CAA releases EASA guidance

[mad_jock]

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/620/srg_l&ts_EuropeanLegislation_TheExpectedEffectsontheLicensingofPil otsintheUK_March2011_v2.pdf

In case people haven't signed up for the emails.

[IO540]

No suprises in that one, except "IMCR saving" stuff on page 9.

[mad_jock]

I don't know for yourself who has been following the N reg stuff it might not be new to you but I must admit its the first time I have trawled through it.

Really quite glad I have an ATPL and 1500 PIC in a multi crew aircraft and valid SEP and FI ratings. It all looks a bit of a nighmare working out what your going to get post EASA.

[IO540]

This CAA PDF came out about 6 months ago and this is the 2nd edition which came out a few weeks ago.

As always in aviation, there is somebody in some CAA or EASA trying to shaft you, so the name of the game is to run as many insurance policies as you can without spending a whole load of time+money.

So e.g. I run an FAA and CAA Class 1, both done at the same time by Frank Voeten for a very reasonable cost.

The FAA medical I need to be legal; the CAA one is pointless but locks in Demonstrated Ability privileges for ever, so if one day I go outside the Initial limits I can stay in the pipeline under DA. Cost = extra £25/year.

I also run a UK/JAA PPL. Cost = £70 every 5 years, plus a flight with a JAA-scene instructor every 2 years (cost=peanuts).

It is the IR which has no concessions (you have 7 exams to do plus 15hrs), and CPL/IR or ATP pilots of business jets will have a very hard time (14 exams full of absolute bu**sh1t, plus ? flying).

Sadly, unless you hang out on pilot forums you will know nothing about this, which is exactly how I would like things to be if I was running EASA :yuk:

That's why when somebody posts about this on the Bizjets forum, they get a load of "it cannot happen" replies.

There is likely to be a last-minute compromise but you won't see any early indication of that, for obvious political reasons.

[robin]

What you do need to be aware of is those (15-20k) pilots with the old UK PPL and what to do about the change over.

Originally it was advised that we should all transition to the JAR-PPL licence that will tide us over until the CAA can get around to the issue of the EASA-PPL.

Otherwise, we would be downgraded from a full ICAO-compliant licence to the NPPL and only able to fly Annexe II aircraft.

It would now appear the CAA have concerns about their ability to issue a lot of JAR-PPLs and then reissue them as EASA PPLS in the given timescale.

We could wait until April 2012 and save £180 by going directly to the EASA PPL (at what cost?). But that might take some time.

There is a transition period but does that mean that from April 2012 until I get my EASA PPL, I would be able to fly club aircraft? Or even my own?

[mad_jock]

Not rubbing your nose in it but from what I can tell I should be OK.

They have to re-issue all commercial licenses as well. There great policy on not including the English level on the licenses has bitten them and they have to re-issue all of them anyway.

Which is another thing to make note of. Make sure they have an up todate address for you.

[BackPacker]

Make sure they have an up todate address for you.

They had. Until I sent in my PPL renewal and they misread my handwriting, changed my house number from 20 to 21 and sent the whole lot to the folks across the street. Who were kind enough to give the (by then opened) envelope to me, with apologies. One e-mail and two weeks later and things were finally corrected but I can imagine that this is the stuff that causes the CAA to spend a lot of time. Other than that, issuing new EASA licenses based on current JAA licenses should just be a matter of writing the proper lines of computer code and having a fast enough printer.