CAA outstanding service

Display Authorisation Issue.

Today the CAA (Matthew Hill & team) delivered an outstanding service.

A few of you will know that to get my bum of the ground I’ve been doing paragliding in the Alps of France and paramotoring in the flat lands of Cambridgeshire, this is in between being team leader of the Global Stars formation team, formation pyros team and solo unlimited aerobatic display pilot.

The natural extension to this is to bring this easily achievable sport of paramotoring to new audiences. So with that in mind at the beginning of the year I decided to do the necessary training and paperwork to get a DA on type. Its classed as W2 in CAA speak on the DA.

The main issue I have had is until the middle of this year the W2 Display Authorisation Evaluators (DAE’s) were non existent. Thanks to Matthew Hill at the displays office CAA who has been very progressive in seeking out and approving qualified evaluators. To date as I write these are Mark Turner, Ian Currer and Mark Shaw. Both IC and MS are both BHPA instructors.

The next issue is to coordinate evaluators availability, venue availability, weather forecasts and my own time. I’m very pleased to say that all these ducks fell in line yesterday 17th October. Admittedly I spent 5 hours driving, many hours waiting for drizzle to clear on the day but at 17:30 it all came together.

The time came and I flew in front of Ian and the assembled masses of his hang gliding pupils on an instructors course being run by the BHPA at the Green Dragons venue in Kent, thank you Andy Shaw for you facilities. Another thank you is due to Geoff Soden, a former paramotor school owner/ instructor of some 15 years or more who has mentored me and passed on numerous tips.

This is the bit for a big thank you to Matthew and all those involved at CAA. Within 3 hours of my scanned application to upgrade the DA being submitted by email the new DA had been issued 🙂 (post script – Thanks Mark, What this shows though is that if not only your ducks align then providing the paperwork submitted to us is 100% correct then our ducks align too! Please pass the word around that correct submissions are beneficial to all! )

I’m now able to offer paramotor displays to event organisers. This form of flying has seen a huge surge of interest in the last few years. Some very sizeable and notable events take place around the country. A number of training schools exist. I would strongly recommend one that offers BHPA credentials as with membership you get £5,000,000 1/3rd party insurance.

I’m flying the Nova Phantom, this is a modern design with “B” certification (student safety) but with high end “D” performance. Paired with this is the “future” with an electric motor from Skyjam.