Thanks for the link to the French announcement. It is crystal clear and as well as having no strings attached, it doesn’t suffer from the same confusion as the UK one. It is until 2019 and refers to the EU regulation 216/2008 as the legal basis for the extension.
I have just had an email from SAC saying that the CAA (John Overall, Policy Specialist – Licensing Policy) told them that neither the FAA Class 3 nor the FAA Class 2 are ICAO compliant, so by offering the FAA Class 2, pilots are being offered a favour!
New depths are being plumbed here…
Aviathor wrote:
AOPA France did publish an article to that effect Monday, and a confirmation today along with an information note from DGAC.
That DGAC information note is also very clear about the fact that this applies to the French airspace, and not to French pilots (whatever that would mean anyway). That means you need to check each country’s derogation status and extra hoops before flying there on an N-reg with only FAA papers. If every country puts up different extra barriers like the UK, it becomes practically impossible to use your non-commercial N-reg in Europe.
But, with so many thousands of aircraft affected, and with the ambiguity of the written material, it follows that nobody will be able to enforce this “regulation”.
Not necessarily. The enforcement is done country by country and the “thousands of aircraft” are mostly static – realistically speaking it’s not like an avalanche of N-reg non commercial flights are landing on any given day… So any country that wants to enforce will find in fact it is pretty easy.
That takes us back to the old SR22 ADF/DME question. A very similar thing.
Rwy20 wrote:
That DGAC information note is also very clear about the fact that this applies to the French airspace, and not to French pilots (whatever that would mean anyway).
Not only that, but the last item seems to say that if you obtain an article 13 validation of your third country license by the DGAC you can fly a French registered aircraft in France only… This is a surprise to me.
Peter wrote:
I have just had an email from SAC saying that the CAA (John Overall, Policy Specialist – Licensing Policy) told them that neither the FAA Class 3 nor the FAA Class 2 are ICAO compliant, so by offering the FAA Class 2, pilots are being offered a favour!
Let’s see, in the same country you have private pilots flying with no medical on a national licence, and other pilots whose ICAO compliant medical is now judged inadequate. Do you think maybe this is about power? 
It’s a shame that Britain didn’t have an 18th century revolution like the French or US… I think those instilled a lasting understanding that Bismark’s political ‘art of the possible’ has quite a wide scope if government is truly self serving and abusive.
The UK CAA (the man mentioned above) is aware of the US AIP stating their medicals are ICAO compliant and the Class 3 is equivalent to the ICAO Class 2, but has chosen to pretend it doesn’t exist, with
I reckon he has the DfT breathing down his neck. It was the DfT that was anti N-reg, historically, not the CAA.
This is a really bad situation that’s been created, with the impossible-to-comply deadline.
Peter wrote:
Whilst we may see some gaps in the FAA Class 2 requirements when compared with ICAO, we are currently accepting them, the FAA Class 3 however does not appear to be acceptable.
So I assume that non-UK-resident FAA private pilots flying N-registered aircraft in accordance with FAA ICAO-compliant medical regulations (and also those of their own country if its not the US) will now be prosecuted in UK court if they enter the country? If the 3rd Class medical “isn’t acceptable” when compared to ICAO what other conclusion could one reach?
Meanwhile both UK and USA allow private pilots to fly domestically with no medical at all, which is obviously the way the world is going.
These guys are clowns 
