Temporarily basing a US registered GA aircraft in Germany (ICAO: EDQH)

AnthonyQ wrote:

Hopefully someone more informed than me will come along soon and tell you about Mode S, 8.33 kHz radios, BRNAV, VAT, FCC airplane radio station license, FCC radio operator’s license, journey logs etc…

Also ADF and DME….

You will need EASA papers and a medical once the current derogations end… presently scheduled for April 2017 but this is likely to slip to April 2018 and then maybe slip for ever… nobody knows and the whole point of the “FUD principle” (of regulating stuff which cannot be regulated overtly) is that nobody should ever know.

You must have Mode S and 8.33 for all practical purposes, including VFR, unless you want to operate “below the radar” and this is OK in some regions. With a Bonanza, forget it… the impact on your mission capability will be far too great.

BRNAV is an IFR GPS which is necessary for all practical IFR in Europe, unless you just want to fly IFR in Class G (and some countries ban that).

I have a list of documents which need to be carried in an N-reg here

The ADF and DME stuff is being debated… it seems clear that an ADF is required for any NDB approach (even if you actually fly it with a GPS like most people do) and a DME is required for any “DME required” approach. This is widely ignored e.g. most SR22s here have neither. A recent long debate is here

Otherwise, there is no problem being based with an N-reg here, except in Norway and Denmark. Funnily enough when this EASA stuff came in in 2012, someone reported there were just four N-reg planes in the whole of Norway… maybe someone can confirm?

In some places you pay bigger airport fees if you are non-EU-reg. For example in Greece you might pay €10 versus €3. I have a list of pros and cons in the early part of this writeup. But these are trivial.

The import VAT issue is the same for any reg. It is complicated, and one of the factors in how long it is before you have to pay the import VAT is whether you hold an EU passport.

Peter wrote:

You will need EASA papers and a medical once the current derogations end… presently scheduled for April 2017 but this is likely to slip to April 2018 and then maybe slip for ever… nobody knows and the whole point of the “FUD principle” (of regulating stuff which cannot be regulated overtly) is that nobody should ever know.

I don’t think that applies to Gabriel.
That rules applies to european operator operating foreign registered aircraft in europe.
Although we don’t have the info, I assume that Gabriel is a US citizen and wants to keep it’s citizenship. That makes him a US operator flying a N-reg aircraft temporarily based in europe.
So that rule doesn’t apply, just like the whole Part-NCO doesn’t apply (i.e. EASA doesn’t ask every American or Delta pilot flying in europe to have EASA paper !).

I agree with your drift Guillaume and most would regard it as temporary but the whole “based in” thing has never been defined – deliberately IMHO because it is unenforceable due to so many obvious workarounds. But I don’t think the pilot’s citizenship is relevant in any case.

EASA doesn’t ask every American or Delta pilot flying in europe to have EASA paper

That is a separate thing altogether. This is taken care of implicitly by the airline operating agreements, AOC acceptance, etc. What airlines can and cannot do is ultimately governed by accepting (or not) their AOC etc… for example most African airlines are banned from flying into EU airspace (other than as State aircraft). In addition, if one wanted to be totally pedantic, one could argue that American or Delta are not “based in” the EU.

Peter wrote:

I agree with your drift Guillaume and most would regard it as temporary but the whole “based in” thing has never been defined – deliberately IMHO because it is unenforceable due to so many obvious workarounds. But I don’t think the pilot’s citizenship is relevant in any case.

A lot of third countries operator base some of their aircraft in europe. It doesn’t make them european operator from a regulatory standpoint.

When things are simple ie : owner = pilot and there is no leasing in between, the nationality of the operator is the same as the owner or pilot.

But it’s possible for things to get complex :
This aircraft is F- registered, it’s owned by a Japan company, is leased to a French airline which lease it to a Canadian airline during the winter, pilots may have papers from country “X” while their citizenship is “Y”.
But the nationality of the operator of it’s last flight is still Canadian.

That is the usual vague wording… what is a “European pilot”? Etc. They also got the 2016 date wrong.

Your F-reg airliner example will still involve an AOC which needs to be accepted by the EU. Once that is accepted, the ops manuals, the pilot licensing, etc, are accepted.

I don’t think the “EASA FCL attack on N-regs” ever thought about this stuff. It was reportedly a private project driven by several individuals in EASA. Probably they have all left, but nobody wants to climb down.

Gabriel,

I just read your question today. My TB20 is based EDQH and I live nearby (about 10km away). Few years ago a was managing director of the airport for some years as a part-time job. I did it for less money, because the airport belongs to 3 aviation clubs who always have no money. I’m also member of one of the clubs. The biggest problem is hangar space. All hangars are full and some other pilots are waiting for free space. You can fly with your airplane, but when it doesn’t meet German noise requirements, you will have time restrictions especially at weekends (f.e. no traffic pattern and at least one hour away after take off before you can land). Here is a small maintenance company and an avionics shop. You can also charter here (TB9, TB10, TB20, C150, C172). Or you can join as guest member to one of the clubs. If you want I can assist you.

Will you come for a job at one of the big companies here (Addidas, Puma, INA Scheaffler or Siemens)?

Manfred

Ok Gabriel, when you need assistance please write me an e-mail to [email protected]