For the sake of a simpleton like me, could someone outline how this will effect an operation such as ours, and I suspect many private corporate operators
We operate an M reg (not EASA) jet which is operated for private flights and owned by a company incorporated in the Isle of Man (which is not in the EU).
The a/c is based inside the EU and flown by four pilots, two with JAR licences, and two with FAA licences validated by Isle of Man.
One of the FAA licenced pilots is a resident outside the EU, and one lives in it.
What, if anything, effects us as a third country operator?
Nobody knows at this stage. It depends on the interpretation of the EASA regs, which basically say that if the operator is based in the EU then the pilots need EASA papers.
As with most things in aviation, there are two aspects to this: (1) policing and enforcement, and (2) insurance implications.
I find it incredible that there will be general policing. There is no "certificate of EU residence/nonresidence" that a pilot can carry, and there are so many grey areas (such as yours) where the pilot could easily carry paper evidence of a non EU base. I am not a lawyer but I really cannot see how this will be policed - except very sporadically where some country's police or CAA wants to p1ss off N-reg owners (which does happen, here and there). The policing framework simply doesn't exist.
Insurance is going to be the key. And it is insurance which drives compliance with most aviation regs, because the policy normally has a general requirement to be "legal". So you ought to ask your insurer what they think of it. IMHO, and I am not a lawyer (just a businessman of 33 years), if you make a full disclosure to them and they are OK with your operator EU nonresidence status or whatever, then they can hardly walk away from a payout.
It has been argued that the operator is whoever has the decision power on where the plane flies, and it doesn't take a PhD to realise that
he could be outside the EU. The people who would get caught up by this EASA business
are the small people like me who are owner pilots and obviously live in the EU. But if you move about, perhaps have non EU tax residence, you are back to the grey areas.
The residence of the pilots is unimportant, unless some of them could be seen as "operators".
It's a stupid regulation - a typically brain dead "finger up to the USA" political decree from the EU. I have some notes
here, with links to the regs. Whether you will be any wiser, I doubt.
I am pretty sure that a straight aircraft owner
living on the IOM will not be affected by this stuff, because the IOM is not in the EC (for this purpose). And same if he lends/rents the plane to somebody else, living anywhere at all. He must just remain the
operator i.e. retain direct control of what the plane does. Again, it doesn't take a PhD that if he sets up a booking website...... get my drift? It's all booollox when you look at it in any detail.
The plus side of this EASA reg is that there is now
no long term parking control on foreign reg planes in the EU. This does away with the sporadic attempts to p1ss off N-reg owners living in Denmark and, I gather, 1 or 2 other places in Europe. Long term parking limits are inherently unnforceable so policing will always be sporadic. France abandoned such a proposal in 2004, the UK did same in 2005, Iceland abandoned it very recently too.
(Interesting that prune does correct datestamps for some people's posts but not for others).