General Aviation Pilot Licensing Review Phase 2: Balloons

We ran a consultation, CAP2974B, from 13 March to 22 May 2024 asking the UK General Aviation (GA) community for their views on our proposed strategic direction for pilot licensing and training simplification - Balloons.

The consultation covered the following themes:

• Next steps and embedding the reforms for Part-BFCL.
• Licensing for private ballooning.
• Commercial balloon licensing.
• Instructor and Examiner requirements.

Theoretical knowledge changes.

We received 128 responses to this consultation. Most respondents answered all survey questions and a number of those also left detailed comments. There were a small number of respondents that did not answer a large proportion of the questions.

• Next steps and embedding Part-BFCL: We received a large number of individual comments in response to our 3 requests for input. Details of these and our decisions can be found in the Consultation Response Document (CRD)
• Licensing for Private ballooning: Respondents were largely in favour of the majority of proposals relating to Private ballooning, with the exception of the recency requirement and frequency of flight training with a Flight Instructor balloon (FI(B))
• Commercial balloon licensing: We received majority support for proposals regarding pre-requisite hours for commercial ballooning, minimum hours requirement when moving from one envelope to the next, mandatory ground school, making proficiency checks mandatory every 2 years and mandatory refresher training every 5 years. There was also support for having 2 separate commercial ratings.
• Instructor and Examiner requirements: Respondents indicated strong support for all proposals relating to instructor and examiner licensing. Details of which can be found in the CRD.
• Theoretical knowledge changes: Again, there was strong support to all proposed changes to theoretical knowledge examinations and their validity periods.

• We will be proceeding with the next phase of this project to develop and move forward with proposed changes.
• We will now begin work on drafting the necessary documents, required by the Department for Transport (DfT), to implement changes to the ANO and Part-BFCL.
• We are working towards a legislative slot in Spring 2025.
• We will also liaise with internal colleagues to ensure that our systems, internal instructions documents and all staff are ready for the implementation of these changes.
• Due to the volume of work and resource constraints in the legislative programme, some areas of policy relating to balloons will not be progressed until 2026. These include changes relating to:
  • Theoretical knowledge examinations.

We have published our consultation response document, setting out these findings in more detail: CAP3032B