Quick question regarding foreign navigating and local requirements..

[RyanRs]

I have noticed how pretty much every country has its own requirement for a conversion to there own local PPL licence to be able to fly in there country, usually consisting of a Nav & RT exam, a check-flight and application for a permit. So, I am pretty sure this is not a requirement if flying cross-country in a G-reg aircraft(or starting the journey from the PPL holders origin country)? It would be pretty insane if you wanted to fly from the uk to say country X and had to apply for local licenses for every country you cross on the way there.
I guess my question is, what is the point in getting a local license? Is it purely for those who would like to fly in a particular country but don't want the long journey of flying oneself from the UK? perhaps distance or cost? And is there any specific rules to international XC ppl flight? What about RT? every country's RT seems to be different from the last. Its not impossible to fly a single piston from the UK to USA and the RT out there is totally different!

Thanks for the info
Ryan

[Genghis the Engineer]

A UK issued licence is essential if you want to fly a G-reg aircraft outside the UK. But you can - and many people have: so long as it's all ICAO compliant you need no special permissions, just customs/immigration and flight plans.

A US issued licence is essential if you want to fly an N-reg aircraft, then again you can fly that around the world if you want.


But my Canadian validation allows me to rent and fly a C-reg aircraft when I take a few days off whilst on business in Canada. I'm not going to take a fortnight to fly my AA5 over Greenland - I'm going to fly Air Canada, but grab the opportunities to fly a bit whilst there.

Learning and correctly using local RT is the captain's responsibility. It's not that hard, but before renting outside my home patch, I'm always careful to get a thorough local briefing. On long international trips, particularly VFR, then it's more difficult but there are documents available - or just explain in clear (aeronautical) English your intentions and generally it's not that problematic.

G

[Jan Olieslagers]

I have never been to them US of A, and am not in a hurry either, but for all I learned on the www you might well find R/T in the USA a fair deal easier than in nearby France, or even Germany.

[AirborneAgain]

You don't need a local PPL license just to fly in a foreign country! You do generally need a local PPL license to fly aircraft registered in the foreign country.

This also applies to flying foreign-registered aircraft in the UK. You generally need a license from the country of registry.

Of course an EASA PPL should be valid for flying aircraft registered in any EU state.

[F4TCT]

please someone correct me if im wrong here but isn't this license thing a bit pointless?

for example, I have a PPL, so I can fly an N reg in the confines of the UK (but need an FAA PPL to go worldwide)... But can fly a G reg essentially round the world....

Yet if you park the two aircraft up together (say a couple of PA28's), there's not going to be much noticeable differences is there really?

Dan :confused:

[Genghis the Engineer]

It basically comes from ICAO.

It is assumed that a nation's medicals, licences, Certificates of Airworthiness, and maintenance rules all work together like a complete jigsaw.

Mix and match and it *might* be okay, or there may be some odd mismatch - say a country accepts red-green colourblindness, and mandates a dolls-eye indicator light for the undercarriage. Another country does not accept red-green colourblindness, but mandates red-green gear indicator lights. Both fine as combinations, but one cross-combination and you might get a gear up landing.

That's the basic reasoning behind it.


At PPL level it's all regarded as fairly acceptable to mix and match of-course, just different countries have a different approach to that: basically PPLs are deemed unable to kill all that many people at once. At commercial level, it's seldom acceptable.

G

[patowalker]

for example, I have a PPL, so I can fly an N reg in the confines of the UK (but need an FAA PPL to go worldwide)... But can fly a G reg essentially round the world....

... and you can fly a G reg here and abroad on an FAA PPL. However, other countries may not necessarily accept that an FAA PPL is rendered valid to fly a G reg abroad.

[echobeach]

I thought I understood this but now am less sure.

I can fly an N registered craft in uk using my EASA ppl but not abroad. Which I do. I don't fly it out of uk airspace.

I fly G registered aircraft on all tours outside uk on JAR and now EASA ppl

However ....

If I go to Germany and wish to rent a D registered local aircraft I assume I can fly this in Germany as I have an EASA licence.

What happens though if I fly a local registered D craft rented in Germany and wish to fly with it to Austria.

Does EASA now make this possible as I have a European ppl.

[BackPacker]

echobeach, the principle as explained by GtE still is valid. Under ICAO rules, all countries will accept you if your aircraft registration and licence (and medical) are issued/administered/validated by the same country, and are at least at the PPL level.

The devil is, in this case, in the exceptions.

The FAA has an exception to this in that they accept a foreign licence to fly an N-reg, but only in the airspace of that foreign country. (So you can fly an N-reg on a UK-issued licence, but only within the UK.)

The UK has an exception that they *implicitly* validate any ICAO PPL for flight on a UK-registered aircraft, and this validation is valid worldwide.

JAR-FCL ensured that all countries that participated in the JAA, have mutual recognition (implicit validation) of each others licences. So you could fly a D-reg on a UK licence since the Germans implicitly validate your UK JAR-FCL licence. And that validation was again valid worldwide so you could fly a D-reg aboad on your UK JAR-FCL licence. (Note that there were some exceptions to this when it comes to medicals.)

EASA enacts EU-wide legislation that basically does the same thing as JAR-FCL: Any EASA licence is valid for flight on aircraft registered in any EU member state. And again that combination of EASA licence and EU registered aircraft is valid for flight worldwide. The main difference between EASA-FCL and JAR-FCL is that JAR-FCL only made proposals that individual countries then had to enact into local law, while EASA can enact EU-wide legislation directly (by going through the EU parliament). (And EASA used the implementation of FCL to shake up JAR-FCL, remove local exceptions, introduce new rules and so forth.)