FAA and EASA CPL or conversion howto

[avtomaton]

After one of my answers in another thread I am keeping receiving questions about FAA to EASA license and IR conversion for low-time pilots which I made recently, so I decided to write a detailed post about it, probably it can be useful for someone.

The first case - FAA to EASA conversion

Let's assume that you already have a FAA CPL, and your TT is under 1500h.
First of all, you have to pass 14 ATPL subjects. It's hard, but doable and not very expensive compared to the rest: from about 1000 to 3000 eur (depends on a school).

I assume that with that FAA license you already have above 200h TT and a 300nm+ solo XC. Most probably all other EASA requirements are already met if you accurately logged all your hours, better in an EASA FCL complied logbook (my case).

1) If you don't have an EASA PPL, you need a validation (easy, no min hours).
2) NVFR: 5 hours training in a single-engine (SE) airplane, can be C152 or similar, from 2 days. No practical skill test.
3) IR/SE conversion:
3.1) if you have 50h PIC IFR (not FAA PIC though - it should be without a CFI in the airplane, it MUST NOT be dual received time), no min hours requirement. Just some training in the EU airspace to prepare for a skill test, and a skill test itself. From 1 week.
3.2) if you do NOT have 50 PIC IFR hours, you have to undergo 10 hours training in an ATO, and additionally 15 hours dual received with an EASA FI (can be in ATO as well, but it is not a requirement). Then a skill test.
It's also better to ask your ATO to add a PBN, it can take some additional ground and flight hours and an approved airplane, especially if you did not have 50 PIC IFR hours - that can be incorporated in those 10 training hours.
4) ME: 6 hours training in an ATO and a skill test. From 2 days.
5) ME/IR: 5 hours training in an ATO and a skill test. From 2 days.
6) CPL: 10 hours training in an ATO in any airplane (can be C152 or similar), 5 hours training in an ATO in a complex airplane (retractable gear, VP prop) and a skill test in a complex airplane.

Total price highly depends on flight hours. ME hour price is very high in Europe, and even those 11 hours mean a lot of money (hour price is from about 400 eur). SE hour price is from about 150 eur. In overall it will be about 10-15k euro.

That's it for piston airplane ratings. After all of this it will be unrestricted EASA license with SEP/IR and MEP/IR, most probably with PBN.

The second case - you have a FAA or EASA PPL, and want to get both FAA and EASA licenses

All can be done in 250 hours TT, but for that you have to plan ahead and know both FAR and FCL requirements very well. Seriously, if you want to go that way, sit and study them.

Again, 14 ATPL subjects are required as well. There is no way to avoid them.

1. If you have an EASA PPL, the best thing is obtaining a verification letter from a FSDO where you're going to fly, and then get a validation (FAR 61.75). Sometimes you even don't need a practical test for that.
2. FAA IR: you can add the US IR to your foreign-based license, even under part 141 training. That can be done in 35 flight training hours (at least), and after that process you will have a standalone FAA IR in your piggyback 61.75 license. The flight hour price in the US is very attractive compared to Europe - you can have zero sim IR hours (i. e. all in airplane) cheaper than European IR with 25 sim hours. You will have zero EASA PIC hours though.
3. The best thing you can do now is filing IFR and flying alone, and log EASA PIC hours. They will not count towards FAA simulated instrument time though. Or you can have a safety pilot (can be a CFI, but he MUST NOT log his dual given hours, i. e. you should ACT as a PIC in FAA terms), file an IFR and fly 'under the hood' - in that case you can log both IFR and simulated instrument time.
4. As soon as you have 25 EASA PIC IFR hours, you have the option to count them as experience and use 3.2 route from the previous case (25 hours of IR training in Europe). Or you can continue flying, get 50 EASA PIC IFR hours, then go back to Europe and get your EASA IR (see 3.1 from the previous case). I suggest to fly 50 hours - IFR-equipped airplanes are much less expensive in the US.
5. Now you will have 150+ hours total time, and it's time to follow the route described in the previous case (NVFR, SE-IR-PBN skill test, ME, ME-IR, CPL). By that time I assume that you already passed your EASA ATPL subjects. Finally you will have 200+ hours, EASA CPL/ME/IR/PBN and additionally FAA IR and a lot of IFR hours. During this route it's better to check FAR and plan your training so that you can meet both EASA and FAA requirements (for example, FAA requires long XC to have a 250 nm leg, EASA does not).
6. If you still need a FAA CPL (probably you don't), you can go back to the US and follow part 61 route for CPL. You will need 15 hours with a CFI, some instrument hours, probably additional time to meet 250h requirement, study maneuvers which you probably haven't heard about in Europe. Finally you should pass a written test and a practical test. After that you can add AMEL rating in zero hours (skill test only), but most probably you will need some training. Probably you will not need the AMEL at all in your FAA license (I suppose that it's almost useless if you're not going to take a part 135 job in a ME airplane, for which you need at least 500 hours, or you're not going to become a MEI).

Of course, there is no guarantee that you can accomplish it in minimum required time - probably you will finish with 300h TT or more, but the key is planning ahead. You have to know the requirements. And, of course, it takes much more effort and self-discipline than undergoing some existing flight training program in a single ATO. But from my opinion it's more rewarding at least because of variety of experience.