Talking to a fellow pilot at the weekend, we were discussing privileges, or lack of them when flying outside of the UK on a foreign registrered aircraft (i.e. an N reg). And then I realised something which I am surprised I havent realised before. That is if I fly my N reg in the UK then I can use whatever EASA privileges I might acquire in the future (e.g. EIR and hopefully a CBM/IR), but then when I take my N reg to France or elsewhere, then I am 'riding' on my FAA/PPL and of course none of those EASA ratings or privileges are transferrable and absolutely useless. Am I right?
Yes; if you don't have FAA papers, then to fly an N-reg on the privileges of a non-FAA license you need a license issued by the owner of the airspace. FAR 61.3.
EASA (like JAA) papers are still issued by a specific country only.
The other more subtle thing is that 61.3 requires any Rating to be on the license you are flying on so e.g. flying on an FAA PPL (e.g. outside the UK) with a UK issued EASA IR is no good.
Thanks Peter, that was very informative. I guess I forgot (taken from your site) that "Issue and Validation are not the same thing!".
Yeah, that's an old chestnut.
Countless people have been flying N-regs around Europe in the belief their JAA papers are valid.
It was always a bit ambiguous - depending on how literally the "issued by" wording of 61.3 was to be taken.
However the two recent FAA Chief Counsel rulings have ended the ambiguity.
The chance of getting busted for such a flight is close to zero. You would need to encounter an FAA inspector, or a very well briefed and very clever policeman looking for just the right thing.
However your insurer doesn't have to pay out if the pilot papers were not valid for that flight.
There is another point of view which is that since such a flight would be legal in an EASA reg plane, this is OK because the USA does not have jurisdiction in Europe. I do not agree with that at all (because ICAO certification runs mostly on the State of Registry etc) but I mention it because I know a very clever bloke who believes it.
