I own half of 600 kg LSA that is currently based @ EDTF (Freiburg), which is a great home base for us (for a number of reasons).
Unfortunately, the future of this aerodrome appears to be somewhat cloudy (to put it mildy), which is why we are actively evaluating alternatives for stationing our flying machine for the event that EDTF get closed “over-night”.
Since Freiburg is only 20-30 min (road-time) away from the French border one possible scenario could be to move our base to Colmar (LFGA).
However, I faintly remember reading sth about some regulation that would prevent us from permanently basing a D-reg (Echo-Class) aircraft outside of Germany.
Does anyone know more about this?
Maybe someone even knows a D-reg aircraft that’s stationed in France somewhere?
Thanks in advance for any insights!
Cheers,
Mathias
France indeed prohibits uncertified aircraft being based there for more than 28 days (one of the threads is here and the UK did the same move concurrently) but certified ones are OK.
I don’t know whether LSA is affected but the above thread may have the references.
Thank you, Peter, for this pointer!
Our CS-LSA is certainly not “home-built”, but it’s also not fully certified.
I’ll simply pay a visit to LFGA and enquire directly with the folks there.
I think you need to ask the DGAC. And get it in writing.
These are really obscure rules which few are familiar with. And France has loads of non-F-reg uncertified planes (the result of historical factors, especially a change in 1998 after which one could not practically put many types onto F-reg – some info e.g. here) so someone “hanging around an airport” might just say “hey, no problem” 
Mathias wrote:
However, I faintly remember reading sth about some regulation that would prevent us from permanently basing a D-reg (Echo-Class) aircraft outside of Germany.
Does anyone know more about this?
I don’t know about France, but Germany does not make any such restrictions. All EU citizens are equal in respect to the LBA. The main “home” airfield needs to be reported to the LBA and you need a german postal adress to recieve their mail. That’s all on the LBA side of things.
Germany does not make any such restrictions. All EU citizens are equal in respect to the LBA
Not wholly true – see one of the “Threads possibly related to this one” links right underneath this thread ~180 days for a homebuilt N-reg, etc and that is the same even if owned by a German citizen.
There may not be an issue with a D-reg LSA in France but it needs to be checked. These regs are not EASA, are in the national regs, and are hard to find.
Peter wrote:
Not wholly true – see one of the “Threads possibly related to this one” links right underneath this thread ~180 days for a homebuilt N-reg, etc and that is the same even if owned by a German citizen.
N-Reg aircraft aren’t owned by EU citizens, are they? Plus, I was talking D-Reg aircraft ownership.
Lots of non-EU-reg planes (e.g. 2-reg) can be owned by German citizens.
I am sure the LBA does not prohibit a D-reg being based outside Germany. That would be unusual. The only scenario I am aware of like that is the UK LAA blocking G-reg Annex 1 etc being based outside the UK, but they have no legal basis for doing it.
Mathias wrote:
Our CS-LSA is certainly not “home-built”, but it’s also not fully certified.
CS-LSA is a certification category of EASA, like CS-23, so I would not say that it is not fully certified.
You should have no problem at all to base the aircraft in France
Coolhand wrote:
CS-LSA is a certification category of EASA, like CS-23, so I would not say that it is not fully certified.
You are right, any EASA LSA is fully certified.
