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Government response on foreign-reg aircraft

The UK Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Aviation at the Department for Transport (Gillian Merron) is today outlining the government’s findings on the consultation – <a href=”newsfeed.php?artnum=214″>held over the past year</a> – on non-UK registered aircraft which are based in the UK.

The upshot is that the government is not making any changes, for the moment, to the way that non-UK registered aircraft based in the UK are regulated.

The official reponse document (which you can read <a href=’http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_aviation/documents/page/dft_aviation_613597.hcsp’ target=’_blank’>here</a>) states “Taking into account the responses to the consultation, however, and while we will continue to monitor the operation of foreign registered aircraft based here, we conclude that it would not be appropriate at this time to introduce a requirement to place such aircraft on the UK register or impose a time-limit on their activities.”

There is, however, reference to the possibility of a special “category of aircraft recategory of aircraft registered in a third country and used into, within or out of the [European] Community by an operator established or residing in the Community.” This is part of a proposal at European level made in 2005.

There is also a specific reference to the UK PPL IR (instrument rating), which is much more difficult to obtain and maintain than many foreign (eg American) IRs. This is often quoted as a major reason for UK pilots keeping an aircraft on the US register. On this matter, the DfT shifts the onus to EASA, suggesting that it should sort it out. However, it doesn’t seem all that open to change, pointing out that the current rating was established on the advice of experts, and that any change to the IR should still make it appropriate for European flying.

It concludes by saying that “previous work by experts indicates that requirements based on the FAA instrument rating would not be acceptable for an instrument rating which gives access to class A airspace.”

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299 responses were received in the consultation. Many of these dwelt not on the rights of pilots to keep N-reg in the UK, but on their reasons for doing so. These included the IR issue, costs, maintenance and licensing. Many suggested that if the UK were to relax its rules, they would transfer their aircraft to the G-register

For more discussion, visit <a href=’http://forums.flyer.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=27238′ target=’_blank’>our forums</a>.

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