Unfortunately I bet the 737-MAX debacle has rather poisoned the well and there will be people with authority in the CAA who will say “we can’t trust the FAA so we aren’t simply going to accept their TCs” (well until airlines get Grant Shapps to pressure them), and then the general government animosity towards the EU will probably mean they won’t hurry to simply accept EASA TCs either. The losers, are as always, the private aircraft owners.
Malibuflyer wrote:
Like every other CAA, also the UK CAA in the end does only accept their own type certificates. As UK has been EASA member until Jan 21, up until this time all EASA TCs automatically have been UK TCs as well. As far as I know, US TCs never have been – so even before Jan you could not register an airplane in the UK that had a US-TC but no European ones.
This sounds correct indeed.
The question is, how was it before EASA? I recall that Switzerland for instance did indeed accept FAA TC’s up until it became an EASA member. So what about the UK?
Like every other CAA, also the UK CAA in the end does only accept their own type certificates. As UK has been EASA member until Jan 21, up until this time all EASA TCs automatically have been UK TCs as well. As far as I know, US TCs never have been – so even before Jan you could not register an airplane in the UK that had a US-TC but no European ones.
EASA (but not US) TCs that have been in place before Jan have been grandfathered in the UK CAA and became (or remained) UK TCs at that time.
Newly issued TCs after Jan (doesn’t matter at all if EASA, US, Brazil, etc.) do not automatically become UK TCs. Someone has to apply for a UK TC and depending on the mood of the CAA it can either decide “well, the EASA still knows what they do and therefore we will issue a UK TC as an administrative action based on the EASA data” or “what bloody hell does the FAA know – here is our test program and before you document it handwritten on UK manufactured vat paper we will not even consider to issue a TC” (or something in between.
Well, when the UK left the control of Brussels, it didn’t leave US/Brazil/China/Canada as well. Last time I checked, but I could be wrong (have been wrong before many times) US/Brazil/China/Canada were not EU member countries. I mean, even the good old paragon of human rights, Turkey, didn’t manage to get in, and they are right on the doorstep. Not even Serbia which is even nearer.
It would be interesting to get the source for the original post.
Also, I reckon the UK CAA does accept TCs from US/Brazil/China/Canada, given that these countries were around long before aviation was invented. Well, the US is quite recent, I guess, and the English may not be too pleased they got booted out of there.
Peter wrote:
I wonder if this is applicable only to planes whose only TC is an EASA one?
Why should that be the case? Is there a unilateral declaration of the UK CAA that they accept all US/Brazil/China/Canada TCs?
@Graham, all FAA standard category aircraft regardless of which country originally certified them, and what treaties may exist with other countries, have an FAA TC. Overseas ADs etc are not US law or applicable to FAA registry owners, and FAA reviews/fixes/moderates or ignores them when necessary to protect the interests of US citizens against incompetent foreign regulatory action. Also, when foreign countries remove the TC for a given type because it doesn’t have commercial ‘support’ (a practice that is contrary to US law) the FAA TC is unaffected. All of this is a very, very good thing for owners.
I wonder if this is applicable only to planes whose only TC is an EASA one?
Very few of those. Only Robins that I can think of, and their sales in the UK are negligible.
The CAA has lost most of its good people over the last 15 years and has become an ex RAF pension extension club, with a load of low level admin staff who know nothing about planes or aviation.
RobertL18C wrote:
Have they lost the expertise to study the TC change and hence can’t validate it?
That would be my guess. Consensus seemed to be that when all the major competencies moved to EASA all the (semi-) competent people left the CAA and there is little real competence left. Plenty of nest-featherers and empire-builders though.
alioth wrote:
For airlines, they probably have a hotline to Grant Shapps (Transport minister) who will tell the CAA to do the work “or else”.
Indeed. The UK CAA exists, in part, to facilitate the airline business and so for them a solution will always be found – money talks. Private aviation doesn’t matter a damn.
Malibuflyer wrote:
UK CAA – as a completely independent national CAA – now either needs to set up a framework for unilaterally accepting foreign type certificates
That would be the sensible thing to do. Both the FAA and EASA are clearly competent and their TCs should just be accepted at face value, but the UK aviation establishment (and in particular the CAA) is steeped in a misguided notion that it is the best in the world and anything not invented here is probably foreign junk that shouldn’t be approved.
For airlines, they probably have a hotline to Grant Shapps (Transport minister) who will tell the CAA to do the work “or else”. For private owners, you’re just going to have to put it on an EASA reg or N reg, because I don’t see the political establishment lifing a finger to help.
