LAPL: United Kingdom becomes “No Fly Zone“

Predictably, the northwestern European insular state “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland” (commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain) has turned into a problem area for General Aviation after cutting ties with its continental European neighbours. Especially as far as cross border flights between the UK and European Union member states, or flying EASA registered aircraft in UK airspace is concerned.

Consequences of the UK’s split from Europe are especially dire for pilots holding an EASA “Light Aircraft Pilot License” (LAPL), since for them all and any flying to or in the UK have become illegal since Brexit. IAOPA’s latest press release on this subject is recommended to our readers:

https://www.iaopa.eu/contentServlet/iaopa-europe-enews-october-2021

But even any flights to or in the UK on the basis of other EASA pilot licenses such as a PPL (Private Pilot License) have become extremely cumbersome when compared with the “good old days”. Many new rules must be observed, forms have to be filled in online and dispatched in advance, a valid passport must be carried (identity cards no longer allowed!). This is also the case for flights between the UK and the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, Ireland, Northern Ireland, as well as other non-EU member states (such as, for example, the Faroe Islands and Iceland).

More on this is to be found on Philipp Tiemann’s excellent website (in German only, unfortunately):

http://www.fliegen-in-uk.de/zoll.html

After long decades of close ties with the rest of Europe, the UK’s civil aviation authority CAA is now left with cleaning up the mess left by Johnson and his “Brexiteers”. According to their own statements, that’s not always easy, and so the authority issues a precautionary warning on its website that possible links referring to content based on “old” (meaning EASA) law are not necessarily correct any more! Quote (as of October 26th, 2021): “Please note that EU law no longer applies to the UK, and links to any EU web pages will not be an accurate description of your obligations or rights under UK law.” So, what is correct and what isn’t now? Nobody seems to know, but everybody’s trying as hard as they can to find out. More info on the effects of Brexit can be found on the CAA’s website:

https://www.caa.co.uk/Our-work/About-us/UK-EU-transition/

What’s for sure, though is that many folks in favour of Brexit in the 2016 referendum will have had a completely different idea as to what the Brexiteers’ continually repeated battle cries of “Taking back control“ and a “More Global Britain“ actually meant.