CAP 413 Edition 23 - is this what we are now to expect of UK CAA?
CAP 413 Edition 23 was published on 9 April to be effective on 8 June 2020. Unfortunately there are many errors and inconsistencies in it.
The Revision History shows a summary of changes incorporated in Edition 23. The date of the summary is shown as "9 April 2019"!
Among the changes in Ed 23 is the requirement for ATCOs & AFISOs to include surface wind data before issue of a take-off/landing clearance. In this respect for AFISOs it appears that "clearance" is to be interpretted as that transmitted as "at your discretion".
Phraseology requirements for AFISOs shown at page 35 places the wind velocity data after "at your discretion", then the phraseology examples at page 41 shows it (correctly) as prior to "at your discretion"..
Ed 23 also includes updates to military callsigns, which appears to have been drafted by someone other than the Editor, and then promptly cut/pasted into CAP 413. After years of correcting trainees to use "RTF" as the correct abbreviation for the obsolete "RT" it still appears in the amended entries, which also refer to "ICAO registered callsign root, comprising a Three-Letter Designator (TLD)" which apparently refers to ICAO Aircraft Operating Agency Designators. May be a military term, but please do not confuse us civvies with it.
Trying to keep trainees on the straight and narrow can be trying at times, please CAA don't make it any harder for us. You are the ones meant to be setting the standard, so plese keep it technically correct. Surely we should not be expected to proof read future CAP changes and have to make corrections for our trainee's benefit?
Talking to a colleague a few days ago he had over a month ago raised the issue of anomalies with the CAP 413 Editor, as yet he has not received a response. What happened to the CAA service level standard?
Have noticed a steady decline in CAA/ SARG standards over the past few years, hope that this is not indicative of worse to come!