PPL Validity extended?

[Meldrew]

Sorry if this has been asked already, but I could'nt find it.
I have heard recently that the five year expiry for an unused PPL has now been extended to ten yeas, requiring for renewal only a GFT, instructor sign off and a fee payable to the CAA. Is this the case??? or is my source talking rubbish?

[BEagle]

I suspect the latter.

Your source appears to be confusing the JAA-inflicted licence re-issue with Rating renewal.

If your PPL hasn't been used for more than 5 years, you will require to fly a Renewal Licensing Skill Test with a JAR-FCL Examiner after completing whatever refresher training you think you need to prepare yourself for the test.

There is no such thing as a PPL GFT.
There is no 'instructor sign-off' requirement.

After passing the Renewal LST, you will have to send off the forms to the CAA as an Examiner is not permitted to sign the 'Ratings - Certificate of Revalidation' page of your licence for Ratings which have lapsed by 5 years or more. You will have to pay for your licence accordingly - as well as the Rating variation fee as I understand it.

[Meldrew]

Thanks BEagle, I suspected that all was not that simple. Do any writtens need to be retaken. My PPL was issued in 1971 and was kept current until five and a half years ago. Total hours about 650. Thanks in advanced for any further comment.
Meldrew.

[BEagle]

Nope - no writtens needed at all. Unless, that is, you didn't have a FRTOL before and now want one.

Yours is a 'lifetime' UK PPL, I imagine? My old 1968-issued one wasn't, but it sounds as though yours should be? Do NOT change it into a JAR-FCL PPL(A) - there's neither need nor requirement to do so. All you need to do is:

1. Get a current JAA Class 2 medical.
2. Do whatever refresher training you need.
3. Pass the SEP Class Rating Renewal Licensing Skill Test with a JAR-FCL PPL Examiner.

Send it all off to the CAA.

[Keygrip]

Meldrew - are you saying your rating EXPIRED five and a half years ago, or your last "Certificate of Test" was five and a half years ago, so it would expire 13 months after that (which is less than five years of expiry).

It makes a difference as to what you need to do, and the cost of doing it, to "get it back".