Aussie to FAA CPL ??

[zakpeegoodus]

CONVERTING to FAA License:

Does anyone know the process and cost of converting an Australian or Canadian CPL (I have both) to an FAA License and where this can be done??
I have an Australian IFR rating, would I need to do the FAA IFR flight test to gain this on an FAA license?

Thanks!!

[DeltaSix]

Zak,


I enquired about this directly to FAA a couple of months ago because I was looking at doing the FAA ATPL exam but they said that since I am in Australia, the closest FAA information bureau is in Singapore.

I will also be converting my CPL/ME/IR to the FAA equivalent but would need to contact the agency first. I'll look in my email and find out the name of it again. They should be able to help you with that.

Mate, there are tons of vacancies in aviation there but you would need a US working VISA. I was there 4 months ago and due to the decline of the major carriers, the smaller ones are flourishing. Amercian Eagle is hiring F/O's I believe in their turbo-props and so are the others from Seattle to Mexico on the Eastern Seaboard and in the Great Lakes area in the west. I havent even enquired on the places in the middle of it.

Let me find the contact details in Singapore and I'll PM you.

DeltaSix

since John Anderson wants to slug me with another $200 I'd rather go overseas.
:{

[DUXNUTZ]

G'day,

Currently undergoing said conversion myself and have found it 'interesting' to say the least...

Ok, first of all u need to go to the FAA Website http://registry.faa.gov/airmen.asp#AirmenDatabaseDownload and follow directions for Verification of Foreign Pilot License.

Basically fax documents to a place in texas, wait for a letter to arrive (mine took 2weeks instead of the 90days) then take this letter of verification to a local Flight District Standards Office (FSDO) where they print you out a US Private Pilot license.

To get your Aussie Instrument Rating added to the PPL you have to sit a US Instrument-Foreign exam of 50 questions (easy). No flight test. The FSDO in Orlando gave me single and multi priviledges on my US license.

To get US CPL, sit theory exam, 100 questions and short flight test. Be warned you have to do a single and multi flight test.

It actually is a mess with the whole PPL issued on foreign license because they only recognise your foreign Instrument Rating if you have passed the theory test here and your Instrument Rating is valid back home, i.e becomes invalid within 12 months when u miss your renewal.

Thus, in my case i have sat FAA Instrument theory and FAA CPL ($70 ea) and will be doing a IFR checkride in a 172 to get a normal FAA IFR Rating that is not dependant on Aussie licenses. NExt comes a short mult-engine Commercial and single engine commercial checkride done as IFR and your good to go!

It is much easier if you have the aussie ATPL requirements as you just have to do one theory test and one flight test. Having the 100 night will also make you a shoe-in for a job.

SO in conclusion i'd make sure i had about US $1-2000 up my sleeve to get it all done.

Good Luck and PM us when you get over in the states....

-Dux

[0tter1]

G'day.

I moved to the US about 5 months ago and have since converted my license. It is not as easy as one might think.
The easiest way to do it is to have the ATP minimums before you come over otherwise it is a pain in the ass and can be very expensive! The best people to write to are a mob call All ATP's
www.atpflightschool.com.

I am not too sure about converting a canadian license, it may be easier.
Either way look at this link, www.faa.gov/avr/afs/flightinstruction/index.cfm
in particular Part 61 and also the new requirments for foreign Pilots. In part 61 you will find the requirments for each specific license and rating.
There are plenty of jobs at the moment for Part 135 (Charter)
Minimums are 1200 Total, 150 M/E, 100 NIGHT, 75 IFR, 500 X-Country. However to be even considered you must have the right to work in the US -VISA or GREENCARD
You can PM me for more details if you like.

Good Luck

0tter1
p.s DUXNUTZ Dont know where you got the1000-2000 $$$ from I would say more like $3000-4000

[DeltaSix]

Otter1,


What are the requirements for the Visa to go there and work ?

Someone explained to me once that its like a dog chasing its tail.

You've got to have a work acceptance from a prospective employer for them to issue you the Visa but the work acceptance requires you to have a Visa..... so which comes first, the chicken or the egg ?


DeltaSix

[DUXNUTZ]

Otter one,

I'm currently working over here (outside aviation alas) so not directly seeing how much i am paying.

Can't see it being much more than 2 grand US tho, maybe in aussie money tho. For the US IFR test you only have to do a precision and non-precision approach and rarely do they fly the full approach, much different to back home. This can also be done in a single.

The commercial done in multi as an IFR op and barely over and hour. Single engine commercial checkride and your done!

The major pain is trying to understand the unprofessional radio chatter as the majority of it is conversational in nature!

IF you meet the requirements the ATP is the way to go (have to be 23 to hold one tho)

-cheers

[Bevan666]

The major pain is trying to understand the unprofessional radio chatter as the majority of it is conversational in nature!

I did some flying around Kansas City back in May (After converting my aussie cpl into an FAA ppl - piss easy btw) and I am glad to say that the septics had just as much trouble understanding me as I did them.

I just couldnt get used to all the lineboys rushing around to fuel you and feed you at every small out of the way spot. Oh and they seem to have an airport just about everywhere.

Bevan..

[druglord]

don't worry after you'll get to love the conversational radio chatter after you start changing frequencies every 5 minutes or you're flying in some busy airspace.

yeah unless you've got an ATPL minimumns, you're gonna have to do all the conversions. IFR written IFR flight test, CPL written, CPL flight test. To work 135 (charter) you'll need ATPL mins. or close to it ie 1200 TT 100 night, 100 IFR of which 75 you'll need in an airplane. then if you want to fly single engine commercial you'll have to do the single commercial flight test. As mentioned if you have all the time for the ATPL you can do two easy tests. ATPL written and flight test.

[zakpeegoodus]

Thank you to all who replied, much appreciated.
I'm still in the process of deciding where to invest (?) yet more of my cash in licensing, but I'm getting tempted for the FAA deal.
I have noted your user names and will be in contact when I get myself more organized. That may be some time!
:ok:

[DUXNUTZ]

The licensing thing is a pain in the butt but look at all the shiny things flying round the sky, motivation enough really.

[sage]

As you need to do the exams and a flight test anyway, quickest cheapest way is to head to the US and do an ATP.

Re the ATP or IFR on the ATP = flight test required = yes.

First off, you need to have passed an FAA ATP medical fulfilling the FAA ATP medical recency requirement. You can do that In Australia.

Now things may have changed since I did mine, but the cheapest quickest drill is to front up at a US school specialising in converting foreign ATPs or doing initials (advert in Flight International). This is the crew I did mine with.

http://www.atpflightschool.com./

Found 'em good. No BS. But (caveat) the instructor though a nice bloke was a junior Gr 3 equivalent and I wasn't relying upon him actually teaching me anything other than guiding me through the protocol of "Which exams do I sit" and famil with local proc. Don't expect to pass in min $$$$ or time unless you can truly fly IFR. He's not there to teach you to fly for that money, but to convert your licence.

As it's pointless doing any flying until you've passed your US ATP exam, they'll confine you to a room where you'll saturate yourself with King's ATP videos until you start screeming "I can't take this any #$%@ more!". Alternatively some conduct swot rote recital courses. Usually takes two or three days.

You then go and sit you ATP exam at Drake or some authorised FAA ATP testing station. The PC result is a mouse click away and immediate. It's a walk in the park if you've recently done similar in Oz, and still pretty bloody easy if you haven't. Once you've secured your ATP passes and hold your US ATP medical, you can start flying training for the ATP flight test required and conducted by an FAA Examiner often 'independent' (in theory at least) of the school.

As mentioned the ATP written is easy peasy, and of course, if you can pass an Oz ATPL medical, the US one shouldn't present as any problem.

Once you're up to speed with procedures with a couple of short flights, and assuming you can fly IFR, the test is scheduled and usually conducted in a light twin of the Seneca class by the FAA Examiner. The emphasis in the US is on demonstrating practical skills in the flight test, and their theory exam is a relative joke, certainly compared with what ours used to be and the UK JAR is.

The ATP flight test format will essentially replicate an initial issue IFR rating here in Oz. The instructors and examiners are usually amazed at our NDB circling approach skills, as they seldom conduct them if ever IRL over there except in tests. Don't fool yourself that if you cut it in Oz, you'll necessarily ace it here because of the theory exam precedent. IME you do need to demonstrate competency. Not that I had any experienced problem, but I was impressed by the Examiners professionalism and standards which by way of comparison, were higher than the many renewals conducted by CASA I've experienced outside the airline structure in Oz.

That's it. If you don't #$^@ up the flight, you get your ME land ATP which by default includes IFR privilege.

One last thing. Although probably not conforming strictly with protocol, once upon a time you could do all this on a tourist Visa. I believe this isn't the case now, so get your prerequisite student visa before you go.

Excluding airfares and accomodation, $2k Oz should well and truly cover it if you're a confident, competent and current IFR driver. If you're low time and less than the 3c's, you might want to include a little extra up your sleeve to polish up before the flight test. The whole show should take you between 3 and 5 days without hiccup, assuming you've organised the medical and FAA Airman's certificate etc beforehand. Again you used to be able to do the latter down at the local FAA regional office, but you might just want to check and see if there is any mandatory witholding period delay now due the security checking nonsense.

One last piece of advice. Don't #$%@ with anyone in authority over there, from the Hispanic bitch giving you a undeserved hard time in immigration to the local disinterested unhelpful FAA office clerk. Under the Patriot Act you're easy meat, and you'll either find youself in manacles sharing 'accomodation' and 'meals' with Mongoose and Snakebite showing you their tats in the shower until you front court, or if you're lucky, merely until they can ship you out and put you on the next available flight home. IME, and I've been there and all over there a few times, Americans in positions of petty authority really don't respond well to reason or logic if you argue with and irritate them. Bubba or his sister Bubbsy can and will exercise the big stick in a heartbeat just to show you their power.

[DUXNUTZ]

Yes thats great but if your not 23yrs old yet and can't sit the ATP flight test!!!!

THEN you have to be happy with sitting the IFR then CPL theory + Flight Tests.....

[Tinstaafl]

Required tolerance is a little more strict than Oz eg ILS is 1/4 scale deflection for the ATP test. You will have to do two precision & two non-precision approaches (+ the usual manouvres & recovery type stuff). Be aware that you can be asked to do *any* approach that the a/c is equipped for. That could be:

NDB
VOR
LOC
GPS (including overlay types)
Localiser type directional aid (LD)
Simplified Directional Facility (SDF)
SRA

&
ILS
MLS
Precision Radar Approach

wrt. non-precision types, there normally isn't a timed outbound. You are responsible for keeping the a/c within a 10nm radius. How you do it is pretty much up to you.

There is a ground oral as well so make sure you know the a/c systems, documents required, alternate requirements for Part 91 (equive to Oz private ops), 135 (Oz charter equiv) & part 121 (RPT) etc.

I found the most difficult part of the process was remembering the approach vis. requirements. It's all in fractions of a statute mile or feet. Required vis. varies according to the type of approach lighting available & type of approach. The US has a lot more types than Oz with various names also not used in Oz.

At least the US uses ICAO Wx codes now. I was damned fortunate they'd recently changed when I did my conversion to a US ATP. It would have been a nightmare if it was still their old system.