I have a kindly request for advice on how to communicate with LBA and how long on average this office manages administrative matters.
I recently bought my first plane. It was registered as “D” and someone advised me that the best and most convenient would be if I leave it in the “D” register. Unfortunately, I have been waiting more than 6 weeks for LBA decision in a simple ARC related case. Since I’ve never had a dealing with LBA before, I do not know if 6 weeks is a long waiting period. I would be grateful for sharing your experiences about LBA decision-making time.
Another issue I do not know how to deal with is the language of communication with LBA. Can I expect people working there to communicate with me in English? After 6 weeks of waiting I took the liberty to call to the appropriate department of the LBA and asked in English for a connection with the person who is in charge of my case. To my surprise, the person who answered the phone kindly informed me in German that she did not speak English and hung up. Did I just not have the luck or is the norm that the LBA communicates only in German?
Dante Alighieri:
Through me you go to the grief wracked city; Through me you go to everlasting pain; Through me you go a pass among lost souls. Justice inspired my exalted Creator: I am a creature of the Holiest Power, of Wisdom in the Highest and of Primal Love. Nothing till I was made was made, only eternal beings. And I endure eternally.
Abandon all hope — Ye Who Enter Here.
It usually takes less than 6 weeks.
Get somebody from Germany with experience with dealing with the LBA to inquire about the status. You need to know which person is in charge which depends on the registration and then speak to the lady. Usually they are very helpful but they are extremely strict and formalistic.
English should be OK but the receptionist guy is probably somebody without any form of higher education 
PPS: Recent article by one of England’s greatest minds with some relevance: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jul/02/why-we-should-learn-german-john-le-carre 
achimha wrote:
PPS: Recent article by one of England’s greatest minds with some relevance: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jul/02/why-we-should-learn-german-john-le-carre
In my experience, the decision time would only get longer and you’ll frustrated if you insist on communication in English. To my surprise, they’re easy to approach by phone. So, just find someone to call them on your behalf.
Copy that … strict and extremely formalistic —> longer decision time
Took me a while to work out why you thought the staff at Leeds Bradford didn’t speak English!
Thank you for all the answers
I just found out that the person who runs my case is this week on holiday. This means that I will be waiting at least 2 full months.
Does the LBA have any legal or regulatory time limits?
Cub_Pilot wrote:
Does the LBA have any legal or regulatory time limits?
No undue delays… There were court cases against the LBA where they lost due to undue delays. However, this part of the LBA is usually friendly and halfway efficient. The best course of action is to send all paperwork (which you have to check extremely carefully), then 3-4 days later you call the responsible lady (there is a fixed assignment based on the tail number) and ask her in a very friendly way whether she received all documents. That can often result in “yes but xyz is missing, we’ll send you a letter about that” which means you know 2 weeks earlier about the problem.
If everything is complete and conclusive, LBA are normally very fast. If the application cannot be processed, things can derail easily.
PS: I also spent a lot of time with the UK CAA going back and forth, at the LBA one person handles the case completely while with the CAA I had to deal with several people and it cost several times more than what the LBA fees are. In both cases it is important to get all documents right which even the pros fail to do at first attempt most of the time…
here you have the relevant tel contacts so you can get direct in touch with the correct person
http://www.lba.de/DE/LBA/Organisation/Abteilung_T/T4/Zustaendig.html?nn=693036
as said before it is mainly to have all the docs together can be a classic case to not have the “approved IHP” yet even that comes from the LBA sometimes it can be helpful to bring the 2 relevant departments “together”,
Also when you are dealing with the “radio licence” that come from a totaly different goverment office and they do not communicate with each other
if there is something missing you will get informed by “snail post” and that processcan take a bot of time!
