NickGooseBrady

Hello All,

Quick Q hopefully!

To be able to undertake the SEP(L) FI course a candidate needs to have demonstrated that they have passed the theoretical knowledge for either CPL(A) or ATPL(A).

Due to many reasons I will not be completing a CPL or an IR within 3 years of the date of the exam passes but am planning on doing the FI course as a PPL(A) holder 5 years after the date of the exam passes in order to instruct at my service flying club.

My question, therefore, Is there a time limit on these exam passes in relation to the FI rating? I cannot find the answer in LASORS.

Many Thanks

NGB

Whopity

No, there is no time limit. JAR-FCL 1.335 statesUnder EASA proposals you may not need it at all, but that could change!

NickGooseBrady

Cheers chap, I read that in LASORS too but thought it was rather vague! I thought it could possibly mean that as you have to complete the CPL/IR within three years then you also have to complete the FI course within three years. Does this also mean that you can do a CPL with no time limit post exams? Hmmm I wonder!

What is the latest with EASA? Does anyone have a reference that I could refer to?

Whopity

No, the 3 years applies.
It is stated in EASA Part FCL draft but, as they have had over 11000 objections we will all have to await the outcome.

G-RICH

I passed all the old UK BCPL ground exams in 1991 (never actually did the BCPL flying course and didn't get a BCPL). Over ten years later they were accepted by the CAA as "demonstrating commercial level knowledge" as required by JAR, so I went ahead and did the instructor course. As W-P says, there is no expiry on them.

The EASA proposal is that this requirement is dropped, presumably to be replaced by some sort of written pre-entry test, as was the case before October 1988.

This may not happen until April 2012, but if you are in no rush there does not seem to be any point in taking the 9 JAR CPL exams which are currently the minimum you require currently to be able to take the FIC course. By 2012 we should be back in the situation which existed some 23 years earlier.

With instructors being legally paid to do aerial work, the rationale for anyone doing CPL ground exams rather than ATPL level will surelly disappear. Even now, there are no full time courses available to do it, only 3 providers of distance learning courses.

I believe the idea behind the BCPL in the 1980s was to make instructing more "professional", but I think the real result was to choke off the supply of experienced, enthusiuastic club PPLs and reinforce even more the preponderance of CPL holders whose ultimate destination was an airliner flightdeck.

The biggest problem is that instructing never subsequently paid a "professional" salary ! But this was in the 1980s, when it seemed that anyone doing a white collar job was suddenly deemed to be a "professional" (all those Yuppies - where are you now ! ).

You can of course instruct on a PPL. Instructing is a Rating privilege, not a Licence privilege. The only problem is that you are not supposed to receive remuneration for it. Although with what most instructors get, it would be difficult to prove that remuneration has been received.