The CAA wants every aircraft below 10,000 ft to broadcast its position. Dock operators should be the first to say yes.

On 14 July the CAA opened a consultation on making electronic conspicuity — aircraft broadcasting their position electronically — mandatory for civil aircraft operating below 10,000 feet in UK airspace. Responses close on 22 September 2026.

Why dock operators should care more than anyone

The hardest residual risk in a BVLOS safety case is the aircraft that doesn't announce itself — the low-flying helicopter or general-aviation traffic your detect-and-avoid mitigations exist for. Today, conspicuity below 10,000 ft is a patchwork: some aircraft broadcast, many don't, and every SORA submission has to mitigate around the gap. A mandate would shrink that gap structurally. Fewer invisible aircraft means stronger air-risk arguments, simpler mitigations, and — the direction everything is pointing — cheaper, faster BVLOS approvals for exactly the operations dock fleets run.

As Giancarlo Buono, the CAA's Group Director of Safety and Airspace Regulation, puts it: “Electronic conspicuity can help pilots and operators see each other more clearly, reducing the risk of issues as traffic increases.”

Conspicuity is an evidence question too

Broadcasting your drone's position is half the story; proving your operation was conspicuous, and checked for traffic, on a given flight is the other half. That's already how we build: Dock Pulse records airspace checks against official restriction data, supports live traffic awareness around your docks, and notes which system provided conspicuity for each operation in the evidence record. If the mandate lands, that record is the difference between claiming compliance and showing it.

If you operate docks in the UK, respond to the consultation — operators who benefit from a well-designed mandate should be visible in the responses, not just the associations of those who'd rather not fit a transponder.