"Pining for the Fjords..."

Anyway, this got me thinking about all things Norwegian (… stay with me…) and the first thing that came to mind was The Beatles' song “Norwegian Wood”.  Now, here’s a thing: how many of you knew that that song’s full title is in fact “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” … every day is a school day, right?

This got me ruminating further: at least The Beatles’ bird could fly, unlike the Norwegian Blue in the legendary Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch. 

Image Source: Wikipedia

This iconic comedy sketch portrays a conflict of opinion between a disgruntled customer - Mr Praline (played by John Cleese) - and a pet shop proprietor (played by Michael Palin); the pair argue whether a recently purchased parrot is in fact dead.  Despite being told that the bird is deceased and that it had in fact been nailed to its perch, the proprietor insists that the bird is simply stunned and is - as many who know this sketch will recall - "pining for the fjords".

Image Source: redbubble

Ta da, pining for the fjords... Norwegian Wood... now, we have the Norwegian flavour, but - we hear you ask - where exactly are you going with this…?  A just question!

Recently, we became aware of an article entitled "Keeping up with the Norwegians - Six amazing innovations"; the first paragraph is illuminating …

It is an enlightening article and explains how the Norwegian Air Ambulance have engaged with their Norwegian CAA and the EASA rulemaking team to shape the regulations that now exist, thereby enabling PinS in a very demanding environment. What stands out loud and clear is that the Norwegian CAA has been not only pro-active and pragmatic, but also ready and willing to assist drive forward such an important operational enabler for its HEMS community.

Compare this with our (still ongoing…) experience of what the 5 HEMS operators and their charities and support organisations continue to endure regarding the UK CAA’s snail-paced and hidebound response to implementing GNSS IFPs (PinS) for the UK HEMS community.  Those who follow our blogs will be aware that at the behest of the Department for Transport (DfT) and the UK CAA, several HEMS operators started their respective PinS (and CAP1616) journeys some 3 years go!  Given the then drive by the DfT/CAA (including demanding an aggressive timeline - all of which were achieved by the individual sponsors) the expectation was that these PinS procedures would be implemented by late 2024 …… but, we really should have known better.  We underestimated the UK CAA’s capability for dilatoriness!! 

Instead of working together with the 5 UK HEMS sponsors, the CAA has hidden behind process, prevaricated and seemingly, not wanted to think pragmatically to support the implementation. Amongst a plethora of excuses emanating from the CAA for the inexcusable, protracted delay is that the HEMS PinS ACPs are “multi-discipline projects involving several areas across the CAA (such as Airspace Regulation, ATM, Flt Ops and MET), which requires coordinated technical input and sequencing of workstreams”.  What, 2 years (and counting…) of internal coordination and duck alignment!  News flash: all ACPs are multi-discipline projects and involve several areas across the CAA!

In the absence of anything on this matter emanating from the UK CAA that remotely resembles an unequivocal statement, we can only be left to surmise that HEMS PinS are not considered a high priority by the CAA (see our previous blogs); thus, we continue to languish in an interminable pit of delay! Not quite the epitome of active support to the implementation of operational capability that was espoused by DfT and CAA over 3 years ago…

In our last blog, we had hoped - clearly, naively - that all being well “we will be all hands to the pump to get PinS implemented in early 2026… only 2 years later than we had anticipated when we embarked on this journey”.  Hmmm… given the UK CAA’s continued procrastination in assessing and approving the 5 HEMS PinS applications, I wonder what we will be saying in or end of year (2026) blog…  Will the bird have flown... will we still be pining for the fjords... or will the UK CAA finally extract the digit and get HEMS PinS implemented and operational in the UK as they had so categorically stated in 2023?

Image Source: Wikipedia

To cite another musical reference (as we are wont to do…): REM’s eight studio album “Automatic for the People” is often heralded as their finest and one of the greatest albums of all time.  In our humble opinion, there isn’t a sub-standard track on the whole album.  For us, the stand-out track is “Ignoreland”; if you don’t know it, it really is worth a listen. 

Ignoreland is an unabashed acerbic political rant and a great rock track.  One could cite any  of the song's lyrics to support this blog; one refrain is, however, noteworthy:

Unlike REM, we don’t feel better for having screamed, because the 5 HEMS ACP applicants shouldn’t have to.  Despite what you might think, dear reader, we take no pleasure in having to continue to write about this topic; there really should be no need for spleen-venting because there is a solution.  The Norwegians wood say so…

The Norwegian CAA and air ambulance community are showing us a solution, offering a joined-up and comprehensive approach, delivering a real operational capability enhancement safely and pragmatically with and for Norwegian HEMS.

Over to you, UK CAA!

#AvigationLtd #PildoLabs #Aviation #ATM #Airspace #GNSS #PinS #HEMS #CAP1616 #ACP #CAA #NorwegianBlue #NorwegianWood #REM #Ignoreland #MontyPython #DeadParrot