FAA ME/IR then JAA conversion

[RobNaylor]

Hi All,

What are your general opinions on doing the FAA ME/IR then converting it to JAA?
I'm thinking of doing the former at Riverside in Tulsa, Oklahoma then converting at Airways in Exeter.

All advice welcome!!!!

[TOM82]

I think you should look at wether you are going to fly in the US as well as in Europe, and when are you going to do the IR conversion.
I just did the FAA IR with IFTA in FL, and my plan is to later convert it, but right now I'm just building some IR hours. I took it to get more IR experience instead of flying VFR for most of my training.
I dont think you'll save much, but you will have a rating that no one can take away from you.
Good luck.

[FlyingForFun]

It is possible to save a few hours this way, as long as you start during your hour-building.

On another thread (which I can't find right now) I explained why I thought an IMC during hour-building is a good idea. Amongst the other reasons, it's possible to do it, near enough, for free. You have to build hours anyway, so the additional cost of having an instructor sat next to you for 15 of those hours is minimal (not to mention the benefits of flying with an instructor from time to time before you let any bad habits set in).

Once you've got the IMC rating, you can then log instrument time in the UK. Either real (not too difficult in the UK!) or, if you take a safety passenger, simulated. I find it's not too difficult to find willing safety passengers when I'm paying for the flying!

This instrument time will count towards the FAA IR. The requirements for the FAA IR are for 40 hours of instrument flying, at least 15 of which are with an FAA CFII. So, if you can fly at least 25 hours on instruments prior to starting your IR, you'll only need a minimum of 15 hours. Add to that the 15 hours to convert it to JAR, and you have a JAR IR for only 30 hours, instead of the usual 45 (or more if you don't have a CPL).

All these numbers are minimums, of course, and don't include the hours for the skills test. They are also for a single-engine IR - I'm not quite sure of the requirements for multi-engine, but I think there is scope for similar savings there too.

FFF
---------------

[Julian]

FFF,

Dont have the FARs with me but off the top of my head, if you already hold a single IR then to upgrade it to a multi IR you are required to shoot too approaches, one normal and one asymetric. Not sure if they have to be a mixture of precision/non-precision but if someone has the FARs handy then maybe they can add.....

Julian.

[Chinchilla.612]

Hiya,

Bit pushed for time right now, but if you want to pm me I can give you a bit more feedback. I did the course at Riverside Tulsa myself this summer, and had no problems. I am now the holder of both FAA and JAA CPL/IR and conversion back here was no trouble at all.

Very good way to do it in my personal opinion.

All the best.

Chinchilla.

[MJPilot]

I am an Instructor in Florida, West Coast, beautiful Clearwater.
If you have an instrument rating single, all there is required to do is the multi commercial stuff PLUS 1 SINGLE precision approach, one engine simulated feather.
PTS have been changed for over 1 year now.

Any more question, email me at [email protected].

[englishal]

I would do the FAA IR first, and not the IMC rating. As FFF stated the IMC rating is around 15hrs, which does count towards the FAA IR. However, why pay for 15 hrs at £150+ per hour when you can do these same hours for $100 per hour? The advantage of doing the FAA IR first, is that you will be eligable for the UK IMC rating for free (plus the £64 application fee) on your return to the UK. This IMC rating then does not need to be re-validated by test with examiner (but can be), but can be revalidated by an FAA instructor signing off an FAA Instrument Proficiency check in your logbook, and depending on where you do the IPC, it can even be done in a sim.

If you get FAA CPL MEIR then the conversion drops to:

CPL: Training as required
IR: 15 hr course, 10 of which can be done in an FNTP2 sim

In my experience, UK FTOs are now getting experienced in converting people, and now many of them are tayloring their services to pilots who want to convert, so you're unlikely to get ripped off. (ie more hrs than nescessary). There are FTOs in America which will train you for the FAA IR to JAA standards at US costs, which would make conversion even easier.

Rgds
EA