Cabotage And International Operation Of Corporate Aircraft

Written by Greg Reigel


Cabotage and International Operation of Corporate Aircraft

© 2004 Reigel & Associates, Ltd./Aero Legal Services. All rights reserved.

Most countries have laws regulatingrepparttar airspace over their lands. Each time an aircraft enters a foreign country’s airspace,repparttar 119263 aircraft operator must comply with that country’s regulations affecting flight operations andrepparttar 119264 carriage of passengers. Particularly with respect to passengers,repparttar 119265 majority of countries have rigid limitations on who may be carried within their borders and how.

Specifically,repparttar 119266 rules and regulations relating to carriage of passengers and goods withinrepparttar 119267 same foreign country are referred to as “cabotage”. Cabotage regulations are not uniform or necessarily consistent from one country to another. They usually apply to both commercial and private operators. However, as we will discuss shortly, whether a foreign country considers a corporate aircraft operator to be a commercial or private operator will also vary by country.

Regardless of which countryrepparttar 119268 corporate aircraft operates within,repparttar 119269 pilot in command of a corporate aircraft is responsible for knowing and complying with that country’s cabotage restrictions. Failure to comply can, and has, resulted in six-digit fines and penalties imposed againstrepparttar 119270 corporate aircraft operator, and corporate aircraft have been impounded by foreign governments until such violations have been resolved torepparttar 119271 satisfaction ofrepparttar 119272 governing authority.

Examples Of Cabotage Regulations Applicable To Corporate Aircraft Operators

United States. The United States does not currently have any regulations that prevent private (not for compensation or hire) foreign corporate aircraft from carrying U.S. passengers between points withinrepparttar 119273 U.S. 14 CFR 375.30 provides that “civil aircraft which are not engaged in commercial air operations into, out of, or withinrepparttar 119274 United States may be operated inrepparttar 119275 United Sates and may discharge, take on, or carry between points inrepparttar 119276 United States any nonrevenue traffic.”

Canada. After clearing customs, Canada allows a corporate aircraft operator to engage in unlimited operations within Canada as long asrepparttar 119277 U.S. registered aircraft is carrying U.S.-boarded passengers andrepparttar 119278 aircraft is not operating for “hire or reward”. Canada also allows unlimited international operations where passengers are being transported acrossrepparttar 119279 border between Canada and any other country. This includes stops within Canada to pick up or drop off passengers who are traveling internationally.

Canadian-boarded passengers may be transported within Canada by a U.S. registered aircraft provided thatrepparttar 119280 transportation is incidental torepparttar 119281 intended purpose ofrepparttar 119282 flight. That is, a corporate aircraft operator could fly its U.S. registered corporate aircraft into Canada, pick up Canadian personnel, customers, etc. and fly on to another destination in Canada for a meeting or event. As a long asrepparttar 119283 sole purpose of flight was not transportingrepparttar 119284 Canadian passengers, thenrepparttar 119285 carriage ofrepparttar 119286 Canadian passengers would be considered incidental and should not violaterepparttar 119287 cabotage regulations.

European Union. Cabotage regulations inrepparttar 119288 European Union are more complex than in Canada. The difficulty results fromrepparttar 119289 European Union’s definition of commercial transportation. Inrepparttar 119290 U.S.,repparttar 119291 U.S. Customs service defines commercial transportation as transportation “for compensation or hire”. However,repparttar 119292 European Union defines “commercial use” as “the use of means of transportation forrepparttar 119293 transport of persons or of goods for remuneration or inrepparttar 119294 framework ofrepparttar 119295 economic activity of an enterprise”.

Unfortunately,repparttar 119296 European Union definition means that a U.S. registered corporate aircraft operating withinrepparttar 119297 European Union for corporate or other business purposes can be considered to be engaging in commercial use or transportation. As a result, if a corporate aircraft flies into a European Union country, picks up a citizen of that country and then travels on to another destination within that country, it is likely thatrepparttar 119298 second flight would be in violation ofrepparttar 119299 European Union cabotage regulations.

Surviving An FAA Ramp Check

Written by Greg Reigel


SURVIVING AN FAA RAMP CHECK

by Gregory J. Reigel

© 2004 All rights reserved.

You are standing onrepparttar ramp performing a pre-flight inspection. A man who you have never seen before approaches you and starts chatting aboutrepparttar 119262 weather and asking you questions: “What’s your name?”, “Where are you going?” etc. How do you respond?

First, know who you are talking to. Ask forrepparttar 119263 person’s name. Find out what he or she is doing there. In this post 9/11 era, knowing who is atrepparttar 119264 airport and what they are doing is good practice and prevention. This isrepparttar 119265 premise of AOPA’s GA Secure program. Second, ifrepparttar 119266 person is an FAA inspector, you want to find that out as soon as possible. If he or she is, ask to see his or her FAA Identification card.

Duringrepparttar 119267 course of a ramp check,repparttar 119268 FAA inspector will ask to inspect/review a number of items. Some of those items and how you produce them forrepparttar 119269 FAA inspector are discussed below. Quite a bit of this is common sense. Much of it is information all pilots learned, or should have learned, when they learned how to fly.

Personal Documents

When you fly an aircraft, you must have certain personal documents in your possession. You must have your airman certificate and it must be appropriate torepparttar 119270 aircraft and type of flying you are doing. You must also have your medical certificate. It must berepparttar 119271 original certificate issued by your Airman Medical Examiner and it must also be current and appropriate torepparttar 119272 type of flying you are doing. Finally, inrepparttar 119273 aftermath of 9/11, you must also have in your possession a drivers license or other government issued ID containing your photograph.

Logbook

Next,repparttar 119274 inspector may ask to see your flight logbook. I advise pilots not to bring their logbook with them when they are flying. Why? Two reasons: One, if you bring your logbook with you and it is destroyed if you are in an accident, you won’t have any documentation to prove your flight time and currency. This can raise potentially ugly issues not only withrepparttar 119275 FAA, but also with your insurance company if they question your currency atrepparttar 119276 time ofrepparttar 119277 accident and deny coverage. To avoidrepparttar 119278 insurance coverage issue, if you must bring your logbook with you I suggest you keep a photocopy of your logbook at home or in some other safe place. Second, if you have your logbook with you andrepparttar 119279 inspector asks to review it, you will have to providerepparttar 119280 entire logbook. Rather than allowingrepparttar 119281 inspector to review more logbook entries than are necessary or pertinent atrepparttar 119282 time ofrepparttar 119283 ramp check, I prefer havingrepparttar 119284 opportunity afterrepparttar 119285 ramp check to simply photocopyrepparttar 119286 pages documenting your currency and then providing them torepparttar 119287 inspector.

Aircraft Documents In The Aircraft

Similar torepparttar 119288 requirement that you have certain personal documents in your possession,repparttar 119289 aircraft you fly also needs to contain certain documents. The inspector may want to reviewrepparttar 119290 aircraft documents duringrepparttar 119291 ramp check. However, an inspector cannot inspectrepparttar 119292 interior of your aircraft without consent. Consequently, rather than giving consent, I recommend that you personally removerepparttar 119293 requested documents fromrepparttar 119294 aircraft and give them torepparttar 119295 inspector.

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