The Guild of Air Pilots & Air Navigators (GAPAN), an organisation set up to serve aviators in the U.K., is planning new initiatives to expand its sphere of influence internationally.

The organisation's air commodore Rick Peacock-Edwards says: "The guild already has established regional interests in Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand and it is now actively exploring the extension of these interests to include South Africa and Canada."

Seeds, Peacock-Edwards says, are also being sown in the Middle East and the U.S. "One of our objectives is to help set and maintain standards of safety and conduct among pilots and navigators and to be available for advice and consultation on all aspects of flying. While a large number of the 1,800 members are professional pilots and navigators from all areas of civil and military aviation, an increasing number of members are non-professional private licence holders taking part in general, sporting and recreational aviation."

Rick Peacock-Edwards adds: "There are currently some very important issues to be tackled in aviation such as carbon emissions, airport security, the need for increased runway capacity, air safety and regulation, pilot licensing, the cost of training, and the availability of instructors to name but some. GAPAN is actively engaged in contributing to resolving these issues, and others, and is uniquely placed to do so through the work of its professional committees."

The guild, he says, was the catalyst which brought together representatives of more than 20 different societies, associations, airline operators and manufacturers to form what is now called the British Air Transport Association (BATA). It is now seeking to achieve more on the international stage.

GAPAN says it is leading celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of Alex Henshaw's record solo flights from London to Cape Town and back in a single-engine Percival Mew Gull. Henshaw took off from Gravesend near London on 5 February 1939 and completed the 12,754 mile round trip in four days, 10 hours and 16 minutes. His records remain unbroken.

Playing a central role in the celebrations is the actual Mew Gull aircraft Henshaw flew on that historic flight, G-AEXF, which will be flown again in early February 2009.