer

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 14823, 10 November 1948, Page 5

Commercial Pilot Grading Will Make Flying Safer

Move By Britain's Civil Aviation Ministry Accent On Instrument Navigation Two big decisions that will make flying safer, especially in bad weather, have been taken by Britain’s Civil Aviation Ministry. They are drastically to tighten up commercial pilot licensing and to give full pc wers of direction to air traffic control officers, who at present can only request pilots to follow their instructions. It will soon be illegal for any commercial or private pilot to fly in bad weather in the ccntrol zones around busy airports unless he has had special training and passed tests in the use of radio and radar landing aids. They must be able to use both the .Standard Beam Approach radio method and the “talk you down” radar system known as Ground Controlled Approach. By the end of next year the existing commercial “B” licence will disappear. Its place is being taken by a new one with three separate grades: commercial, senior commercial and airline transport. Only the holders of airline transport pilot licences, who need 1,200 flying hours to qualify, vVill be able to fly on scheduled services, passenger planes with an all-up weight greater than 15,0001 b. International Agreement

Senior commercial pilots, who need 700 hours to qualify, may fly scheduled passenger planes up to this weight, but the restriction rules out even the well-known Dakota (25,0001 b. all-up weight). A commercial pilot licence can be obtained at the age of 18, but the applicant must have 200 hours in his log-book. This licence is intended mainly for good-weather charter work. The new licences have been agreed internationally. The conditions of issue will form part of the new Air Navigation Order to be published later this year. This new Order will embrace all existing regulations, and will be the first consolidating erder for 25 years. No examinations for the new According to an official statement by the Ministry of Civil Aviation the new licences are designed to provide stepping-stones in the career of a professional pilot, whose privileges will develop with his experience and qualifications. They will give effect to the decisions of the International Civil Aviation Organsation, whose Council on April 14 last adopted a set of standards and recommended practices cn personnel licensing. Renewing Licences

In order to give them time to comply with the new requirements, holders of existing “B” licences will be able to renew them up to December 31, 1949. Applicants for the Senior Commercial and Airline Transport Pilots’ Licences will have to qualify for an “Instrument Rating” by satisfying the examiners that they can fly by their instruments only, and can land in pocr visibility, using S.B.A. and G.C.A. It will later be made illegal for any pilot to enter a control zone (or a control area, when these are established) under instrument flight conditions unless he holds an instrument rating. The Commercial pilot, who is not required to hold an instrument rating, will nevertheless undergo in the course of his training at least 10 hours’ instruction in the air in the use of instruments, and will take a new examination subject “Flight Operation,” which includes aircraft instruments.