Ok so if I take (and hopefully pass) the EASA license (I am a VFR rated pilot flying a VFR equipped N reg, 180hp Maule) will I then be legal to fly in the UK or will I have to re-register the plane as a G reg. This would be a real pain as it has had a recent paint job with the N number in big letters plastered down the side. Hate to think I have to mess with the beautiful paint job
As mm_flynn says getting an EASA PPL is not at all hard - so long as you can pass the UK CAA Class 2 medical, which is an issue for a small % of pilots who will in due course be grounded, unless they can get flying under the NPPL/LAPL/whatever.
However there is no need to move from N-reg to G-reg. It would be pointless, get you nothing (except saving the annual trust fee, and having to pay an FAA CFI for a BFR every 2 years), and land you with some stupid maintenance requirements. EASA is not proposing to impose long term parking controls on N-regs (the only controls that would be possible). I am staying N-reg too.
Your JAA IR (now EASA PPL IR) is totally useful for legal flying for you. To say other wise is totally wrong.
No' it's useless because the moment I go outside the airspace which issued my JAA/EASA PPL/IR, these papers are not valid under FAR 61.3. I suggest you look up this old chestnut. The word is
issued and there are no less than two FAA chief counsel rulings on it (you can find the refs on my website).
Once outside UK airspace, the JAA/EASA papers are worth no more than a certificate in taxidermy. And if I didn't want to fly abroad, I would not need an IR because one can fly all over the UK in Class G, VFR, in VMC or IMC, etc.
I am not going to get into personal issues but I am sure you had your reasons to do the FAA route originally. Now that you are working as a UK instructor I expect you to have a different take on it - the whole training establishment was never fond of foreign pilots. I was "evicted" out of my flying school the moment I got my own plane (which then was G-reg) because I was not spending any more money there and was de facto usurping their instructors' authority by using GPS, etc.
Could you not just setup some kind of corporate structure based in the US and have your plane "owned" through that, therefore making you a US operator and getting around the problem?
It's pretty obvious that lots of people will be looking at that. In many corporate / syndicate cases the solutions are obvious, but not for a straight private owner-pilot.
I have a G reg plane and am just looking into doing the FAA IR route in a couple of weeks.
If you don't have an N-reg, I wouldn't do it. An FAA IR is not worth anything on a G-reg. The UK automatic validation (due to end April 2014) validates an ICAO PPL for worldwide VFR (which is useful to the few who could get an FAA medical but could not get the CAA Class 2) and validates an ICAO IR for worldwide IFR but only OCAS which makes that worthless since nearly all of IFR flight in Europe is in CAS. In the UK, an FAA PPL/IR in a G-reg could fly IFR to say Biggin Hill (Class G) but not to Bournemouth (Class D).
An FAA PPL/
IR purely to fly a G-reg never made sense.
I suggest you go
here and scroll quickly all the way to the bottom, starting with Keeping the JAA IR Valid.
There is a marginal argument for using an FAA PPL/IR purely to get a JAA PPL/IR, using the 15hr IR conversion route, but it makes sense only if you are totally cash strapped (too strapped to actually fly, frankly) and your time is worth very little. In that case, doing the cheapest possible FAA route followed by the cheapest possible conversion route (Spain, probably)
may be less cost than doing the 50hr ab initio JAA IR in the UK. But it's a load of hassle. If you want a "cheap" JAA PPL/IR then the best way to do it will be to go somewhere where standards are "informal" and the weather is good, and you camp out there and fly 2x a day until done, which in acceptably managed FTO terms means a particular establishment in Spain, or probably Egnatia in Greece.
The FAA IR was
much harder than the JAA IR but I did it because I was flying 2x a day for 2 weeks, and the checkride was right on the 13th day. This level of currency makes "everybody" very good and minimises costs.