An instant has happened at my local airfield this week regarding pilots not understanding the current laws for pilots.
So many pilots will think they know the law and abide by it when they fly, they will prepare and make all the checks and planning required like:

• Checking the aircraft documents before a flight, remember when you sign for an A-check you are sign-ing the plane is legal to fly including checking the insurance, maintenance, release of maintained etc…
• Checking your Notams and Royal Notam’s, this is much easier today with GPS systems like Run-wayHD.
• Check the weather at your aerodrome, the landing aerodrome and en-route.
• Carry a current chart in date to cover your flying area, an iPad GPS system is not a replacement rather an extra
• You have an aerodrome chart of your take-off airfield and landing airfield.
• Checked your Mass and Balance and calculated your fuel required

And you will find a couple more basic requirements like you must have a timepiece. Maybe you are a conscientious flyer and you have printed all the aerodromes you go to or purchased a Pooleys Flight Equipment Ltd book of airfields.
Planning you have looked at you chart and noted all the frequencies required for the flight, so they are easily accessible when needed, all good airmanship practices.
The above all seems typical to me and is a good start for a flight, but can you spot some legal issues missing???

When was the last time you went onto the NATS website to check for updates? Do you remember changes are published every 28 days, this includes changes to frequencies and charts at a minimum? I went to a large commercial school and at that time we had to sign we had read all the changes monthly to maintain our flying status. So, when did you last check for changes in the AIP?

Now, this is where I was leading up too, when did you last spend any time looking at the ANO (Air Nav-igation Older). All our laws we should know!

There are rumours circulating my airfield City Airport (Manchester Barton) about pilots using the Wingly website site for cost sharing flights, and flying groups have stated that any pilot who advertised on Wingly would no longer be welcome to fly in the various groups because advertising a flight is illegal and classed as public transport. (This is the aircraft owners views not the airfield who are open and welcoming).

This use to be true but if you had tried to keep up with aviation changes which never happen quickly you will find this law changed 2 years ago! So, it is now legal to advertise flights on a cost-sharing plat-form; but you cannot advertise yourself on your own website or in a local shop, but you can on a speci-fied platform like Wingly. In fact you will find many CAA articles now endorsing and acknowledging the benefits of using such platforms. These platforms also offer additional insurance and systems to make sure people advertise flights on a cost-sharing basis and not for profit.

So, I think today there are two great changes to aviation that everyone should try, the first is GPS, it is so accessible today when you can just add it to your phone or tablet and personally through testing all the services I find @runwayHD by Airbox Systems Ltd to be superior but using whatever you are com-fortable with is ultimately the best solution. The second great change is cost sharing platforms like Wingly.

Wingly does not not just reduce the cost of flying for pilots, it makes pilots more currents, better expe-rienced, airfields busier, cafes busier and makes flying available to a whole new sector of people, some may even end up trying flying lessons which is a bonus for flying schools!

Wingly along with RunwayHD could be the two-best additions for pilots in the last 20 years.

Be open-minded, be current with the law and try something new, meet new people, try a Wingly flight and stay aware of your position with RunwayHD