Consultation Hub

It is vital that CAP 1724 Flying Display Pilot Authorisation and Evaluation: Requirements and Guidance remains up-to-date and relevant, and that the CAA’s guidance material in these areas remains proportionate, clear and unambiguous.

We asked for feedback from the regulated community on proposed amendments to CAP 1724 ahead of the 2025 display season. 

We compiled a draft of CAP 1724 Edition 7 and consulted on it over four working weeks from 16 January 2025 to 12 February 2025. 

We received a total of 48 unique comments to the draft CAP 1724 from 15 respondents.  

Of all the comments, 27 clearly conveyed some sort of change and 21 were either unclear / not specific or suggested no changes, many being purely comments.  21% of all the comments supported the proposed amendments.

Of the 27 conveying a change, 17 were textual in nature, suggesting revised wording or highlighting minor drafting / clarification points, several being duplicated between respondents.  The other 10 comments were more substantive, calling for some sort of change of the underlying policy. 

We accepted 4 of the 27 comments suggesting some sort of change (15%).  3 of these comprised of rewording content or the addition of further information for additional clarification, we have tried to take a balanced view on what would be helpful.  The other comment concerned a minor policy change.

Of the remaining 23, 8 concerned points that were already covered elsewhere (either in this CAP or CAP403), 7 concerned issues that are beyond the scope of this CAP, 1 suggested a change that had already been made, 2 were unclear / not specific and 5 were aimed at sensitive text that we are unable to change.

Regarding the 10 more substantive comments we received, we implemented 1. Of those we elected not to implement, some were beyond the scope of CAP 1724, others were covered adequately either in this document or elsewhere, some concerned suggestions for unacceptable changes to policy and it was considered that the remaining might have further unintended consequences.

We have produced a final version of CAP 1724 Edition 7 which was published on 10 March 2025. 

For comments on the proposal that the CAA introduces a deviation concerned with flight crew alerting on a large transport aeroplane.

The UK CAA is consulting on a Deviation that is applicable to CS-25 Large Aeroplanes. This Deviation provides the compensating factors to reach an acceptable level of mitigation to allow issuance of the type certificate with the non-compliance to CS 25.1322.

This is based the use of an approach to the cockpit philosophy on flight crew alerts which has been approved and is common to previous types certified by the same manufacturer.

The Consultation Paper Deviation UK.DEV.F.0001 Issue 1 provides the full detail of the identified issue, and the associated Deviation.

We received 2 responses.
The first response primarily related to the number of memory actions required, and pilot training when multiple ratings are held.

The second response proposed a number of wording changes aimed at making the text more specific to flight crew alerts, and proposes eliminating some text perceived by the commenter to be redundant. In addition, the commenter considers that CS 25.1322(c)(2) has not been addressed and should be addressed.

We acknowledge the responses and thank the responders for their suggestion.
For response 1, the comment is not incorporated. While the comments are relevant, their incorporation would is not considered to address the intent of the deviation and mitigations presented to the non-compliance.

For response 2, the comment is not incorporated. The deviation scope is considered to be clearly centred around Flight Crew Alerting, and the current text is considered to be clear within this context.

Further, the CAA consider that the text proposed for deletion by the commenter is not redundant, but is necessary and focussed on the requirements addressed by the deviation. CS 25.1322(c)(2) is addressed in Appendix A Table 4.

It is vital that CAP 403 Flying Displays and Special Events: Safety and Administrative Requirements and Guidance remains up-to-date and relevant, and that the CAA’s guidance material in these areas remains proportionate, clear and unambiguous.

We asked for feedback from the regulated community on proposed amendments to CAP 403 ahead of the 2025 display season. 

We compiled a draft of CAP 403 Edition 22 and consulted on it over four working weeks from 09 December 2024 to 03 January 2025.

We received a total of 65 unique comments to the draft CAP 403 from 12 respondents.  

Of all the comments, 44 clearly conveyed some sort of change and 21 were either unclear / not specific or suggested no changes, many being purely comments. 

Of the 44 conveying a change, 27 were textual in nature, suggesting revised wording or highlighting minor drafting / clarification points, several being duplicated between respondents.  The other 17 comments were more substantive, calling for some sort of change of the underlying policy. 

We accepted 12 of the 44 comments suggesting some sort of change (27%). 10 of these comprised of rewording content or the addition of further information for additional clarification, we have tried to take a balanced view on what would be helpful.  The other 2 concerned minor policy changes.

Of the remaining 32, 12 concerned points that were already covered elsewhere (either in this CAP or CAP1724), 8 were comments that were unclear / not specific or concerned issues with formatting that we were unable to replicate, 8 were aimed at sensitive text that had been changed to align with and reflect wider CAA policy and 4 involved suggested changes to underlying policy.

Regarding the 17 more substantive comments we received, we implemented 2. Of those we elected not to implement, some were beyond the scope of CAP403, others were covered adequately either in this document or elsewhere, some concerned suggestions for unacceptable changes to policy and it was considered that the remaining might have further unintended consequences.

We have produced a final version of CAP 403 Edition 22 which was published on 4 February 2025.