Department of Transport seek to review the current regulations.

The UK Department of Transport have begun a period of consultation regarding the issues surrounding the significant number of private aircraft based permanently in the UK yet registered abroad.

The consultation contains a proposal that all private aircraft permanently based in the UK should be operated under requirements equivalent to those contained in the appropriate harmonised European standards. To achieve this, it is suggested that foreign registered aircraft based in the UK should be limited in the amount of time such aircraft may spend in the UK in any 12 months, or transfer onto the UK register.

To transfer to UK register would incur certain additional costs:

• UK Registration
• Certificate of Airworthiness
• Pilot licenses and ratings for operations under IFR
• Type certification issues

The Department of Transport's proposal contains 8 questions and the answer to these, and your own views are invited to be sent to Ray Pusey at the DfT at fra.consultation@dft.gsi.gov.uk by 28 October.

The full consultation is contained on the DfT website at www.dft.gov.uk
Follow the links Aviation then Consultations.

The consultation papers are also available to download below.

You may wish to make your views known to your representative body or association, as it often the case that the views of the consolidated industry may have greater weight than that of separate individuals.