1 July 2013
The UK CAA has announced that it is no longer a requirement to routinely carry out a check flight to qualify for the renewal of an expiring National Certificate of Airworthiness; annual EASA Permit to Fly; National Airworthiness Review Certificate; or Certificate of Validity. However, a check flight for the initial issue of these certificates and permits will still be required. This policy comes into effect immediately.
The CAA believes this policy change reflects a more proportionate and risk based approach to continuing airworthiness management The responsibility for deciding when a check flight is required will rest with the aircraft pilot-owner, maintainer or continuing airworthiness management organisation, as applicable, as part of the continuing airworthiness oversight of the aircraft.
This change will reduce the time and cost required to renew the applicable airworthiness certificates; and will reduce the CAA involvement in the process resulting in a simpler, easier transaction.
In addition, the CAA will no longer routinely be involved in check flights of used ‘EASA aircraft’ being imported from non-EU Countries. Continuing airworthiness management organisations will be expected to carry out the check flights as part of the aircraft’s initial airworthiness review.
Given that it will no longer be routinely involved in this activity, the CAA will remove many of the check flight schedules currently available through its website. Due to the increasing number of different aircraft standards affecting EASA aircraft types, the CAA says it can no longer guarantee the applicability of a given check flight schedule to a particular aircraft.
A Safety Notice has also been published with more information (SN-2013/011) which can be found at <a href=’http://www.caa.co.uk/safetynotices’ target=’_blank’>www.caa.co.uk/safetynotices</a>.
