Post by Mike Isaksen"Peter" wrote in message ...
Post by Peterwww.peter2000.co.uk/aviation/troy
Peter,
Thanks for another incredibly thorough post on your latest adventure.
Thank you.
Post by Mike IsaksenI first visited your homepage about 6 or 8 years ago (via uk.rec.aviation)
and have learned lots. The most important issue I've learned is how utterly
bureaucratic and burdensome the authorities can be if left unchecked. I
feared we (USA) were well on our way toward the "Euro system" after the 9-11
attacks, with only our stronger sense of "individual liberties" applying the
brakes.
I think the USA is still doing pretty well, compared to Europe. I am
sure that if it wasn't for ICAO provisions, and the widely-travelling
and well politically connected corporate/private jet crowd, GA in
Europe would be consigned to VFR (basically finished as far as going
somewhere for real is concerned, due to the amount of low level
controlled airspace and the random chance of getting a clearance into
it).
Post by Mike IsaksenI also note you made several references to your N reg causing additional
handling and charges. Is this the end result of the proEU "entities" failing
in their efforts to force you (all) into local registrations?
There are two kinds of discrimination, in some of Europe's "older"
(more southern) countries:
a) against non-EU-registered aircraft (which in Europe will be mostly
N-reg, but higher up the market will be Bermuda and Cayman etc jets
and TPs)
b) against US-registered aircraft specifically (this will never be
voiced officially ;))
I would not say this is the result of the inability to stop the N-reg
scene in Europe; I think it is just a blatent ripoff against owners
who statistically speaking fly better aircraft and are perceived to
have more money.
Business jets routinely pay of the order of $500 plus for "handling"
in Europe and they seem to accept this readily; the problem is when
this kind of stuff works its way down to light GA.
Post by Mike IsaksenWhat is your present observation of the benefits of retaining the N reg?
A while ago I wrote up this
http://www.peter2000.co.uk/aviation/faa-nreg/index.html
which I believe is still a reasonable overview of the pros and cons.
I've tried to keep it up to date.
Currently, N-reg is better than it used to be because of the EASA Part
M maintenance regime which has put a mandatory life limit on a lot of
perfectly good parts, causing a huge expenditure to many owners.
The next timetable date is c. 2012 when EASA proposes to mount its
attack on European residents flying on foreign (usually US) licenses;
the proposal is to strip them of this privilege. No attack has yet
been proposed on airframes (the UK and France tried that c. 2005 and
dropped it fast.) I am not going to worry about any of this until it
is much more firmed up (or been abandoned...).