ICAO license transfer to UK CAA

[Zonkor]

I have an EASA PPL issued by the UK CAA. Recently I obtained a national (but ICAO-conform) soaring license from another European country. This country has not fully switched to EASA yet, but it is already possible in that country to convert the national license to an EASA SPL or LAPL.

Sooner or later I'll have to merge my EASA licenses. (You can only have one EASA State of License Issue.) So my question is:

1. Can I directly transfer my national license to the UK CAA?

-OR-

2. Or will I have to first convert the ICAO soaring license into an EASA SPL in that country, to then transfer it to the UK CAA?

I enquired with the aviation authorities in both countries with not much luck so far.

Any info on how to accomplish this and procedures would be appreciated. Thanks!

[AucT]

Zonkor,

UK CAA is slowly moving licenses to EASA. So why do you want to have UK license? Soon with UK license you would not be able to fly EASA aircraft! Perhaps you meant to issue EASA license by UK CAA?

[Prop swinger]

Contact the BGA as well, they may be able to help.

[BackPacker]

I'm in more or less the same boat. I've got a UK-issued JAR-FCL PPL, a Dutch JAR-FCL medical and a Dutch, ICAO compliant glider pilots licence.

The request to the CAA to add my newly acquired IMC rating to my UK JAR-FCL PPL now triggers that this licence needs to be converted to EASA. Which also means that all my other licences, and the medical, need to be transferred to the CAA register. Oh, and can I maybe get an aerobatics rating too, since I qualify for the grandfathering scheme in that respect?

It took the CAA no less than 60 days to come up with a fairly useless answer. I think I'm just going to go ahead and submit any and all forms that I can and might be related to this to the CAA, with a cover letter and my original licences and logbook, and see what happens. They refused my application earlier for lack of the proper form. Let's see what happens in case of overkill...

[S-Works]

I went through this last year as well. Had to merge everything into the UK CAA which is where my Class 1 is held.

If you are transferring to the UK with an overseas medical you need to transfer the medical records as well.

We just had a company pilots transfer bounced back to get his medical records transferred from Portugal.

[BackPacker]

...and every time your application bounces, the CAA will charge you the courier fee to return your application to you.

If only they would contact me by e-mail or phone, explaining the problem, and giving me the option: They retain my application while I gather and submit whatever additional paperwork is needed, or return the whole application to me so that I can try again later.

With deadlines looming (fortunately the IMC deadline has now been extended) and the CAA taking their sweet time to respond to queries about rejected applications, I can well imagine people getting very upset with the whole process.

And then there's the minor things. For example, when your licence needs to be converted to EASA, the application needs to include a *certified* copy of your ratings revalidation page. Certified by an EASA examiner or solicitor. Even though all the information on the ratings revalidation page is known to the CAA, because for each revalidation the proper form (1119) has been submitted. Given that everything on that page is know to the CAA already, can I send in an uncertified copy? "No", according to the CAA.

[Whopity]

because for each revalidation the proper form (1119) has been submitted.One might think they can easily retrieve this information, but it is not recorded on any electronic database, they have to find the scan of the original piece of paper amongst all the others they have.

[BackPacker]

True, but since I only have a SEP rating, and the SEP rating was revalidated revalidated during the IMC flight test, the 1119 form was actually included in the package I sent to the CAA.

[BackPacker]

Okay, this is getting really annoying. I started looking at the details of my IMC rating application, which triggers the EASA conversion, and which in turn triggers a whole bunch of other things.

One of the things that is being triggered is that my Dutch ICAO-compliant Glider Pilots Licence needs to be converted to an EASA SPL(S) and brought onto the UK register. For this, a conversion report issued by the Dutch authorities is required, which details the additional exams/test/skills/experience that need to be gone/gained before an EASA SPL(S) can be issued on the basis of a Dutch GPL. The intention is to allow this conversion to take place with zero additional effort, but the issue is - the report is not ready yet! The sailplane community thinks it has till April 15th, 2015, to create this report and is taking their sweet little time.

So at this time I cannot get an EASA SPL on the basis of my Dutch GPL. Which means my GPL cannot be brought onto the CAA register. Which means that not all my licences can be brought onto the CAA register. Which means my PPL licence cannot be converted to EASA. Which means my IMC/IR(R) cannot be added to my PPL.

Does anybody know a way out of this mess?

[S-Works]

There is no mess. Your GPL is not an integral part of your PPL. You can convert your PPL to the UK now without issue. When the UK start issuing GPL then you will have to transfer at that point.

[BackPacker]

I contacted the Dutch KEI and they essentially told me that the GPL that they gave me (in exchange for some money) holds no legal value since the Netherlands, just like the UK, doesn't require any form of licence to fly gliders. It's just a bit of paper to make you - and possibly foreign gliding centers/authorities feel good.

I feel a bit cheated now... But anyway, yes, at this time this means that I don't need to convert anything to an EASA SPL(S) or LAPL(S). Pfew.

[Prop swinger]

So what's your plan for the eventual conversion of your sailplane licence? Through the Dutch authorities & have two EASA licences from two countries or somehow persuade the CAA to give you a SPL?

The CAA have been issuing EASA sailplane licences through the BGA for a few months now; the conversion requirements are here (http://www.gliding.co.uk/bgainfo/licensing/easalicensing.htm) & I can't see how you or the OP fit in.