Most illuminating discussion! I've flown VFR for 25 years in the US on a UK reciprocal licence and this is the first time the nuance of 'VFR on top' vs. 'VFR over the top' has come to my attention!
But my original question was about the case where a pilot has more than one national licence. It seems from the foregoing that if I have an FAA private certificate I can fly 'over the top' in the US and also in the UK because UK law dosesn't prohibit it. But what if I happen co-incidentally to have a UK PPL?
Which rules apply then? If it is the most restrictive, then collecting extra licences could be tricky. For instance, the Canadian licence test requires me to know the difference between a moose and a caribou at 1500ft (or something like that). I am sure that every licence has insidious little quirks or restrictions that are not in the others.
And what of medicals? If a pilot obtains an FAA licence because he can't meet the medical requirements of JAR, but still has an (invalid) JAR licence, what then?
Sorry to go on about this
David