Originally Posted by
TURIN
The way I read the CAA memo issued on 24thSeptember, it looks like a UK CAA Licence will be about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. Except of course if you only work on G reg aircraft. Fair enough, the vast majority of the UK certifiers will be ok. However, those handling EU reg aircraft will need an EASA Licence, not after two years but on 29th March 2019.
What fun.
I think there must be a lot of UK Engineers/Pilots heading down the transfer to another EASA State route. I am currently going down the route of obtaining a non-EASA licence from my employers NAA as they accepted that after March I
may have a licence that is, well, useless. As part of the process I must obtain from the CAA a Licence Verification letter. On the form it states 10 working to days to process the request, which has now been with the CAA for about 14 working days, so I gave them a call to make sure they had received it . The lady who answered my call explained that applications for most things are currently taking around 26 working days and they are putting on overtime to cope with the level of work they are having to deal with. The last time I applied to them for anything (change of address or additional type), it was as I recall pretty much issued as the timescale stated on the application. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my UK Licence as yet and am waiting until December's political outcomes to decide to try and maybe transfer to Eire.....but at least thanks to my employer I will have some form of licence even if it is non-EASA.
Also, during my discussions with QA about my licence, the company are having to look at their maintenance provisions in a few places around Europe where we handled by UK operators come April as their EASA Pt145 approval could be null and void. They will have to make the decisions soon due to SGHA notice period clauses (and maybe before the hard/soft exit questions have been answered) to ensure continuity of cover, which I guess will see UK companies potentially losing revenue and job loses happening at stations as contracts are moved over to EASA approval holders that are still going to be (confirmed) part of EASA come April.
Now isn't the time for the assumption that all will be OK and a resolution will be found to ensure operations continue.....the realities are happening now and plans are being made.