So you're at the pumps refuelling your privately owned DA42 or Centurion diesel-converted C172 wondering if there is extra duty to be paid.
Back to the original question.
Having never pumped fuel in the UK myself before, pardon the naive question:
What is this "extra duty" you're all talking about & how much is it exactly?
Looking at Shoreham I see avgas is currently going for GBP2.06/l & Jet A GBP1.04/l...
So how much would a private recreational pilot be paying in total for avgas & Jet A?
In the US I understand it that at times insurances will flatly refuse pilots with less than 500 hours or so before they can get insurance on a pretty normal airplane (such as a Piper Arrow).
I bought my first aircraft, a type with a notably challenging record for ground handling, with no Pilot Certificate. It was $1200 per year for full coverage insurance.
Mexico and Canada are no particular problem except for the need to show up with the customs guys within a short time window.
Hi Silvaire,
thanks for your insight. I did think there might be a lot of c&b to this insurance lament in the US.
Hodja, I think Peter and others kindly explained 'duty' earlier in this thread. The relevant links for UK are here and here
Using your figures
and Mooney Driver will note that duty is more expensive on AVTUR, fuelling(sorry!) his conspiracy theory..
The HO105 form allows you to offset duty with the fuel you are exporting (outside the UK) on an H060 form, however I read that you must always submit both forms if any part of your flight takes on fuel in UK for 'pleasure'.
Jan, like it! Except I imagine that vessel would attact double duty,tax and regulation from both EASA and a forthcoming EU car regulator :)
Mooney Driver, I guess most share your frustrations here. AVGAS was one third of the price just 5 years ago and most places I fly to, local pilots spend all their time talking about flying rather then doing it. Yet each hour flown supports many 'real' jobs and maintains skills currency, but perhaps that is for a different thread:).
Thanks to what next for his succinct answer to the OP. I have really enjoyed reading the other replies too. I guess my query was as a potential diesel aircraft buyer. It was aimed at exploring if there were still any jurisdictions in Europe with a more welcoming attitude to arriving diesels. With yet more extra forms and duty to pay, and not even a waiver for personal training flights, there doesn't seem to be much scope for 'pleasure' for anyone operating one privately in UK..
Presumably a UK pilot, with a plane with decent size tanks, has a massive incentive to buy fuel abroad.
But that's practical only if he lives on/near the south coast.
Or always fly with a mate who is an instructor...
Presumably a UK pilot, with a plane with decent size tanks, has a massive incentive to buy fuel abroad.
Its not an unprecedented approach... Once upon a time (20 years ago), in a land far away, there was a gigantic T-Bone (Twin Bonanza) that existed primarily to make short hops to Mexico, where it would top off its 180 gallon tanks. Oddly, after it returned to base its tanks could quickly be found near empty again :-)
At that time PEMEX, a government entity that set prices by some unknown method, did not follow the US AVGAS market too closely.
