I very recently obtained a UK CAA JAA PPL(H) - it says it was "issued in accordance with ICAO and JAR-FCL standards".
I 'own' (through a US trust) an N-registered helicopter, and fly purely privately wholly in the UK.
The
state of registry (the USA i.e. the FAA for an N-reg aircraft) determines whether any particular pilot papers are valid for its aircraft.
In this case, FAR 61.3 is what you need to look up.
If you have a PPL(H)
issued by the
UK, you can fly in
UK airspace.
If you have a PPL(H)
issued by say
France, you can fly in
French airspace.
I don't see this privilege disappearing under the EASA FCL anti-N-reg proposals because it is nothing to do with that (you already have an EASA pilot license) and there is no (known/planned) proposal to impose long term parking limits on foreign reg aircraft.
Only the FAA could stop this, by amending FAR 61.3 to disallow the use of foreign pilot papers. But the USA rarely changes its regs substantively.
I have some notes
here.
Pilots who are not mixing papers (e.g. flying a
G-reg on a
UK/JAA PPL) which is what most people do, do not need to understand this well, and indeed I am sure most don't. Certainly most pilots I meet haven't got a clue about this stuff, but then they don't need to - so long as they stick to the straightforward scenarios.
But pilots who are mixing papers do need to understand how this stuff works.
It's not particularly hard to understand, but one first needs to get away from the pub aviation barristers who come out with the "2 out of 3 rule" etc etc
