The way the CAA have decided to deal with the transition to EASA licensing in both the pilot and ground engineer fields is rather disappointing with the most restrictive interpretation of the new EASA rules almost always being applied.
I have been quite lucky with both my pilots licence being converted without much of a problem, the Ground engineering licence was a bit different.
I decided to convert from the UK licence to EASA as soon as I could as I guessed that the CAA had not had time to fully interprate the rules, the result of this was that I managed to persuade the guy who issued the new licence to take the most liberal interpretation of the EASA rules that he could.
Five or so years on when ever we have a CAA audit and I have to produce my engineers licence there is usually a deep intake of breath from the inspector and comments along the lines that they won't be issuing any more licences like this !
That is not to say that EASA rules forbid issuing the license, but the CAA have made the rules so tight that it is almost imposable.
The Greeks who had no engineering licence system before EASA and so took the view that they would issue any one who had held a spanner near an aircraft an EASA licence no doubt on the grounds that this was good for business.
I fear that the CAA FCL has well and truly lost the plot and hangs on to the little power that they have in order to protect jobs while ignoring the elephant in the room......................after all we know they are now only the UK office of EASA, it is about time they started acting like a sub post office for the boys in Cologne.
Last edited by A and C; 1st August 2012 at 18:02.