ATPL Skills Test

[777wannabe]

Hi all,

I have recently undertaken my ATPL skills test at BA flight training. I passed the test & submitted all the paperwork at Gatwick the following day. The CAA are now saying that my application is on hold as the examiner did not inform them he was going to examine me.

I was just wondering if anybody knew the consequences of this, as I'm still waiting to hear back from the CAA?

Many thanks

[Cobalt]

In all likelihood, this is about "designating" the examiner as suitable for an individual test. Details are in Information Notice 2012/156, found here (http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/srg_lts_Designation%20of%20Examiner%20for%20Skill%20Tests_v3 _Oct12.pdf).

If you take this literally, prior permission is required for each skill test. Currently there are two options for a training organisation to obtain this permission - they can either get individual permission for each test, or blanket permission for a "panel" of examiners they normally use.

In theory, they could reject the skill test as invalid, but given that they have not rejected your application outright it does not look like they are minded to do so in your case.

I would lean on the training organisation to unblock this - it is not the examiner who needs to do the process, but BA flight training.

It happened to me two days ago (CAA same day counter service), it took a few hours but the ATO resolved this with the CAA; presumably some paperwork got lost or not captured in the system.

[777wannabe]

Excellent. Thank you very much for your response.

I am due to call the CAA today to get a definitive answer as to exactly what is required & then I will speak to BAFT if needed.

Many thanks again