No - the ‘E’ is optional for all except 2x0 and 2x1 calls.
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I didn’t think the changes to the regulations would make any difference to my activations but yesterday I had a new first from the top of West Lomond GM/SS-154. My first summit to aeromobile qso with GM4AOR/AM in a powered glider as he flew over Perth. A few minutes later he flew over my summit on approach to the airfield at Portmoak. It topped off a fantastic day out sitting in the sunshine playing radio.
Andy
MM7MOX
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Yep! Worked Ken /AM on Saturday whilst he flew above Loch Leven. Tracked him on Flight Radar 24. His track looked like he’d had a few wee ‘goldies’ before he took to the cockpit. Only kidding - as he was using a handset and was having H/S battery problems whilst trying to fly the plane.
And:
Strange - one logbook is all that is needed specifically if you use an electronic logbook. I use Google Sheets via my Gdrive. Works a treat for ALL my Amateur logging needs. Structured specifically (but with much more information about contacts) to match the SOTA Database (makes uploading easy). Can select by any of my many UK and international callsign variations.
Cheers
(;>J
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I was very surprised to see /AM included, albeit at QRPP levels in the new regulations. As a fixed wing pilot I really wouldn’t want the distraction of operating an amateur radio station while flying the 'plane, communicating with ATC, keeping a good lookout for traffic, etc. I’m amazed that the CAA didn’t kibosh the idea!
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I suspect they expected primary use for /AM will be for balloon projects.
I do remember having a few 2m FM QSOs with a powered hang glider pilot in the 90s who had G3 call. He had been fighting for /AM permission for years and had been rebuffed by the RA in those days. He got so fed up he just started operating and said “I don’t care, they can prosecute me if they want, I’m doing /AM”. They never did take action. I worked him using the club call “just in case” 
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That could well be so but in that case you’d think the regulations would be written accordingly. Things certainly move at a more leisurely pace when committing aviation in a balloon. Gliders are relatively slow too. Playing amateur radio whilst blatting around as pilot in charge of a powered 'plane going at 150mph+ is just asking for trouble.
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I thought most of the time commercial pilots are sitting at the controls while auto pilot performs magic once a plane is airborne.
One of my most memorable 2m FM contacts was with a USAF pilot flying his F16 not far from my summit. Guess the old adage about walking and chewing gum still stands…
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That is largely the case for commercial and large business jets, though the pilot might object to that categorisation! Small General Aviation aircraft usually don’t even have an autopilot fitted and the pilot is actually flying the 'plane every second of the way from take off to landing. Flying these small aircraft is considerably more complicated than, say, driving a road vehicle and is commensurately more demanding of active and continuous pilot engagement.
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Just because it is legal to do something, doesn’t mean you have to. Hopefully the training and exams will have produced pilots who can make informed decisions about how to allocate their attention. If not, I’m sure the AAIB will step forward (after the event, of course 
). I think OFCOM’s role was to authorise radio amateurs to operate /AM. It is for the CAA to regulate whether such people can do it whilst actually piloting an aircraft.
I can go one better than that Andy - Ian Shepherd G4LJF flying a BA passenger aircraft operating as G4LJF/MM. I recall working Ian when I lived near Stranraer on 80 metres as he was flying professionally over Brazil in the winter of 1989/1990. Ian was very well known in DX circles - I never met him, John G4WGV probably did.
I recall a BA pilot I met in Cyprus in 2006 telling me that Ian had got into sailing, bought a yatch and had set off to go around around the world after he retired from flying.
73 Phil EA8/G4OBK/P
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During the LOCKERBIE DISASTER (1988), specified Raynet Operators were given special dispensation to operate/AM from within the RAF SAR Helicopters. This allowed Raynet Control to directly communicate with the helicopters, otherwise the helicopter had to use HF back to Edinburgh Rescue (the UK SAR Control Station at the time - no Airwave in those days) who then attempted to contact us via Landline (and limited primitive cellular network). Worked a treat and speeded up the ‘sweeps’.
Cheers
(;>J
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Ken K6HPX (multi MG) is quite the accomplished pilot and when I visited him in AZ he shared some amazing stories.
His QRZ page hints at some K6HPX - Callsign Lookup by QRZ Ham Radio
G3WGV certainly did, many times. When I lived in Berkshire he was only about a mile from my QTH. I helped him getting GB7DXI - the first DX Cluster node in the UK - up and running. Later I took over running it when he headed off to the high seas. Back in the day there were many stories circulating of derring-do involving him and I gather this MO continued with his sailing. Haven’t heard from or of him for 20+ years. (Probably drifting a bit too far off topic now… sorry!)
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Out of the 43 aircraft models I have flown, only the seaplanes, WW2 fighters and helicopters were sans auto pilot. Even little Piper Cherokee 140s were so equipped.
Elliott, K6EL
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When I started work there were many WW2 veterans about, the guy on the next bench in the lab had piloted Sunderland flying boats on anti-Uboat patrols. (An aside - he claimed that he never saw a Uboat but dropped a perfect stick of depth charges and sunk a whale!)
He also described cross country flights with a road atlas on his lap. I guess that might still happen…
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I worked on this one soon after earning a seaplane rating. In the end, our nemesis was the Bristol sleeve-valve engines. We donated it to a museum.
Elliott, K6EL
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The magic of de-railing a reflector thread 
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My father flew on one in 1946! He enjoyed it apart from the take off and landing.
At the end of WWII my father was stationed in Kisumi, Kenya. He had to wait till January 1946 before he was demobbed. Train to Nairobi then train to Mombassa. He flew on a Sunderland from Mombassa to Cairo, landing on the Nile. Then it was a ship from Cairo to London and train to Liverpool. Having been in a Wellington that crashed on take-off with full fuel tanks and surviving the impact and flames, he was a reluctant flyer for some years to come. Apart from the Sunderland flight as it took a big chunk out of the homeward journey!
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Some sailors have also been known to navigate by road atlas! One such, when asked if he had entered a particular harbour before and by which route, informed the lifeboat crew that he had indeed; by the A55 
. Hence the call-out perhaps?
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Maybe this reflects how few of us UK SOTA activators are actually interested in using the new flexibility that the updated regulations offer. The thread has certainly become far far more interesting. 
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