More CAA bull***t!

[Nigel Ramsay]

I saw this morning that the Performing Rights Society are demanding £130 from a one-man band garage because he has the radio on while he works, and a customer MIGHT hear some music that the performer should be paid for the performance..... the whole of government has gone mad!

This insurance evidence business is as bad as the TV Licensing letters which arrive on the doorsteps of derelict houses and the whole 'warn and prosecute' policy is completed without anyone actually taking a real view of it.

I forgot to mention that I have had the same initial letters about a Jodel D9 I have acquired. I haven't even collected it yet, it's never actually flown or been issued a permit to fly, but I've transferred it to my name. I guess I'll be getting the recorded delivery letter soon!!! As it cost me £60 to transfer ownership, I'll have to respond with a 'SORN' statement or it'll be removed from the register.....

I'm off to boil my parts

[Mike Cross]

All part of the small-brained way of doing things dreamed up by people with little imagination or forethought.

There is a Law that says you can't fly without insurance. If you're caught doing so you get prosecuted - fair enough. Why should it be necessary to demand letters from people without insurance promising not to break the law?

Maybe I should have to write a letter promising not to use my kitchen knives to stab people?

There are also laws that say you can't have a gun without a firearms certificate and another that says you can't rob banks. No doubt they think that if we all signed letters promising not to do so it would reduce the incidence of armed robbery?

If someone is going to break the law then this won't stop them. A futile and fatuous waste of time and money.

[J.C.]

I understand that it is legal for the CAA to ask for written evidence of insurance..BUT you are legally entitiled to charge for providing that proof.
As they do nowt for owt ,I took this stance with them and they contacted my insurer direct.(at no cost to me).
I stand to be corrected but I believe they can now check by computer against a register anyway.

[Captain Pulsar]

Excellent advice JC, that's what I'll be doing when I get the letter. I thought about £50 charge would be about right.

[Kelvin Denize]

The comparison with the TV licence is rather wrong. I have lived in the UK for 12 years and at no time during that time have I ever owned a TV licence, I have also never owned a TV....in my life.

I get 20-30 threatening letters per year, most telling me an inspector is going to visit me some telling me I am going to be taken to court and various other things are going to happen to me.

Not once in the 12 years have I done anything but throw the silly letter in the bin and not once have I ever received anything more than a similer letter a few months later.

Their detection machines don't seem to work otherwise they would have known I don't have a TV. But, anybody with any electronic knowledge knows it is impossible to detect a TV with a van driving up and down the road with an antenna on the top.

But, the CAA seem to be keeping a bit closer tab on what is going on and threatening to remove you from the registrar if you don't comply.

At least the BBC letters provide me with amusement, I am not sure a CAA one would, even less amusing would be a CAA aircarft detector van.

[Mike Fawdrey]

Re State Aircraft, I may be wrong in this but I believe that it is similar for state vehicles whether military or civvy.
Some years ago I worked for GPO Telephones which at that time was part of the UK Civil Service.
GPO vehicles were owned by the Crown and therefore neither Road Tax or Insurance was paid.
On one occassion one of my colleagues was involved in an accident and was asked by the Police to produce vehicle insurance and road tax which he obviously could not. He subsequently went along with a copy of the relevant Civil Service document which showed that such cover was not necessary.