In this episode, we hear from organisers, pilots, regulators and industry experts from across the air display community.

Recorded at the CAA’s Air Display Symposium earlier this year, we speak to the people who make air displays happen, exploring the challenges, innovations and priorities, shaping this year's program, and getting a behind the scenes look at how the industry is working together to deliver safe, exciting events for audiences across the UK.

For more information about the CAA’s role in air displays, visit our website:

Flying displays and Special events | UK Civil Aviation Authority

welcome to the general aviation podcast from the UK Civil Aviation Authority.

Hello and welcome to the Civil Aviation authority's general aviation Podcast. I'm Billie Winwood, and today I'm coming to you from the CAA Air Display Symposium, where organisers, pilots, regulators and industry experts from across the air display community have gathered to prepare for the air display season ahead, over the episode, I'll be speaking to people who make air displays happen, exploring the challenges, innovations and priorities, shaping this year's program, and getting a behind the scenes look at how the industry is working together to deliver safe, exciting events for audiences across the UK. We're going to start by talking to Richard Crockett, who's a member of our team here at the CAA in the air display regulation team. Hi, Richard, could you just tell us a little bit about what the CAA role is with regards to air displays in the UK?

Yeah, thanks, Billie. So here at the CAA, our role is to administer and oversee all flying displays in the UK. We issue the permissions for the flying display so they can take place. We issue the display authorizations for the pilots to take place in those events. And as part of that, we write all the different caps. We have cap 403, and cap 1724, and another part of our role is to put on these events, these symposiums where we can share these incredible safety stories, knowledge, human practice, training, you know, and really start to examine all the things that went on in the previous season to help give our pilots and everyone involved in flying displays that essential knowledge ready to go into this new display season.

Can you just elaborate on that a little bit? What benefit does having an event like this right before the season have for the whole community?

Yeah, absolutely. So they represent one of the most important pillars of flying to display safety. They provide a platform for sharing vital human factors, insights, of course, regulatory updates and the really vital ‘I learned about flying from that’ stories and countless other lessons that simply can't be captured in in the caps or emails and things like that. So you know, every year that collective wisdom exchanged at these gatherings, they've really helped to sharpen the mindset of everyone involved in flying displays, and really helps to ensure they begin the season with clarity, humility and some focus.

Okay, so I'm here with Group Captain Mark Holland from the Military Aviation Authority. Hi, Mark. Can you tell us a little bit about your role with the MAA

So hi, I'm Group Captain Mark Collins. I work for the Military Aviation Authority, and I run the division that regulates and assure all UK military display flying activity.

Great. And can you tell me a bit about how the Civil Aviation Authority and the Military Aviation Authority work together ahead of the air show season?

So as you'd expect, with two regulators, the Civil Aviation Authority and Military Aviation Authority doing a very similar role, we work together as organisations very closely across all aviation in the UK, but more so than in display flying. The two teams work highly together across a range of issues. We make sure that every year we review each other's regulations for display flying activity, and that we release the civil and military display flying regulations at the same time, and that they're cohered together. We provide a joint training course for display directors to make sure that whether you're in the military or you're a civilian display director, you're trained to the same standard. We coordinate our efforts when we're going out to do assurance or flying display activities, and we run this preseason display symposium together to make sure that the whole of the civil display community and military displays community can come together to share information,

So lots of joint working there then, and what benefits does that bring to the display community itself?

So as a joint approach, we can make sure that as regulators, we can keep our regulations aligned, but it also allows us to independently check each other's work by having two regulators doing a very similar role, it also means that we can share resources. There's a lot of display flying activity in the UK, and that we can spread our resources economically to go and do assurance activity. So they're benefits to us as regulators, but the largest benefit is to the display community and to the civil population that we seek to keep safe at flying displays by having events like this, and you can hear the chatter in the background, the main thing that we get from our coordination is bringing the communities together so that civilian display teams, event organizers, flying display directors, can share that information with the military, and we can all learn and grow together.

Great. Thank you very much.

You're listening to the General Aviation podcast from the UK Civil Aviation Authority.

I'm now speaking to Paul Shakespeare from Shuttleworth. He's the new chief pilot there for this season. Hi Paul. Nice to see you. Can you tell us a little bit about your role as chief pilot at Shuttleworth? And for those who don't know, a little bit of background on what Shuttleworth does.

Sure. Hi, nice to meet you. So as you said, I'm the new chief pilot. I've actually been at Shuttleworth for about 20 years, but just taking over this season for the first time as the chief pilot Shuttleworth is. I'm a little bit biased, as you might expect, but we believe it's the biggest and best collection of vintage and antique aircraft in the world. We have a large number of aircraft, over 40 aircraft types, and they range right back from we have the very oldest flying aircraft in the world of Bleriot, from 1909 right through till just after World War Two, the sort of 1950s about the latest aircraft that we've got with everything in between. So we have some original and some reproduction World War One aircraft, some Edwardian aircraft from before World War One, many aircraft from between the wars, and we have some world war two aircraft as well.

So what about your role as chief pilot? What does that mean?

So as a chief pilot, I'm basically responsible for supervision of the carter of pilots that we have. We have, think, at last count, about 16 pilots from a really broad range of backgrounds, all very experienced. Everyone brings something different, and over the years, you do what I consider to be probably one of the world's longest apprenticeships. So for example, I've been flying there for 20 years. I still haven't flown all the aircraft types. I've flown a good number, but there's still some there that I haven't flown, and one of my roles as chief pilot, one of my most important roles, is sort of supervision, to keep an eye on the pilots, look at their development, make sure the aircraft are being flown safely and sympathetically. I'm also, overall responsible for making sure we've got good coverage across all the aircraft types. So not all pilots fly all aircraft types, but make sure that we've got enough pilots qualified and current on those types to make sure that we can display them throughout the season, which, with the number of aircraft we have, is no mean feat.

You've mentioned the vast array of different aircraft that you've got, but shuttle works also known for having lots of different events throughout the year. It must be a challenge. Can you talk a little bit about that and any other challenges that you're preparing for before the season starts.

Absolutely, with such a wide array of aircraft, it's very difficult to keep all the pilots current on In fact, it's impossible to keep more current on all the different types. So we have a very targeted work up. We talk about sort of crawl, walk, run in the period leading up to the season, where we we get our back up to speed on flying the different aircraft types, but it's a constant challenge. As you say, we have multiple events through the year. This year, I think we've got eight displays over seven different weekends. So trying to keep the pilots current on these aircraft that, by modern standards, are not always easy to fly is a real challenge. So we do that in a way that we've learned over many, many years, but I keep, as the chief pilot, a close eye on people's currency and make sure that every time we go into a display, we've got pilots ready to go on each time.

And we're here at the symposium where we've got, you know, lots of people coming together, sharing their experiences and collaborating. Is there anything in particular that you're taking you know as your first year as chief pilot, but also for the rest of the display season? Any kind of key learnings and things that you think, yeah, I'm going to use that this year.

Yeah. I mean, it's been a really fascinating couple of days. Lots of really interesting stuff. The focus on human factors comes across loud and clear. I've been really impressed by the way that people have opened up about their own experiences and shared, you know, so with some things that in some cases must have been pretty uncomfortable to stand up in front of a room full of people and explain what they've experienced. But one of the things I noted I'm going to take away and try and encourage this year is to try and make sure that we're reporting all the the obvious safety things, but also some of the near misses, or some of the things that perhaps we could have done better that other people can learn from. So one of the things we've got in the lead up to our season is we have a training week coming up, and that all starts off with a ground training day where we go through lots of different subjects, and I'm going to have a bit of a focus on that, on how can we do better in our safety reporting to make sure that we share in the good lessons that are being identified everywhere with all the other pilots.

Great. Thank you, Paul. Well, we wish Shuttleworth a really good season and some clear skies. Thank you very much. I'm here with Peter Reoch, who is the head of air operations at the Royal international air tattoo, but he's also the new chair of the British Air Display Association. Hi, I'm Peter. Could you please tell us a little bit about what BADA does and its role in the air display industry.

BADA is the association that represents all the needs of the UK air show industry. So we have organizers, display pilots, fdds, support personnel such as commentators, are all BADA members, and we try and represent their interests and also promote British Air displays. You know, selling the virtues of why air displays are great for UK economy. Great for our population to interact with aviation and try and just act as that conduit to make a really successful and safe air show industry.

So really representing the interests of all of the air displays across the UK, that sounds great. So what have bada been up to in the last 12 months or so?

So BADA represents all our air shows on a organization called the EIF Events Industry Forum who published the purple guide. So BADA is responsible for inputting air display input into that. So we do that. We represent air displays as part of an all party parliamentary group in Whitehall, and we help share best practice and connect people across the industry. So if there's air show that are looking for FCC members, they can use our directory for that. Likewise, we have a display act marketplace, so ash organizers can look at that, and it's a listing from all the display pilots basically promoting their aircraft. So that we kind of a bit of a marketplace for that. And of course, that social and networking side is a huge part, because it is a small industry. Obviously, we have millions of spectators come to hundreds of air shows, but actually there's only a few 100 people in the UK who work in air shows, whether full time or voluntary. So it's just bringing everyone together and promoting safety and standards.

And what are you looking forward to for the display season coming up?

I think it's always exciting this time of year. We're here at the preseason symposium talking about the plans, you know, what new aircraft are coming. And one thing that BADA has really been pushing is this idea of air shows collaborating for tours of aircraft. So for example, in previous years, we've seen things like the F 86 saber, very expensive jet to bring across the channel to an air show. Whereas if you've got a few UK air shows working together to share those transit costs, that can be really good for everyone. So we're kind of helping our members do that. Lots of discussions ongoing, and even we're looking strategically about 2027 some exciting plans to bring in a four engine bomber across from North America, and then what we can do in future for the benefit of all air shows in the UK.

That sounds really exciting. I can't let you go without asking you a question about the Royal International Air Tattoo, react. What are your plans for the next kind of five years? Obviously, RIAT has grown over the years, but you know, you must always be looking for kind of new things to do, innovate. Can you tell me a little bit about the plans that you've got for the future?

Yeah, so RIAT, we're on a really exciting phase of growth. Obviously, we had two years canceled due to covid in 2020, and 2021, the last few shows have been really successful. So we're just looking at, what do our stakeholders want, what do our customers and air show visitors want to see. And building on that, obviously, we always want to celebrate a whole spectrum of aviation, primarily military aviation, so we now have set all our air show themes out to 2030 which really helps us plan strategically and looking at innovating that product and basically focusing on making the customer experience every year. We're really lucky the support we get from overseas air arms back, you know, 250 aircraft from, you know, 25 or so nations each year. No one else in Europe gets that. So we're really lucky, and it's now making sure we elevate the event experience to a platinum level for everyone to have a great show. And yeah, July is creeping up as very fast, so all planning ahead and looking forward to July and the rest of the extra season.

Thanks, Peter. Okay, now we're going to speak to a display pilot who's been in the circuit for a long time. Rich Goodwin. Hi. Rich.

Good morning to you.

So can you, for those who don't know, tell us a little bit about your display act and a bit about your background.

So a little bit about my background. University, RAF short Service Commission, flying a Tornado GR one in the Air Force, and then 30 years flying charter airlines. About 20 years ago, I felt that I wanted to get back into general aviation, so started building and flying Christian EA, which is biplane. Fell in love with the biplane, and I never looked back. So since that point, I've been developing, modifying, displaying the biplane, albeit starting small village fates, and then sort of embracing the CAA system, display authorization system. And I've gone on from there to produce, you know what we have now, which is a robotic biplanes on the airship circuit, one of which is flying around with two gas turbines. So it's quite a unique display. And what else do you want to know?

No, it's definitely a great display to see something bit different for everybody, definitely. So can you tell us a bit about how you as a display, act prepare for the year ahead?

throughout the winter, I generally don't do any flying at all. So, as you can imagine, not flying for six months, and then suddenly you come back into the flying season, and you've got to practice and work up and get your aerobatic routine back down to low level height for the display arena. Winter is mainly focused on maintenance, and I like to basically get all the maintenance and administrative stuff out of the way. So the next time I go to the airfield to start practicing, I've just got a clear head and really focused on flying airplane and absolutely nothing else. So generally, when I get started. It on the display season and a work up. I review what I did last year, I look at what was good, what was bad, and any sort of inputs I've had from people who have been watching the display. And generally, I tie, and I've learned over the years to almost keep it exactly the same. I might make small alterations, because in my mind, I try and fly exactly the same routine at every event, give or take a few, you know, minor alterations for weather conditions and stuff like that. And that allows me much more capacity during the display to cater for the unknowns. And that's one thing that's sort of been highlighted to me since I've been displaying on the issue circuit in anger. Over the last 10 years, I think we were sort of interested in what's been changing over the last 10 years. Well, from authority point of view, the main changes I've seen over the last 10 years the introduction of risk assessments and the introduction of human factors into what we do in the airplane and on the air show circuit. I remember having a phone call with Paul Sluha When I was putting an application for a display

Paul's one of the people who worked in the flying display team at the CAA.

Yes, so okay, so I remember having a phone call I put an application about 10 years ago, and suddenly I had to write some sort of risk assessment. I really thought, Oh, this is just too much for me. But having lived with it and understood it. It really has helped me sit down before I do a display and look at what could possibly go wrong in that display, whether it's features on the ground or whether it's actually features in my flying or my mental approach to flying. I really, really take a good hard look at it before actually get in the airplane. And indeed, when I'm in beginning of the air show season, when we're starting to evolve a new display, I basically sit in the bath and go through mentally what we're going to do in the display sequence this year, before I even get to the hanger or get the airplane out. So it's all been mentally visualized. I'll look at the small changes you're going to make. And it's very tempting when you start looking at what you did last year, you have some great ideas, which on paper, you think, Oh, I'm going to try that and over complicate that. But actually, I've learned that it's best just to keep it very, very simple. The audience don't really know that you're flying a very similar routine to last year, and the better you know that regime, the more capacity you have for dealing with the unknown when it comes I mentioned the risk assessments, I thought, What is this extra bit of paper? I sort of really poo pooed it when it first came out, but now I sort of live and breathe by it, and I think it is of incredible value, not for just when you're looking at a new display site, but when you're looking at your own flying, your own routines, and when you're coming out with the sort of human factor aspect of your display, flying and looking at risk and mitigating risk, and what might possibly go wrong in the event that this happens. And if you've thought about it, sat in the bath or in your office on a bit of paper, then when it suddenly happens, you get startled. You've got some tools in your toolbox that you can take out and actually apply. Well, what am I going to do when I get startled? I mean, it's happened to me before when I got startled and it ended up in a very close incident, and so that's really, really focused my mind on making sure I understood what startle was and how the human brain reacts when it does get startled, and trying to recognize when you get startled, and if you can at least recognize it, and you've got something to fall back on, whether it's a motor skill to put you in a clear bit of airspace, or something that you're going to do, or place that you're going to land, particularly maybe at Seaside air shows, then it puts you in a much better place, catering for unexpected events.

That's really helpful to hear that, you know, actually, some of the admin behind it actually does help you throughout the year, and that's some of what we've been speaking about at the symposium. Isn't it that human factors element and how it can affect, you know, even the pilots who've been doing it for a very long time, in lots of different arenas and stuff. So that's really useful to hear.

Yeah. I mean, Human Factors, having been an airline pilot for many years, that started to come in about 20 odd years ago. We started talking about Human Factors. More recently in the air show circuit, it's become a very focused topic that we're all talking about, because we are all human. And however long you're doing this, the longer you do this, you you are going to make mistakes, and some of those mistakes can be quite serious. So the more aware of how those Human Factors affect the mistakes we make. Makes the air show arena a much safer place to operate in. So for my own personal mitigating solutions, when I'm flying display, I will always try and fly exactly the same routine all the time. And if I at any point, because you do make mistakes, make a mistake or get a wrong orientation. I have it in my toolbox now. I will stop the display, maybe have an associated terminate call, tell the FTD, terminate whatever, fly away for a couple of seconds, reorientate myself, reset my brain, and then carry on. And that, for me, is a sort of safety release valve if I get. To that sort of situation, and you can't predict all situations, but the better you are prepared on paper, before you get anywhere near an airplane, I believe, will make you a safer pilot, safer operator, and safer ultimately, for the public,

That's really good insight. Thank you Rich.

Stay up to date with skywise from the CAA by visiting skywise.caa.co.uk.

So the Symposium is just coming to an end now, so I'm just going to quickly catch up with Richard from our team. Richard, how's it gone, and what are your reflections from the last couple of days?

It's been a really great couple of days. We've had a huge cross section of community standing up, talking lots of great conversations. And these symposiums are where those candid conversations happen, about risk, about decision making, about those small moments in the air show environment that can quickly become big ones if left unexamined. And so you know the symposium, it keeps us honest. It keeps us learning, and importantly, it keeps us safe.

That's all from us here at the CAA Air Display Symposium, a big thank you to everyone who shared their time and insights as the industry looks ahead to the season to come. We hope these conversations have given you a closer look at the people planning and collaboration behind air displays. We wish everyone involved a safe flying season, hopefully one with clear skies. If you have any questions about this episode, you can email us at gapodcast@caa.co.uk Thanks for listening.

Thanks for listening. This is the CAA General Aviation podcast.