From their latest newsletter:
Martin Robinson of AOPA UK talked about the problems the GA is facing in connection with Brexit. For example, it seems it will no longer be so easy to buy an aircraft in the EU and import it within the UK.
Does anyone know what this might be? Never heard of it.
Import EU to UK means paying UK import VAT, but that’s obvious. Same if importing from the US.
Maybe an Export CofA is needed (as with an import from say the US).
Export C of A is needed indeed (which create a series and redtape and timing issue)
On Socatas, FWIW, one should be able to avoid an Export CofA as described previously. I did that in 2005 when going N-reg.
UK VAT is an additional charge that wouldn’t previously have arisen. So importing from the EU is now more expensive than previously.
I can see the VAT angle but that is fairly obvious to anyone who knows what VAT is. The Export CofA is a new one. I wonder if there is anything else.
Pretty bad for “IAOPA” to write that (originator is Martin Robinson) with no details whatsoever.
Maybe he’s not a details guy. Or maybe it sticks a bit in the throat, after railing against EASA so violently in the past, to realise all not’s so rosy now.
I had no idea Martin Robinson did that. I have no involvement with UK AOPA.
My objective here, as with most things I do on EuroGA, is to collect/manage information useful to others. I don’t need it; I am not buying a plane 
Is it possible for an EU CAA to do something which makes UK CAA acceptance difficult? Can’t think of anything they can do specially to be difficult.
Anyway, the plane could be N-reg and remain N-reg 
Then there is obviously no Export CofA, and only VAT angles remain.
There are temporary pilot paper issues and tactical issues. For example if you import a D-reg from Germany to UK, the flight to the UK needs a pilot with EASA papers. Also you cannot test fly it with UK papers, although typically the seller would be on board anyway and he can let you fly. After the plane has landed in the UK, it cannot be flown again unless you locate another EASA licensed pilot. So typically you need to get the seller to deliver it to the UK.
After the UK landing, it cannot be flown again except by a pilot with EASA papers. An N-reg would be easier because you can fly one on a UK license, in the UK, or with a 61.75 you can fly it anywhere.
The final tactical thing is that when it is sitting in the hangar of the company which will manage the reg change (to G or N, generally) you need to make sure they can do it, but this is standard (and ends up in a disaster often enough). This is same for any import / reg change because after de-reg it is in a limbo and cannot fly so the company doing it has you over a barrel.
There is a very sad story about a glider (in excellent condition) imported from Australia where the buyer got the paperwork done in the wrong order and now is the owner of an expensive paperweight that cannot be legally flown (from memory, the glider was deregistered in Austrlia but an export CofA was not obtained, and the UK CAA won’t accept it because it has no export CofA. So the owner went to get one from the Australians, but the Australians won’t issue one because it is already deregistered). Purely bureacratic issues that could easily be solved, but no one with the decision making power was willing to do so.
I’m not sure this was ever resolved.
alioth wrote:
So the owner went to get one from the Australians, but the Australians won’t issue one because it is already deregistered).
Couldn’t the aircraft be re-registered in Australia, and then get an export CofA?
Peter wrote:
After the plane has landed in the UK, it cannot be flown again unless you locate another EASA licensed pilot. So typically you need to get the seller to deliver it to the UK.
Not quite. A UK licence holder (e.g. the buyer) can validate their UK licence according to the general “ICAO-compliant licence” validation, either for one year (articles 6 and 7 of regulation (EU) n°2020/723) or for 28 days (article 8(3)). The 28 days validation requires “only” a logbook entry showing one acclimatization flight with a EASA qualified instructor, see e.g. the French form about this: https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/88iFormlic.pdf
The 1-year validation is more annoying, requires
Neither requires an EASA medical.
