Monthly archives: September 2025

A step towards integrated Met data

The Met Office has started rolling out the Met Office Aeronautical Visualisation Service, or MAVIS. It brings together four separate services into one place: Aviation Briefing Service, Network Weather Resilience, HeliBrief and OpenRunway. With a single login you can view METARs, TAFs, UK charts and configurable map layers for both planning and day-of-operation decisions.

MAVIS sits in beta today and is not approved for operational use during the development and dual-running period. Treat it as a preview rather than your legal or operational source. That said, it’s a great time to jump in and look at the features.

I’m genuinely impressed with what I’ve seen so far (despite some expected Beta issues) and whilst I won’t be hanging up my premium Windy account just yet, it certainly has a secure place in my future planning rituals.

What is genuinely new

Two things stand out: modern visualisation and personalisation, something previously unseen in MetO offerings. MAVIS adds Red-Amber-Green thresholding on TAFs and METARs so sites can flag when your pre-set limits are breached. You can pin locations, save base maps, and bring in layers such as observed lightning or sea-surface temperature as they arrive. UK and near-Europe SIGMETs now display inside the portal. Each feature looks small, yet together they speed up the process of a good met review before every flight and when connected to the internet, will allow swift conditions updating in flight.

For offshore helicopter operations, MAVIS matters because HeliBrief is on the same retirement path as ABS and NWR. The aim is a single interface where deck decision makers, flight dispatch, and crews all see an aligned picture with the same thresholds and highlights. That is a better human-factors outcome than juggling portals at 05:30.

Timelines and the small print

ABS and NWR are scheduled to retire in Spring 2026, with transition into MAVIS beginning in Autumn 2025. If you rely on the free ABS for GA flying, note that ABS Premium will not be replicated at initial MAVIS release. The Met Office plans an equivalent in 2026 but has not given a firm date. For now, ABS remains available and Premium continues at £24, with the service ending in March 2026. Plan your switch and avoid surprises during check-rides or club trips.

Airports and airlines using OpenRunway should expect the same migration window. The headline remains the same: one platform instead of many, with OpenRunway functionality absorbed into MAVIS before Spring 2026.

Why this consolidation makes sense

Putting planning, situational awareness and alerts in one place reduces clicks and the risk of divergent interpretations. MAVIS supports mobile use (although its currently buggy on some platforms), custom layouts and pinned sites. For smaller operators and GA, a single, consistent interface lowers the training burden for new pilots and club members. For airports and offshore teams, one shared display improves collaboration when thresholds tip into amber or red. I can see this being a real benefit in winter North Sea operations.

Where to be cautious

Do not swap your operational briefings over yet. MAVIS is not an operational source during beta and dual running. Keep using ABS, NWR, HeliBrief or OpenRunway as appropriate until the formal cutover. Expect some data and layers to appear or change as access controls firm up, and expect adjustments in what individual users can see as the service hardens. I truly hope, for the GA community, that the Met Office keep high data levels free and acessible – if there is a user group desperately in need of accurate data its the GA flier.

Practical actions to take this month

1. Map your workflows. Write down how you brief today and identify what MAVIS will replace. If you run offshore or airport operations, capture who sets thresholds, who owns watchlists, and who sends notifications. For the GA flier, think about your self briefing process. For me, it currently runs General Synopsis, F214, F215, GAMET and then to Windy. How will this process change?
2. Freeze your minima and thresholds. MAVIS makes it easy to encode the limits you already use. Agree those values now so your team does not tune to taste later. If you’re a GA pilot and don’t have met limits, now might be a good time to think of them.
3. Train to the visual language. RAG thresholding, pinned sites and layered maps will change how pilots scan. For training providers, build short sims or tabletop exercises that teach where to look first, then standardise that scan.
4. Budget and access. If you or your club relies on ABS Premium features, note the gap before a MAVIS premium tier arrives. Keep ABS credentials valid until your first successful operational day on MAVIS.

The bigger picture

MAVIS is not just a fresh coat of paint. It is the Met Office pulling regulated and commercial aviation weather tools into one consistent experience, with a stronger focus on human-centred design. If the production version stays honest to the beta and retains the useful features we have seen so far, this will land well across GA, airports and offshore operations. The prize is faster decisions with less friction, which is exactly what you want when the cloud base is sliding and the deck is getting wet.

If we want pilots who can think, not just pass, then this is the course correction we’ve needed.

I recently completed the UK CAA General Navigation professional exam, often “feared” as one of the toughest of the ATPL syllabus and enough to send many a student professional pilot into cold sweats. Nervously I opened the results email as it landed from the CAA and gasped in horror.

After more than two decades as a professional navigator, a postgraduate diploma in applied navigation, and a stint as Head of Navigation for one of the fighting arms of the UK Ministry of Defence; someone who has charted transoceanic courses, mentored young officers on storm avoidance, and explained variation so many times I can recite WGS-84 facts in my sleep whilst calculating more great circle vertexes than I care to remember; I had this in the bag.

And yet, to my horror — I missed one.

Learning Objective 061.01.08.02.03, to be precise: calculating average ground speed during descent from TAS and wind velocity at various altitudes. A fair question, and one we might usually tackle over a coffee and a briefing map. But on that day, I fluffed it.

Perhaps I fat-fingered the calculator. Perhaps I was overconfident. But more importantly: I’m glad I got it wrong.

Because this wasn’t just a lesson in staying sharp — it was proof that the Civil Aviation Authority’s newly refreshed ATPL exam structure is finally doing what it should: testing knowledge, not memory.

The Rote Learning Trap: Why “Gaming the Exam” Has Put Safety at Risk

Let’s be brutally honest: for too long, ATPL theory, particularly in subjects like General Navigation, has been something of a cheat code. A vast cottage industry of question banks and memory drills has allowed thousands of candidates to pass without ever fully and truly understanding what they were doing.

Controversial, and perhaps many will be angry at me for suggesting so. But my experience through the professional pilot exams has shown me just that. For every committed student who works hard to nail the theory, there are those who think that “banking it all the way” is the key to success. Whether I think calculating a magnetic course to an NDB from a position on a polar stereographic chart is a useful skill or not for today’s INS-gilded pilot, I’ll keep to myself. That said, many students could tell you that the “answer is C”, without being able to explain what, or why.

It got so bad that the UK’s Chief Theoretical Knowledge Instructors (CTKIs) formally raised the issue at their November 2024 meeting. Their concerns were clear: students were passing exams by rote, not understanding. That’s dangerous. Not just for the students, but for the future of professional aviation.

Enter the CAA’s Winter Question Task, a strategic overhaul of the question bank, starting in March 2025 and set to reshape how all ATPL theory exams are delivered.

New Format, New Standards: Type-in Answers and What They Mean for CPL/ATPL students

The updated system introduces new question formats across all subjects:

• Type-in answers – no options, just your raw answer. Know it or don’t.

• Inline (cloze) questions – test layered understanding.

• Multi-select questions – require critical discrimination, not gut instinct.

• Reduced reliance on MCQs – which previously encouraged pattern spotting and lucky guessing.

The emphasis now? Understanding, application, precision.

Which brings me back to my error. I wasn’t misled by four options or tricked by clever wording. I simply didn’t execute the calculation properly. The exam didn’t hand me cues; it demanded I know. That’s the system working exactly as intended.

The Role of ATOs: From Content Delivery to Competence Development

This shift presents a challenge, and a responsibility, for ATOs.

Too many training providers have become dependent on drilling question banks. Their internal assessments mirror MCQ-heavy formats, reinforcing shallow learning and surface-level comprehension. Students learn to pass, not to understand, the “last 300 becomes the bastion of learning”.

Now, with type-in questions, there’s nowhere to hide. If a student doesn’t grasp the fundamentals, if they’ve never mentally estimated a descent profile from varying winds, they will be found out.

Good. That’s how aviation training should be.

It is incumbent on every TKI and ATO to teach not just what the syllabus says, but why it matters — and how to apply it under pressure. Classroom sessions must become more interactive. Mental models and practical reasoning must take centre stage. Because theory, when stripped of application, becomes a liability.

Dear Student Pilots: This Is Your First Job Interview

Let’s turn to the candidate perspective, especially those aiming for airline careers.

ATPL theory isn’t just a box to tick. It’s the first real test of how you study, how you solve problems, and how you manage high cognitive load under time pressure.

Airlines know this.

Some will even screen CVs based on TK scores. Not because high marks guarantee a good pilot, they don’t, but because they indicate the mindset behind the achievement. Were you methodical? Did you study deeply? Can you apply knowledge when it matters? Or did you memorise your way through it?

When you’re sweating in a multi-crew sim check, faced with real-world crosswinds, a fuel discrepancy, and a reroute in deteriorating weather, rote recall won’t help you. But understanding will.

The new exam structure helps identify who will thrive in those moments. As a pilot, you are paid not for your ability to recite definitions, but for your ability to think, under stress, in time-critical situations, with lives on the line.

A Final Word From a Humbled Navigator

I didn’t write this piece to pat myself on the back for “smashing” GNav, nor to bemoan the one I missed. I wrote it because that mistake reminded me, starkly, that true mastery means always being open to learning, to improvement, and to challenge.

This system now reflects the values we say we want in aviation: rigour, professionalism, and safety through understanding.

So, if you’re preparing for your exams: embrace the difficulty. Seek clarity, not just recall. Understand the triangle of velocities not because it’s examinable, but because it’s a tool that will one day keep you safe.

And if, like me, you get one (or more) wrong, good. That means the system is finally doing its job.

This article was published in https://www.ftnonline.co.uk/ August 2025, written by @checksd

The news that Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) is on track to reopen should be cause for celebration. Any investment in UK aviation, especially in a region that needs better connectivity, deserves support. For those of us who live and breathe flying, the return of an operational airport, jobs, and commercial routes is positive. Yet as a general aviation pilot, I see the plans through a double lens: optimism on one side and concern on the other.

For the last 18 months, the skies around Doncaster have been unusually open. When the airport closed in 2022 and its controlled airspace was deactivated in February 2024, a large swathe of South Yorkshire reverted to Class G. For many of us in light aircraft, that meant the freedom to route directly across the area without negotiating a clearance from a pressured controller. Cross-country planning became simpler, instructional flights more efficient, and we had a break from feeling like the lowest priority in a busy Class D environment. It also offered a practical option for northerners to head south while avoiding the busy Lincolnshire and East Anglia areas with their high volume of military activity.

Now, with Doncaster Council and Mayor Ros Jones committing millions to bring the airport back to life, controlled airspace will almost certainly return. That is where the unease begins.

Controlled airspace: necessary but constraining

Nobody disputes that commercial airports need controlled airspace. IFR arrivals and departures require protection, and safety margins demand it. History around Doncaster shows, however, that implementation can come at a real cost to general aviation.

When the CTR and surrounding CTA shelves were active, transit was possible in theory but tricky in practice. Clearances could be slow, sometimes denied, or re-routed in ways that made local navigation exercises unnecessarily complex. Some CTA bases sat as low as 1,500 feet. In anything less than perfect weather, GA pilots were pushed into uncomfortable margins between cloud and terrain or forced into long detours around the zone.

Controllers were not hostile to light aircraft. The issue was workload, priorities, and system design. IFR traffic came first. In a unit like Doncaster, a two-seat trainer on a practice navex rarely received priority.

Reopening is welcome, but a revived Class D bubble will bring back constraints that many local pilots had briefly lived without.

The creeping squeeze from drones and temporary danger areas

Layered on top is a newer challenge: BVLOS drone operations.

Last year’s widely discussed Apian application for a temporary danger area near Newcastle is a case in point. The proposal sought to accommodate drone trials for medical deliveries, with general aviation effectively excluded from a large, frequently used area for the duration. Temporary danger areas like this are increasingly common. Each closure may be short-lived, but together they erode GA’s freedom to operate.

The combination of permanent controlled airspace and rolling temporary restrictions creates a patchwork of no-go areas. For a private pilot planning a straightforward VFR cross-country, the map grows more complicated each season. Unlike large commercial operators or well-funded drone projects, GA cannot simply buy more technology or hire airspace managers to handle the bureaucracy. We absorb the extra workload, take the longer detour, or scrub the flight.

A vision for coexistence

General aviation does not oppose growth. Most of us welcome the expansion of flying in all its forms, including airline passengers, freight, and innovative drone services. Aviation thrives when it grows.

Coexistence must be genuine rather than lip service.

For Doncaster, any reintroduced controlled airspace should include practical VFR corridors that enable easy and safe transit. Clearances for light aircraft should be routine, supported by staffing levels and procedures that recognise GA as a stakeholder rather than a nuisance. The Manchester Low Level Corridor shows what is possible.

For drones, transparency and proportionality should guide danger-area design. If a drone can operate safely in a smaller box, keep the restriction smaller. If coordination can replace outright exclusion, make coordination the default. When closures are necessary, regulators should consult and communicate properly with the GA community.

A shrinking sky

This is bigger than Doncaster. Across the UK, controlled airspace continues to thicken. The CAA faces pressure to accommodate new entrants, from commercial drones to advanced air mobility. Airports large and small are applying for more controlled volumes to contain new PBN procedures.

Each change may be justified on its own terms. Viewed cumulatively on a chart, the effect is clear. The open Class G sky is shrinking. With it goes some of the joy of simple, direct, seat-of-the-pants flying.

Doncaster’s reopening symbolises both sides of the story. On one hand, it proves that aviation still matters to the regions and that investment can revive an airport. On the other, it reminds us that gains for one corner of aviation can translate into tighter constraints for another.

A call for balance

As GA pilots, we do not oppose Doncaster’s return. We welcome it. We ask for balance and inclusion.

Controlled airspace should be smart rather than sprawling. Drone corridors should be flexible rather than blunt. Temporary danger areas should remain the exception rather than the creeping norm.

If general aviation becomes boxed out by an expanding lattice of restrictions, we risk losing not only freedom of the skies but the grassroots foundation of aviation itself. That foundation includes young pilots building hours, instructors passing on knowledge, and weekend flyers who keep small airfields alive.

The reopening of Doncaster Sheffield can be a success. It can also be a turning point where regulators, airports, and innovators choose coexistence over exclusion. Otherwise, the skies we once called free will feel like narrow corridors that we are permitted to use only on sufferance.