UK Air Traffic

imalone

Skarloey said:

RobDavies said:

Skarloey said:

Axe_meister said:

Some bloody fast streaks now again.

Aliens maybe ;o)

Wouldn't that be interesting. 

I suspect the answer is even more intriguing though...

I recall the head of UK air traffic control being interviewed on the BBC radio (I think 4) once about Russian planes entering UK air space over/ near Scotland. This'd be about a year ago. 

At the end of the interview the presenter asked what proportion of air traffic in any given month is genuinely unidentified/unidentifiable, to which he replied (IIRC) some 5% of it. 

Cue surprise from the presenters, who by that time had unfortunately run out of time to press him on this fascinating point. 

All of which begs the question, exactly what could that 5% consist of? 

Microlights and the like.   Sorry to piss on your chips.

Nah, not pissing on anyone's chips. It's a completely sensible explanation which I hadn't thought of. 

Does it imply though that microlight pilots have no obligation to tell the CAA who they are and where they'll be? I'm just thinking from the POV of keeping commercial flight paths clear etc. 

There are different zones with different rules: https://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=2392&pagetype=90
Apparently microlights are well under the size required for detailed flight plans to be filed in most cases http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2007/734/schedule/1/made probably would be too much red tape and the information would likely be quite unreliable. Most commercial flights are going to be much higher than a microlight can manage except near airports.