Below is based on the CHIRP Editorial in Drone/UAS FEEDBACK Edition 15 – Short Notice Temporary Danger Areas “TDA’s” – CHIRP – regarding an issue we in the CHIRP aviation team feel is worthy of publication to the wider general aviation community. 

Some providers of “first responder” drone aviation services, such as national police organisations, have decided quite rightly that drones are very useful in recording visual information in time critical situations. The earlier a drone is dispatched to the scene of an incident, the more complete the information it will be able to record. However, to do this effectively the drones will need to be operated Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS), and sometimes at an instant’s notice, from wherever the drone is based. It is clear that first responder operators will not know in advance where and when they are going to fly such BVLOS operations and there is currently no mechanism to pre-warn other air users of the intended flight.  

Detect and Avoid technology is immature and not yet approved and an Uncrewed Traffic Management capability does not yet exist. As a result, the CAA has decided to use Temporary Danger Areas (TDA) around the intended area where an emergency responder bases their drone activities – thereby creating so called “Drone in a Box” (DIAB) operations.  

Numerous sites have been identified as potential locations where a DIAB would be beneficial to police forces. It is understood that such drone flights will be classified as “State Flights” and therefore have additional regulatory protections to operate in airspace potentially occupied by GA traffic that have no information regarding the intended flight path. CHIRP feels, as a minimum, that publishing contact details to be used by those requiring access to any of these sites would be very helpful, along with details of how deconfliction will work in practice. It would also be useful if there was some clarity on whether approval to enter the TDA can be granted by the first responder or ATC.  

The obvious danger for general aviation is that GA pilots will be unaware of a very last-minute NOTAM being published imposing a TDA, or indeed a TDA being imposed when a GA flight is already underway, and in the same piece of airspace as a DIAB TDA. Height restrictions for drones of 400 feet AGL may not apply to ‘’State Flights’’ on urgent, fast paced, operations which reduces planned safety margins of shared airspace protocols. 

As a final point it is also worth mentioning that GPS jamming is increasingly being used to reinforce a TDA. New Year celebrations in central London saw three separate TDAs being imposed including one for GPS jamming, all of which intersected – certainly interesting times are ahead! 

Share with CHIRP 

Have you had an incident or a near miss? Could CHIRP help or offer advice on a safety concern? Perhaps you’ve experienced or observed something with a human factors angle that you think the wider aviation community could learn from. Why not share it with CHIRP? 

Every report helps raise awareness of safety issues, highlights emerging trends and shares valuable lessons with others. Report by report, we can all contribute to making aviation safer – as our strapline says: 

“You report it, we help sort it.”

Reporting to CHIRP is simple and quick using either our website portal or the CHIRP App (scan the relevant QR code or search for ‘CHIRP Aviation’, but watch out for the birdsong apps!). The portal presents a series of fields for you to complete, but not every field is mandatory – just tell us as much as you can. The more detail you provide, the more effectively we can help. 

Although you’ll be asked for an email address to access the system (to screen out bots and spam), your personal information is held securely within CHIRP’s independent systems and is never shared outside the organisation. Importantly, nothing that could identify a reporter is included in any report we progress or publish. We liaise with you at every stage and no information is passed on without your express consent. 

So rather than ‘fly and forget’, please consider working with CHIRP to help make the skies safer for everyone. However, it’s important to note that reporting to CHIRP is not a substitute for submitting a Mandatory Occurrence Report (MOR) when required, for example, when there has been a significant risk to safety, or an event that could have endangered the aircraft, its occupants, or others. MORs should be submitted via the CAA’s ECCAIRS 2 portal. 

The fact that you’re reading this means you already know about CHIRP General Aviation FEEDBACK? In case you don’t receive our emails with links to new editions, as well as our sister Air Transport, Drone/UAS and Cabin Crew versions, please use the subscribe option, which can be found at the bottom of our website  https://chirp.co.uk/aviation/subscribe/. Through this link you will soon have the option to request paper copies of GA FEEDBACK too. Alternatively, email us at mail@chirp.co.uk with your name, address and number of copies required, and we’ll add you to our mailing list.

The Met Office is developing a new visualisation system for aeronautical users.

This service is now operational and in beta testing. We encourage you to sign-up and explore the features available. You can see what is upcoming here, and what has been recently released here

Sign-up via mavis.metoffice.gov.uk

PLEASE NOTE: this product is not feature complete, new elements are being added regularly, based on user feedback.

This leaflet is intended to provide guidance on common winter issues in GA flying such as weather systems, aircraft preparation, operations on contaminated surfaces and flight in icing conditions.  https://www.caa.co.uk/publication/download/12642

Pooleys have kindly agreed to support CHIRP’s fund-raising activities by allocating us a discount code on their website shop. Enter the code ‘Chirp’ (case sensitive) at the appropriate point at the payment stage to get 5% discount and generate some commission for CHIRP. Sadly, this doesn’t apply to the purchase of Bose headsets, but everything else qualifies. If you do use Pooleys for your purchases, or know other people who do, please do share the code. The more the code is circulated, the more it is used and the greater the commission generated to help CHIRP build its resources to do more.

CHIRP received two separate reports recently from reporters who were concerned that PPL holders that they were aware of were conducting activities outside of permitted activities according to current regulations. The reports we received were not Whistleblowing reports but were aimed at obtaining clarification from CHIRP on the rules that applied in the specific cases they reported on.  

In order that FEEDBACK readers can learn from these enquiries the CAA GA unit was consulted and CHIRP received the following guidance relating to the two situations outlined in the reports received.  

The guidance below is intended to be a summary and relate to the subject areas concerned. Even though every effort has been made to be concise and accurate, if readers are still uncertain of how regulation affects their operations, we recommend that the CAA website and other CAA recommended sources are consulted for the latest information. 

 Reporter’s concern: PPL holders flying parachutists for payment: 

 CAP660 Version 5, 20 March 2020, sets out the minimum standards for parachuting operations which are considered to be commercial operations unless the specific arrangements satisfy requirements for a derogation in Article 6 of the Air Operations Regulations. 

Parachute dropping performed either by a training organisation, having its principal place of business in the United Kingdom and referred to in Article 10a of Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011, or by an organisation created with the aim of promoting aerial sport or leisure aviation, can perform such flights on the condition that the aircraft is operated by the organisation on the basis of ownership or dry lease, that the flight does not generate profits distributed outside of the organisation, and that whenever non-members of the organisation are involved, such flights represent only a marginal activity of the organisation. 

A PPL(A) can conduct parachuting flights but must not receive remuneration for their services as a pilot. 

Reporter’s concern: PPL holders charging passengers for flights. 

CAP 1653 (Edition 3, August 2025): Introductory Flights, Trial Lessons and Air Experience Flights may only be offered by a Declared Training Organisation (DTO) or Approved Training Organisation (ATO). 

Trial Lessons and Air Experience Flights must be flown by a Flight Instructor (FI) with the relevant rating — FI(A) for aeroplanes or FI(M) for microlights. 

These flights can be performed by a PPL holder (with the appropriate FI rating) and get paid for doing so.  

PPL holders may also conduct Introductory Flights, however they may not personally receive any remuneration or valuable consideration for doing so.  

PPL holders may also conduct cost-sharing flights (non-commercial, not for profit), under UK Air Navigation Order (ANO) 2016, Article 13. Cost-shared flights are by private individuals, where the conditions of NCO.GEN.102 are satisfied and permitted on condition that the only remuneration or other valuable consideration given or promised for the flight to the pilot by the passengers is a contribution towards the direct costs of the flight which would otherwise be payable by the pilot in command. 

CAA recent guidance on: 

Cost sharing flights | UK Civil Aviation Authority 

CAP 2285: Illegal Public Transport Flights leaflet | UK Civil Aviation Authority