The Polish air law states that for airships NOT under EASA rules there is a “special” category, which includes “airships built from kits from which airships have already been built and tested in flight” and these can be flown “VFR at night, IFR, IMC and controlled airspace with certified engines and suitably equipped, as defined [elsewhere in the document]”. So I guess it could be technically possible to do; since the “special” category is also for “one-off” planes, I don’t think there is a MTOM limit. The usual “no commercial use, no training, no renting” obviously applies. It is not clear to me that the end result is any kind of “certificate” – I’m afraid it is more along the lines of a “special permit to fly”.
Having written this, I’ve been told that if Polish rules allow something, then there is a country elsewhere in the EU that allows this and more with less fuss (that’s why almost all UL’s in Poland are OK/OM based). Then again, the “new” CAA over here seems to be much more reasonable – and my (very limited) experience with them has been very positive.
If you are seriously interested I can try to get in touch with the CAA (i.e. send them an email) and ask them about a specific “use case” (send me the details directly). I was interested in this myself, but my motivations are very different from yours (IFR on the cheap) and I never pursued it far enough to actually get in touch with the CAA (or people selling/building kitplanes)
LeSving wrote:
N-reg homebuilt in Europe seems like a dead end path.
Why? Germany is full of them, they can be stationed here 365 days a year, you can do all work yourself and just have an FAA A&P come by for a coffee once a year. My hangar neighbor got one and it’s hassle free for him. I don’t really see any practical downsides to having an N-reg experimental here. We also have a few SE-reg experimentals, they all have to fly to Sweden once a year which — as I understand it — is always a great group tour with lots of fun (and alcohol).
achimha wrote:
Germany is full of them, they can be stationed here 365 days a year
I’m afraid only 180 days per year
https://www.lba.de/DE/Betrieb/Einflug/Restricted.html
The 180 days limitation in Germany is only about operation. This is the permission for my aircraft:
Yes and who flies more than 180 days a year? Nice thing about this permission is that it does not prevent IFR, in 3 it refers to the state of registry and in 7 it even mentions IFR. Item 9 is probably a non-item because law applies by itself without anybody telling you and it can probably not be construed as meaning that additional German air law applies on top of what applies to all foreign registry aircraft in German airspace.
So you can base an N-reg homebuilt (no IFR restriction on its permit) in Germany and fly it IFR, across countries which have no law against homebuilts flying IFR.
What are the rules for effectively-permanently basing N-reg homebuilts in some other countries? I know the UK is no good (28 days).
achimha wrote:
Yes and who flies more than 180 days a year?
There is a significant difference between any 180 days in a year and consecutive 180 days.
ploucandco’s German permission says 180 days of operation in Germany. If the aircraft is in the hangar, it is not operated. I know for a fact (airfield full of them) that it is no problem to station N-reg experimentals all around the year without ever leaving Germany.
In fact, one N-reg experimental I follow closely was built in Germany and operated exclusively here. Once a year a renewed permit is obtained from the LBA and an A&P comes by for a coffee (really not much more than that).
But isn’t the limitation in the building of an N-reg experimental? I always understood that this is practically possible only in the US, though I don’t know the exact grounds. The few N-reg experimentals that I’ve come across were imported across the big pond, either flying or by ship.
Achim, you are well aware of one that was built in Germany, was it N-registered from its first day? What were the modalities for getting it approved?
@achimha I understand. I never wrote it would have to leave. But that permission is not valid for the whole year. The time period is, however, larger than 180 days so I guess it’s simply a matter of when he applied and it always ends with the end of a calendar year. Am I right?
PS: Meaning it’s 180 days in a calendar year, not 180 days in 12 consecutive months or 365 days or some such.
