Originally Posted by
Pittsextra
How many accidents can you recall that would satisfy the terms of illegal "grey flying" which let me push you to suggest that were such flying to be illegal then given the duty of the CAA there would surely follow a prosecution. I can think of just 1, the recently prosecuted PA28 / Manchester pilot.
Unless I am oblivious to a heap more then either one must conclude it either doesn't happen or the CAA turn a blind eye?
A good number of years ago when you were still able to fly fixed wing into Silverstone, I flew a party there in a Twin Otter. The flight was under an AOC and was fully legal, but expecting a ramp check I got the books out the night before and checked the performance (which was, of course, fine). I typed the calculations all out ready for the Flight Ops Inspector.
On arrival there were the two men in blazers, stripey ties and clipboards who checked the docs and, at my insistence, looked at the performance figures. I then pointed to the Bandierante parked next to the Otter (and which had no chance of operating legally from the short grass strip) and asked if they were going to check his performance figures. They pointed to the Irish registration and said they had no authority to inspect foreign registered aircraft, so no. I guess that would still apply to N reg a/c.