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paulryan1990
5th Apr 2011, 15:49
hi all
i have been monocular from birth and have finally sorted out a class 2 faa medical. all i need to do is have my final flight test with a special medical examiner.
has anyone from Ireland/UK gone to America for one of the 6 week all inclusive courses. im trying to find a school that people have used before and recommend. following a search on here and Google there is a lot of bad schools out there.
is it possible to do your ground school in Ireland and then just focus on practical flying when over in America?
thanks for reading and sorry if its been asked before

WILCO.XMG
5th Apr 2011, 17:04
Im pretty sure if you do all your exams with JAR and go to a JAR school over there you'll be grand.

paulryan1990
5th Apr 2011, 17:42
thanks for your reply. i can only do a faa ppl due to my monocular vision. so i am unsure if i can do ground school here

Pitts2112
5th Apr 2011, 18:34
For an FAA PPL you don't need to do a formal groundschool. You can just get the books and study on your own (or get the King videos or something like that). Do your studying before you go to the US to fly, take your written there, and you're set for your flying where the experience will start to make more sense of what you learned in the books.

The FAA written is much easier than the whole JAA malarkey. One test, can't remember how many questions, takes less than an hour if I remember correctly. But don't forget it because your flight examiner may pull some questions on you as well. Someone fill in for me here - is there an oral part to the flight exam? It's been 20 years so I can't remember. I can tell you what kind of hat the guy wore, though!

The challenging part for you in Ireland will be getting FAA medicals and biennials, though they may be more readily available than I'm thinking. I've never bothered to look, even when I was flying in the UK.

Also, if you haven't yet, check into any international limitations an FAA license may have in JAA land. For instance, when I was doing it all back in '98, I seem to remember that I could fly G-reg aircraft in the UK on my FAA ticket, but I could not fly a G-reg outside of UK airspace. If I had a N-reg airplane, no problem anywhere. Might be different now. I'm not sure. If it's the same, it still gives you lots of scope for even domestic flying, which most of mine was anyway.

Hope some of that is at least relevant, if not exactly helpful. :)

paulryan1990
5th Apr 2011, 21:13
thanks so much for your in depth reply. that good news regarding the ground school. at least that way a bit of the pressure will be taken off me.
my local flying club has a N registered cessna 172 so im sorted with that.

thankfully in Dublin there is a Faa AME called Dr Colom Kileen who will do my medical for me.
i would much prefer to get a jar ppl but with my monocular vision i do not think it is possible :-(

HighFlyer75
5th Apr 2011, 21:46
As mentioned already, there is no need for any formal ground school for the FAA PPL. The question bank for the theory exam is freely available and there are plenty of sites where you can practice the exams prior to going to the USA. Here are a few of them;

Practice Pilot Exams (http://www.risingup.com/tests/)
FREE Pilot Tests Prep Center (http://www.mypilottests.com/)
The private pilot practice FAA exam site. The definitive guide for pilot training (http://4vfr.com/)

When practicing the exams it is nice to have a print out of the accompanying handout to refer to rather than having it on the screen (especially for the map related questions). You can get a copy of it here but, be warned, you will use a bit of printer ink :-)
http://www.faa.gov/training_testing/testing/airmen/test_questions/media/FAA-CT-8080-2E.pdf

When you go to do the skills test there will be an oral test before hand. The length of the test is at the discretion of the examiner but count on somewhere between 45 mins and 2 hours. The examiner will really focus on areas of the theory exam where questions were answered incorrectly so be sure to brush up on any wrong answers in advance. There is also a handbook from ASA - The Private Oral Exam Guide - which covers pretty much everything that can come up in the oral exam. When you get to the states you can pick up a copy of that and study it.

Hope this helps.

paulryan1990
5th Apr 2011, 21:53
hi Chris the sheep

thanks for your reply. how did you find London aviation? would you recommend them? i have been worried that i would not be able to fly here with a FAA PPL but i think my local flying club will let me.
i am also trying to see if i can get a CAA medical as i have exhausted attempts at a IAA medical. at this stage after 3 years of fighting i just want to be able to fly :O

paulryan1990
6th Apr 2011, 08:28
thats interesting so the more rural the school the better ;).
id love to hear from other monocular pilots in Europe and in America to see how they went about obtaining there "wings"

paulryan1990
6th Apr 2011, 19:41
just been in contact with the CAA in gatwick about obtaining a class 2 medical with my monocular vision. i am awaiting a reply. has anyone on here got experience with the caa and monocular vision?

paulryan1990
7th Apr 2011, 21:44
yes that would be a very expensive holiday if that was the case. Ive been talking with my AME and he thinks it should be ok. but you never know until your there :(

proudprivate
8th Apr 2011, 19:26
DPE's have to abide by the Practical Test Standards - it's the same throughout FAA land.
That is very accurate. It won't matter where you do your oral - at busy commercial airports like Oakland or "Slippery Rock Municipal", it'll take 2-3 hours and it is thorough. You don't have to get every answer right, but they do ascertain whether you know and understand regulations and the functioning of your aircraft.

The only advantage I would see for Slippery Rock Municipal is that there are no wait times for departure, virtually unlimited touch and go practice without overly complicated radio work etc...

Not sure about the CAA Medical at Gatwick, but normal JAR Class 2 Medical would preclude monocular vision (which is a shame, because the advantages of distance estimation, often quoted as the main reason for needing binocular vision, do not play at the distances a pilot would focus (e.g. for landing). The only excuse I can think of is that, when I get a spec of dust or some suntan in one eye, I still have the other to see where I'm flying). The medical board of the Belgian CAA would refuse you the class 2 medical.

Congrats on starting the effort :D. Are you sure there are no FAA flight instructors in Ireland ?

Good luck !

paulryan1990
9th Apr 2011, 21:32
hi proudprivate. thanks for your reply. well the main reason for trying for a CAA medical is due to flying in Ireland with a FAA medical. i would be restricted to just flying N registered aircraft. i have booked a apoitmnet with the medical divison of the CAA at Gatwick for may so fingers crossed.

paulryan1990
10th Apr 2011, 10:04
the practical exam is the least of my worries at this stage:) got to sort out this medical. 2 to 3 hours seems along time being watched and interrogated. thanks for all your kind reply's.

humhaw
10th Apr 2011, 16:55
Hi Paul,

To go back to your original question...I am Irish, living in the US. I got my FAA PPL last year, I did it over 6 months and while working full time. So while it's not an all inclusive/intensive school, I can highly recommend East Coast Aero Club - Bedford, MA | Norwood, MA | Nashua, NH (http://www.eastcoastaeroclub.com/) outside Boston. Note they don't sponsor visas though.

However, with some good planning and if you had all the study done beforehand, I think it would be possible to complete the training, written & practical exams in approx. 6 weeks.

Good luck!
Humhaw

paulryan1990
11th Apr 2011, 09:38
thanks humhaw. i think doing all my theory before leaving for America should speed things up. going to try for a caa medical before i invest in a FAA PPL.

paulryan1990
24th May 2011, 18:34
an update on this. Dr Kileen in dublin secured me a class 1 FAA medical. just need to get a SODA during my flight test. i have my CAA medical in 2 weeks. fingers crossed:ok:

paulryan1990
24th May 2011, 19:07
i must say Dr kileen is a gentleman. he kept fighting for me for over a month with the faa until he got my the class 1.
i intend of going with it as far as i can. (hopefully ATPL)

being based in Ireland a JAA medical would be more beneficial. i have a meeting with the CAA to review my case in 2 weeks. if this is uncusessful i will then peruse the american route.
my first plan is to go to America and go a FAA PPL
Come home hour build while saving and go back and do a CPL and ATPL.

i have 2 questions?
will i be able to get a job with a SODA attached to my license. ?

also can i do a intensive PPL course as i need to pass a medical flight test. i am told this can take 3 months to book. does it happen pre solo or during flight test. finding it hard to get concrete evidence on this.

paulryan1990
24th May 2011, 21:03
thanks for your reply.
im going to wait until after my CAA medical to decide on if ill go down the FAA route. (hopefully i will not). if i get the CAA class 2 i would be happy with working as a flight instructor or doing lower paid work. if i go the FAA route i would have no issue moving to find work with the FAA license.

paulryan1990
25th May 2011, 07:52
i know Ive heard how hard it its to get a green card but i must confess Ive never looked into it. my ame recommended some other countries that are happy to take pilots with FAA licenses so i must look into these. thanks for your help socallapp

paulryan1990
9th Jun 2011, 14:22
just back from the CAA at aviation house in gatwick. i got a class 2 medical. so anyone in my situation don't give up anything is possible if you push hard enough.
i cannot fault the aeromedical department they were fantastic.

Slopey
9th Jun 2011, 14:50
if i get the CAA class 2 i would be happy with working as a flight instructor or doing lower paid work.

But you can't instruct for pay/reward with a Class 2 medical as you'd need a CPL which requires a Class 1 to sit the skills test?

paulryan1990
9th Jun 2011, 15:00
i understand that slopey was getting it mixed up with faa class 2 :-(. i have my Faa class 1, caa class 2. from this i am just going to start with the caa ppl and work from there. if i build up hours they may issue me a class 1 with restrictions. i am happy with what i have for now