To quote Dave: "Yes and this means shelling out the wedge to get your bnuc-s as its the ONLY way professionally to get permission to fly"!!!
I completely disagree with you on this Dave. I think its a complete rip off to be honest & if anything will encourage more people to fly without any sort of test, insurance or skill.
Originally the CAA accepted the BMFA helicopter A test, but not any more (unless you already had this test & approval from the CAA). This seems like the BNUC & CAA are in bed together ripping off the great british public.
For this reason I propose WE the MR commmunity make our OWN test/rules/guidelines, with a much smaller fee...just like Simon has done for the UK FPV fliers, at least they managede to win against the CAA..... so why cant we?
6 months ago I spent 45 mins on the phone to some guy at the CAA & he completely agreed with me that the BNUC wasn't designed for us small weight users & more for the big industrial/military users. I mean after all what's the difference between commercial use & own use...MONEY!!!!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against paying an administration fee, but I will NOT pay an over inflated, rip off price to a company so that they say I can fly...this is open to serious abuse in my opinion.
Why dont we have our own test...like the BMFA certificates? We would need to incorporate safety & CAA guidelines into it, but without the ridiculous fees associated with the BNUC.
Who else agrees with me on this one I wonder?
Ross