No glee on my part, for the record I have both FAA and JAR licenses. However you need to look at this from an industry wide point of view. Some EU citizens and even a few Brits decided not to follow local rules and regs and obtain a FAA certificate instead, why should we as EU citizens allow some of us a cheaper and faster alternative to enter our place of work? Why should we have to abide by EU regs and regulations while some owners/operators are put at an advantage by virtue of their registration? Will some FAA licensed pilots lose thier jobs? Yes, probably and I do feel for them, that was a choice they made when they decided not to follow local rules and regs and obtain a non-EU license instead, however there will be openings for those that decided to stay within the EU framework and that is a good thing.
We shouldn't mind regs and regulations, it keeps the dumbest safe, they are mostly designed for the lowest common denominator among us. There would be a lot less complaining about rules and regs if they are fairly applied across our industry and getting rid of a loophole will make that so.
I bet you many of the FAA licensed pilots will bite the bullet and obtain their JAR licenses, you know what? About time, I and 1,000's of others had to do it.
This rule will help more then it will hurt. Don't just think of the few pilots, think of the benefit to the industry as a whole, from aircraft sales companies, to maintenance providers, from FTO's to avionics shops. This will make us JAR/EASA cerified pilots, shops and outfits more valuable. We have had to live with JAR/EASA regulations for a long time, closing down a major loophole will make the continued exposure to those regs a lot more bearable.
No more owners trying to get a discount because N-reg operation is that much cheaper, no more maintenance providers having to discount their bill trying to get closer to N-reg operational cost, no more questioning why OPC/LPC are so expensive compared to N-reg operation, no more questioning of factoring when it rains and the N-reg is halfway to the destination, no more questions about VAT/import. No more questions about the cost and frequency of medicals, no more questions about the full training requirement of the guy in the right seat, no more questions about the difference in daily rate between a JAR and FAA pilot.....
This is a major step in the right direction to level the playing field.
You live and operate in Europe, you follow the local rules, period. No more hiding under a N-reg. Transparency and consistency for all.
The next time the muppets at EASA bring in a dodgy or weird ruling, it won't be so bad as they are now applied uniformly to all operators and not just the EASA ones, while the N-reg guys have a good laugh at us....