As long as the aircraft is registered in an ICAO member state and the pilot is appropriately certificated according to the registry state, it’s fine. Especially if the pilot/operator are not based in the EU.
The EASA basic regulation does however contain a provision requiring that a third country certificate holder which resides in the EU must have the appropriate EASA license and ratings. This provision has however not entered into effect and has repeatedly been postponed, now until April 2018.
There are several threads covering the subject, including this one which also has cross-references to other threads.
a third country certificate holder which resides in the EU must have the appropriate EASA license and ratings
Actually the pilot needs the EASA papers and a medical if the operator is EU based. The pilot’s residence and hangout is not relevant. I have the exact wording in my link above.
Obviously, in the case of an owner-pilot, he is the operator… but in other cases it isn’t difficult to build a structure which may well get around that – see here
so… how long can I fly an N-reg aircraft on a FAA license in the UK before the CAA ask me to move along please?
For the moment until April 2018. By then the BASA licensing annex should be ready and you will know exactly what it will take to obtain an EASA license based on your FAA certificate.
Search this forum for more details.
“For the moment until April 2018”
Ar least FOUR times in the past we have been told a “definitive” date; only to have it retarded at the last moment.
Talk in the bars in Cologne around the EASA HQ is that the next postponement will be ‘indefinite’.
I would just go on using your N plane on FAA papers until categorically you are told you can’t.
Peter_G wrote:
I would just go on using your N plane on FAA papers until categorically you are told you can’t.
I do not disagree. The time the conversion procedure will be written in stone will be soon enough to convert.
Unless one also wants to fly on EASA reg
Aviathor wrote:
For the moment until April 2018. By then the BASA licensing annex should be ready and you will know exactly what it will take to obtain an EASA license based on your FAA certificate.
Want to bet on it? 
JasonC wrote:
Want to bet on it?
You mean on this provision going into effect or being postponed yet again?
I am not really a betting man. I just present the current state of things. A couple of years ago when everybody was so sure that it would not be postponed again, I got the EASA IR (conversion – CB route) immediately when that option became available and I have not regretted it.
By the time it does go into effect the licensing annex should be ready is what I meant.
Peter wrote:
because that achieves the maximum FUD effect.
I would not make any assumptions wrt their intentions. This negativity towards the authorities serves no purpose except from creating negativity – and making me depressed. Let’s be positive, especially this early in the new year.
