Only the owners and the LBA know what the G-12 is registered as. The data-protection paranoid Germans have ensured that the German register is not accessible to the public..

Is that comparable to a Permit to Fly, such as the UK has?

As far as I know, yes. Whereby, having thought about it, I seem to recall that the G-12 didn’t even have that, only a permission for test flights. The thing about PtF and other, national and limited registrations (except EASA Annex II within Europe) is that they are not ICAO-conforming. So any aircraft with such a registration actually has to have a permission to enter the airspace of another country in Europe in one form or the other (I think Germany has issued a blanket approval for all European aircraft with a PtF to fly in Germany). This is why the CAA has been able (probably on reasonable grounds too) to refuse some Europan exotics flying in the UK. May all sound very boring and very academic, however that’s what’s governs aircraft operations in Europa in these days. If I for example would want to fly from Germany to Denmark in German microlight (which falls under national German legislation and is not ICAO-conforming), I need to apply for a Danish permission one month in advance and there’s a limit as to how long I can stay in Denmark….

Question for those in the know; Is it legal to take a Buchon and re-register it as a 109? It is effectively a VIN swap, something that is illegal over here in the car world. Or does it remain a Buchon on paper? I assume it can’t be as it no longer confirms to the Buchon type certificate? How do these things work with warbirds?

Well, first of all, there is no confirmation of if, exactly how much, and how, any Buchon has been “incorporated” in this “new” Bf109. In any case, the German authorities (the Luftfahrtbundesamt) don’t seem to have too much of an issue with these kinds of “restorations”, cf. the BF 109 G-10 D-FDME and the C-47 being rebuilt in Germany with the identity of a recently written-off German example but being for all intents and purposes a former G-registered C-47. Moreover, there is no such thing as “type certificate” for a Buchon, the type never had civilian type approval and has presumably always been operated in civilian hands as an experimental, permit-to-fly or EASA Annex II aircraft.

VIN swap may be illegal in the (vintage) car world, but as they say in German: “Wo kein Kläger, kein Richter” (essentially “no plaintiff, no judge”). As a Caterham Seven owner, I’ve lost count of the Lotus Sevens I’ve seen which are essentially Caterhams but which claim a date of manufacture somewhere in the Sixties. The same goes for many Cobras, Shelby Mustangs or “road-legal” Bugattis being essentially Argentinian Pur Sang replicas with a few original Bugatti parts.

Having said that, and if that is what really happened, butchering yet again a Buchon to forcefully “create” another “Bf 109” makes me cringe. Oh, for an airworthy Buchon in silver and light blue paint with Spanish markings…

It looks as though OY-DSZ has made it across the North Sea.
Feel fairly sure it was at Stauning when I was there last August.

Could have been OY-DSH, same type in the same scheme, although with the serial LB381 as opposed to LB314 for OY-DSZ. OY-DSH belongs to the Danish Vintage Aircraft Museum (although the entry on their website confusingly shows a picture of OY-DSZ) and is still airworthy, I think.

I only now read the RAFM’s health and safety requirements for aircraft recovery in Robin Perrie’s earlier post. How bl**dy pathetic and out of tune with the real world. Survey the airframe for sharp objects, my goodness.

And we might have to be careful about pointing fingers, I’m sure that there are some very strict conservationists out there who could make similar charges against the owners of data-plate rebuilds. I’m sure a lot of WWII paint and metal has been lost so enthusiasts can see more Spitfires and Mustangs at Duxford.

No.

There are no mitigating circumstances.

It was a complete time-capsule. It was 2012, not 1972.

Sheer and utter vandalism, committed by ignorants.

Are there any of the Iraqi Furies recovered in the Seventies still around which have not yet been restored?

Since when does a windscreen and an instrument panel qualify as a “cockpit”?