deadline passed - please disregard

[John Brady]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the magazine and the BB I drew attention to the proposal to establish additional danger areas on Salisbury Plain to allow the MOD to train with their battlefield UAV, Watchkeeper. Following research and comment made on the BB, the LAA believes we should support this proposal but we have discovered that although MOD has said the UAV will operate from Upavon, there is no budget to construct the necessary runway. Therefore the UAV will have to operate from Boscombe Down and additional low level danger areas will be needed for launch and recovery. The consultation does not address this at all. The additional danger areas could be a significant issue for Old Sarum, for Thruxton and for transit aircraft but it should be possible to develop a design which allows access for all airspace users. Please will you respond to the consultation so that the LAA may have a say in how this problem is resolved. Please look on the consultation link. There is a short description of the issues and links to the consultation document and a link to the LAA draft response. You can respond by on-line form or by email.

The deadline is Monday 29 September.

Please respond as numbers count in this business.

On Tuesday 30 September, expect another post about the Humberside Airport bid for Class D airspace. The deadline for that is Friday 3 October.