Originally Posted by
ShortfinalFred
There is a further reform that needs to happen then: the LAA must be stripped of its role as a regulator of light aviation. People MUST belong to it if they operate at a certain level of aircraft ownership as the LAA has taken over from the CAA in that sector. This makes such an award have a significance it ought not to have when you are meant to be dealing with an impartial regulator. Either the LAA is a membership body that can make awards, counsel, advise and warn, or it is a regulator. It ought not to be both. It is standing into danger here. Arguably, the CAA as the Government appointed aviation regulatory body should be adequately resourced to review and license all aviation in the UK: an impartial body, open to advice and input from all - the LAA, the BGA, AOPA etc etc., but this is no longer the case. I for one do not want to belong to an organisation that perpetuates such a woeful saga, and yet I HAVE TO if I am to fly a certain category of aeroplane.A potential outcome from this endless process would be a demand that people not be shackled to a body that is both 'de jure' regulator and a selector of individuals for recognition, and that reform of the LAA itself is needed.
I think you have it 'tail about prop'. There is absolutely no chance that the CAA would welcome LAA PtF aircraft back under their regulatory wing, and I know for a fact that they would be only too pleased to see those Permit aircraft remaining on their books handed over to the LAA, or some other Competent Authority. Whether the LAA, as a Competent Authority, should be giving out awards is a interesting question, however, and perhaps could be debated in future, as one thing that is certain is that no one will benefit from this current debacle, no matter what the end result is. The best that can be hoped for is damage limitation.