Originally Posted by IO540
I really know nothing about this area, but recently was talking to an American pilot who operates an Experimental Category aircraft (a small homebuilt jet, no kidding) and he said he can get it approved as a Permit plane in Spain. And that this will give him parking/overflight rights for the rest of Europe.
I know this man quite well; he's not a mug, is a brilliant engineer, pays a lot of attention to detail, and flies to Europe quite a bit. So this avenue is worth checking out.
There is an ECAC agreement, which in the UK is enacted in Airworthiness Notice 52 which permits overflight across Europe of a amateur-built aeroplanes.
AN52, the UK interpretation of that agreement (which itself seems to have vanished from every filing system in Europe - at-least I've never managed to get hold of a copy), permits foreign amateur-built aeroplanes (equivalent to the US homebuilt-experimental) to operate in the UK for up to a month in any year. But, it assumes that you are a national or resident of the country of registration.
If you have a particular reason to bring an aircraft into the UK (evaluation or sales demos for example) then an application to CAA, and production of domestic documents (licence, registration, permit equivalent) will normally produce an exemption allowing it to be operated for up to 90 days. Beyond that, pretty unlikely you'll get an extension.
I'd suggest that anybody considering this however thinks hard about something. The UK Permit to Fly system consistently provides the highest level of safety in the world for both amateur-built and microlight aeroplanes. There's an enormous selection of what's available here already. Do you really want something different enough to circumvent UK safety standards which, at permit level (as opposed to CofA) are pretty cheap and painless to live with.
G