fescalised portion

I am currently in Florida getting my FAA ratings. I am hoping to get a few hours under my belt back in the UK when I return next spring. I have been told that there are quite a few differences in procedures between the US/UK. Does anyone know of any published literature or guides that outline just the main differences....
I do plan to maybe have a few lessons with a JAA instructor when I return.......

Anyone got any other advice???

Genghis the Engineer

Well apart from the NOTAMs, weather information, air traffic services and terminology, standard circuit joins, airspace classification, much smaller airfields and much less consistent and predictable weather - it's pretty much the same.

If you've not flown in the UK before, half a dozen hours with a good instructor might just about do it.

G

drauk

You say ratingS. If this means you are also getting your FAA IR and you'll be flying a G-reg plane in IMC in the UK then you should expect a lot of differences. If you're in an N-reg plane you'll be able to fly in Britain's Class A airways and the differences will be much less great. If you're flying a G-reg plane you'll not be able to fly airways at all, you'll have to "negotiate" radar cover and will often find it unavailable even in very busy bits of airspace, you'll often have to "freecall" one station after another changing squawk as you do so, you cannot routinely expect to be able to do instrument approaches in VMC without having booked "a slot" in advance, you'll have to pay for most instrument approaches over-and-above regular landing fees, and more.

Whopity

Or more to the point you cant fly IFR on a FAA licence in a G reg aircraft in any controlled airspace. You certainly cant fly instrument approaches. Art 21.

Try reading the UK Air Pilot (AIP) and the Air Navigation Order ANO, these equate to FAR-AIM in the UK but are much bigger!

slim_slag

Genghis sums it up, reading a book on UK Air Law on the flight back might be of use

englishal

Or read Trevor Thom's book on air law.

I originally did a JAA PPL in the USA and required a one hour club checkout at bournemouth, so if you know what the differences are, 6 hours with an instructor should not be nescessary.

(PS you can fly IAP's outside CAS )

cubflyer

some of the differences will depend on what type of flying you have been doing in the US and what you will be doing in the UK. If its just been around the big airfields in florida with control towers and someone talking to you on the radio all of the time, then you would probably be at home flying from Bournemouth, Cranfield, Oxford etc but might have more difficulty when it comes to places where there is no air traffic and you have to think for yourself. On the other hand if you have been used to smaller Florida fields, with just a mostly unmanned unicom, then you will fit in fine at nice friendly places like Popham, Leicester, Breighton, White Waltham etc, but might find it different going to the bigger fields.
Air law is a must, but dont get too bogged down with the pedantic stuff, or what lights balloons have to carry etc Again depending on what you are going to do a few hours with an instructor and also talking to the local pilots will hellp you out. Navigating is different, its a lot more built up overall and the roads are straight and dont all go east-west or north south, so that makes things a bit more interesting. The weather is also a lot more unpredictable and mostly worse than Florida! But at least we dont have too many hurricanes or massive thunderstorms!
Be prepared for quite a few grass runways and short runways too, maybe both not met very often in Florida.