Changing paint scheme - aviation authority requirements?

I believe a logbook entry (work report, certificate of release to service) and new weight & balance report is required.

In theory, you need to get a new „design“ of the registration marks approved by the LBA. Don‘t know how many people actually do that in case of a repaint of an aircraft that is already registered with the LBA. It then depends on the actual employee how strict they are. There is an internal LBA guideline on what is acceptable and what isn‘t, but then it depends on the employee.

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/luftvzo/anlage_1.html

That is the law, which only has the basics. But I happen to know there is an internal document with details on contrast, location, etc. of the letters that the Sachbearbeiter references upon registration application.

Upon initial registration of an aircraft, one has to send in photos to the LBA to allow them to assess if the letters are acceptable. Then they either give their thumbs up or thumbs down. Often, they have something to object about the design. Typical German.

I have no idea if this requirememt formally exists also when changing paint schemes.

Rule number one regarding German authorities is to keep calm. Do not give them one bit more information than is absolutely required. Anything beyond can give them crazy ideas you could not even think of. This applies not only to aviation but to all aspects of life. Do not even call them and ask questions, best they do not even know that you exist. A friend lately inquired about some bushes on a house project by phone. Everybody here would just have remove that little thing and done. But the authorities drove right out to have a look, found a bird below it and the entire project was halted for half a year.

We did a respray on a D-reg aircraft years ago and LBA was in no regard involved. It was not different from any other major maintenance. I had some discussion with the guy signing the work about the design of the callsign. He wanted the dash to be equal width as the other letters as he said this was somehow required. It looked horrible and half the airplanes on the apron did not have this. A little later the dash decal was cut in half as I was the one supposed to pay his invoice after all. That airplane is long sold but according to Google it still seems to look exactly the way it left the shop with the good locking callsign.

I recommend to do the callsign as a sticker type decal. In case sombody really ever complains you could change it. Also if the plane is ever sold to another country it is a major pain to have the callsign removed and repainted.

PS: the same applies to the German flag which has to be there and is not allowed to be on a moving part (so the rudder). Looks horrible in many cases and many flags one sees are on the rudders but probably they can only get there after the plane was initially registered ;-) It was so long ago, I think also the callsign is supposed to not be on a door or similar but on many PA46 it seems to be partially on the door on the port side.

Isn’t the size, design and positioning of aircraft registration covered in the ICAO annexes? IIRC it was a question/s in the IR exams.
BTW I thought it was only the French stereotype to only answer the question asked and no more.🙂

@gallois, compare and contrast the German and US requirements. If they come from the same ICAO recommendation, the interpretations have widely diverged.