It is vital that CAP1724 Flying Display Authorisation Standards Document remains up-to-date and relevant, and that the CAA’s guidance material in this area remains proportionate, clear and unambiguous.

We asked for feedback from the regulated community on proposed amendments to CAP 1724 ahead of the 2020 display season. 

We compiled a draft of CAP 1724 Edition 2 and consulted on it from 16 December 2019−12 January 2020. 

We received a total of 80 unique comments to the draft CAP from 14 respondents. All respondents were from the Flying Display community including Display Pilots, Display Teams, Display Authorisation Evaluators, and Flying Display Directors. 

All the comments conveyed some sort of change. Of these:

• just under 30% were textual in nature, suggesting revised wording or highlighting minor drafting points. Many of these were comments were duplicated between respondents; and  
• the remainder were more substantive, calling for some sort of change of the underlying policy. 

We accepted 31 of the all the comments (39%). 

Of the 23 textual comments received, we accepted 43%. Most of these comprised rewording content for clarification, and we have tried to take a balanced view on what would be helpful. Several respondents requested changes to text that the majority of readers indicated as satisfactory. Some comments suggested clarifying definitions, and where possible we tried to accept these, however some suggestions would have meant revising CAA standard definitions which involves further work and may be considered in due course. 

Of the 57 substantive comments, we implemented 37%. Of these, 7 comments directly resulted in changes to the text, and another 12 were considered to be similar to changes already made. Two other substantive comments received were noted for consideration in either another Edition of this CAP. 

Regarding the comments we elected not to implement, many asked that we expand on material that we thought was covered adequately either in this document or elsewhere; or that we introduce content that we thought was not necessary. We also received some comments suggesting reinstating content that was actively removed from earlier Editions. 

Finally, some suggested changes would require substantial policy review including in some cases amendment to the Air Navigation Order (ANO), both of which are beyond the scope of this consultation.  However, we welcome further inputs to policy and the ANO, as and when these are released for consultation. 

We are have produced a final version of CAP 1724 Edition 2 which was published on 25 Feb 2020.