Islander2 - The ANO amendment appears to ban DIY instrument approaches. They are trying to mimic FAR 91.175, except that the USA gets away with this because they have so many IAPs over there, whereas in Europe a lot of pilots do their own descent profiles.
That business about the McMurdo ELTs with built-in GPS being more or less useless is news which is several years old. I remember reading it c. 2002. It's probably still on google but I think they fixed them a long time ago.
A beacon won't help you in +5C water in a life jacket, because by the time they get to you (which, for much of southern UK, is at least an hour by helicopter) you will be dead. That's why a raft is essential if you want a reasonably assured escape route in a ditching.
I am puzzled as to why the CAA has mandated ELTs, unless it's an ICAO requirement and the CAA seems to be gradually getting out of the "differences" business. There aren't enough CFITs in the UK where there was the slightest chance of survival.
Sweden mandates ELTs for all own-reg planes (but Sweden mandates practically everything) and the USA does of course but the USA doesn't yet mandate 406MHz.
I am on N-reg so this doesn't affect me directly, but does anybody have a reference for the oxygen kit having to be CAA approved?
When I was looking at portable kits c. 2003 I came across a UK firm selling "CAA approved" kits which were simply the standard off the shelf Aerox kits (same as I have had since) but with some paperwork, and the price was around double of the US price. Presumably, this firm was running the standard scam (standard not just in aviation but that's where it is particularly cynical) where you obtain the authority (from the CAA or EASA) to generate certification forms, buy the items on the open market, "inspect" them, write down their serial numbers on a form, stamp the form, and sell the items for much more, with the said form.
It would be a travesty of justice if the CAA mandated "certified" oxygen kits, given the rate of new developments (e.g. demand regulators) in this field and the certainty of CAA approvals lagging years behind, while multiplying the costs.