Conversion's...confusing?

[Joshdrake01]

Hey guys,

I've got a feeling I have the wrong thread but I'll give it a go and see what responses I get.

I know I'm going to sound completely ignorant about this so please don't slam me down too hard:)

I'm South African, flying in Sydney, Australia. I currently have my Australian PPL with about 300 hours single piston.

I would like to end up in a European airline one day so I'm planning on moving to England and completing my Commercial ME/IR there, obviously I'll need to convert my Aussie PPL, that's no worry.

What I've been told is that if I stay and complete my CPL in Aus and move to England I'll need a JAA conversion and will need to completely re-do my IR and a whole load of exams.
This would cost a fortune, hence the reasoning to get my CPL in the UK. Am I correct? Is the UK CPL a JAA licence, does it allow you to fly in other parts of Europe too?

Once I have my UK CPL I want to go back to Africa for a few years and fly in Kenya, Namibia or Botswana..Would I need a conversion there? Or can I fly on my UK licence?

My last question... if I do end up converting my UK licence to say a Namibian one, would I lose my UK one? Or will I then have two licences?

I have tried searching for the answers, but I haven't really been able to find anything specific.

Many thanks in advance,
Josh

[Capt. Spock]

This topic has been covered a number of times but let's try once more. ;)

- You wouldn't necesarely have to convert your CASA PPL to JAA. Only licence requirement for doing the JAA ATPL thoery and CPL is an ICAO PPL. (CASA PPL = ICAO PPL)

- You can fly with a UK JAA CPL pretty much in most of Europe (planes which are registered in JAA member states).

- Usually when you want to fly in another country (non JAA state) you have to go through a more or less complicated conversion progress. A friend of mine did a Kenyan conversion and he had to sit the 14 ATPL exams among other stuff. For Botswana I believe there is just a licence validation or similar required. Then you ofcourse need to have a right to work in the country - at least if you want to be there legally.

- To the last question if you would convert your licence in another country you would have two licences.

I believe there is a flight training organization called Western Australian Aviation College that does JAA ATPL thory and CPL courses under the UK CAA's approval so you could effectively do your ATPL exams and CPL there. As for the IR rating you might consider doing it in Europe in the first place. I know one guy whose conversion took 50h so it may get expensive. 15h is the minimum under the UK CAA.

Good luck! :ok:

[Joshdrake01]

Hi Capt. Spock...

Many thanks:) You've answered everything I need to know, I'll look into the Western Australian Aviation College...I can't really reply any more so thanks again!:)

Josh

[Capt. Spock]

Not a problem! :ok:

[Rat Catcher]

I can only speak of Kenya, work permit...work permit...work permit.:8
If you arrive in Kenya with a UK JAA CPL you will have to sit a conversion exam, do a medical and an initial instrument rating which would involve (as far as I know, not sure how many hours) training to prepare you for the test and the test itself.
The real sticker here is the work permit, almost impossible to get for pilots these days.
I'm busy doing it the other way around at the moment and I have done 14 written exams, FRTOL and a medical. Next stage is a typre rating and hopefully after that the green book. :E:E
You will need to look carefully at the requirements for licences and make your decision, if your idea is to work in Africa for a few years before returning to Europe to build experience, you may want to consider a South African or an FAA licence (same conversion but probably less initial financial outlay and some cash in the bank at the end of it!).
If you have sufficient experience you will not be required to attend a full time ground school for JAA, but you will still have to sign up with a ground school provider as they have to endorse your written exam bookings, I used CATS, a friend used Bristol both got us through.
A small advantage of the JAA is that although you have 18 months to pass all the exams, (12 months to do the FROTL from passing ATPL IFR/VFR Coms without writing any more exams), once passed, you have 3 years to get your licence issued which is very handy for accumulating the ever required spondulics!!
If it looks confusing it's probably because that's how it looked to me initially but once I got going it has followed the format mentioned above and you just have to tick the boxes. If all goes well next April for me it will have taken me 2 years from start to finish!
Good Luck with it all :ok: