PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Can you fly the CH77 in the UK?
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Old 24th Feb 2016, 17:42
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jellycopter
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: UK
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Originally Posted by muffin
What a nice looking little machine. I could also be very interested if it is possible somehow to fly one here.
In accordance with the 1980 ECAC agreement, to which the UK was a signatory, 'home built' aircraft should be permitted unrestricted access to airspace of other ECAC countries airspace.

However, as we all know, the air in the UK is 'special' and does not behave like the air in the other ECAC states, so our wonderful CAA, in its infinite wisdom, decided to adopt additional restrictions.

During the gold-plating challenge a couple of years ago, I emailed the CAA asking why it had gold-plated this agreement and asked for it to be reviewed. Here's the link to the CAA's published response - see Page 9 for my query.
http://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP1337GAunitgoldplateresponse(Dec15).pdf

Here's a link to the ECAC signatories and their individual arrangements. You'll see that the UK CAA is the only one that limits the length of stay to 28 consecutive days and any longer requires prior CAA approval.
https://www.ecac-ceac.org/documents/10189/0/HomeBuiltAircraft2015-09.pdf/f6a1d257-bb36-4a89-9043-bc49387663c7

So until someone is prepared to shell out tens of thousands to get a UK permit to fly and modify the Heli to meet JAR VLH requirements, don't hold your breath!

Interestingly, you could take your UK registered Rotorway on a Permit to Fly into many of the other ECAC states without restriction. Hardly seems equitable..... Which leads me to my conclusion that the air in the UK must be special!

JJ

Last edited by jellycopter; 24th Feb 2016 at 17:59. Reason: Got my facts wrong!
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