The London CTR Review report emerged last December. It does not reflect the progress made since that date and there will be a further report later this year. You can get the report
here, together with all the names of the Group members. (I/we were not represented.) The report also contains the infamous A N T chart I referred to above - worth saving for history.
Heliport
Yes - we consulted heavily with CAA, DAP, AUS etc. As I said above, there's nothing new in the rules. Just remember these parameters:
1 The river does not form a part of R160, nor was it ever part of the old "Specified".
2 The rule for
any helicopter operating over R160 is that it should remain able to alight clear of that area in the event of a power unit failure. This is the only place in the whole UK where the "alight clear" rules apply to helicopters. And of course we should not ignore the "without endangering" aspect of flying law.
3 Sit down with your POH for your helicopter and establish your glide ratio. Then look at the operating altitudes available over London.
However, all these flights would be subject to Special VFR. And in my opinion they should also have an NSF. As with all regulations, it only takes one cowboy incident and the whole pasture can be put off limits to all. (See the withdrawal of all NSFs for fixed wing since the Cessna 152 banner towing incident of a few Decembers ago......so now no SEP can get an NSF for London.)
And that's it. We simply drilled down to the base level of the law - the Statutory Instruments - and took our evidence forward.
This all happened in February. I've been waiting to see how long it would be before a twin operator took any notice. Not bad, MBJ, 4 months.