EASA Part NCC to hit foreign licensed pilots hard

EASA has managed to introduce a law which requires all pilots whose "operator" is resident in the EU to have EASA licenses and medicals - even if the aircraft is registered outside the EU. These licenses would be in addition to the State of Registry (e.g. FAA) licenses required by ICAO.

The Basic Regulation (216/2008) says:
1. Aircraft, including any installed product, part and appliance, which are:
...
(c) registered in a third country and used by an operator for which any Member State ensures oversight of operations or used into, within or out of the Community by an operator established or residing in the Community;
...
shall comply with this Regulation.
2. Personnel involved in the operations of aircraft referred to in paragraph 1(b), (c) or (d) shall comply with this Regulation.

Nobody knows how the "operator" and the other terms such as "residing in the Community" are defined. Clearly, many operators of foreign registered jets will be able to arrange a non-EU operating base, but ordinary private owner-pilots will not be able to do this easily. The residence or citizenship of the pilot himself is on the face of it not relevant (but see notes on the derogation's below).

This is bad news for N-reg owner/pilots who make up the bulk of Europe's IFR-capable pilot community. A private IFR pilot would have to get the 7-exam EASA IR and an EASA Class 1 medical, or a Class 2 medical with the Class 1 audiogram. Plus of course an EASA PPL. A commercial IFR pilot would have to get the 14-exam EASA CPL/IR, and an EASA Class 1 medical. He would not need to do an EASA Type Rating however; his existing ICAO one would be acceptable to EASA, under the current proposals.

There is absolutely no safety case for this move; it is based on politics of envy, FTO and other business protectionism, airline pilot union pressure, and some unrelated EU-USA disputes thrown in.

Reference: http://peter2000.co.uk/aviation/easa/index.html (Last edited 14/11/2016