Biggest move forward yet

Following months of work and negotiation between the Airworthiness Dept of the IAA and the UK CAA, it now looks like a bilateral agreement between the two countries may only be weeks away. But what does this mean for us?

At a meeting between the Airworthiness Dept of the IAA, representatives from NMAI and representatives from ILAS on Monday the 24th of March, the IAA unveiled the results of their dealings with the UK CAA. These include

Free movement for permit aircraft between the 2 countries without the need for validations or permissions. The aircraft will include factory built aircraft, factory built Microlights and home built aircraft for a period of 28 days in any one visit.

Aircraft resident in either the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland will be allowed to visit as often as they wish without the need for permission or validation. Owners of these aircraft will be required to furnish the Authority with their details but no further paperwork will be required.

This is all made possible through a modification of AN 19, which previously only facilitated home built aircraft.

It does not provide for UK registered aircraft to be resident in the Republic or vice versa and resident UK reg aircraft will be required to change over unless a compelling case can be made to the Authority by individual owners to leave their aircraft on the UK reg.

Aircraft excluded from the provisions of this agreement are factory built Gyros and Military Aircraft where no civil variant exists.

It would appear that this agreement mirrors quite closely the UK French agreement recently published and means that the £61 charge to the UK and €75 charge to the IAA for visiting aircraft would disappear. Great news for those who like to travel between the two countries.

Our huge thanks to Jim Corbett and Ruth Bagnell of the IAA for their vision and exceptional effort in sorting this deal out and thanks also to ILAS for the work they put in to help make this happen.

From our point of view it really is the biggest move forward yet. If something similiar could be done by licencing then that would sort nearly everyones problems out but thats another story. We can only live in hope.

All the best
Paul