FAA bureaucracy
In 1976 I walked into the FAA office at Montgomery Field in San Diego, and handed the man behind the desk my Aus CPL. I asked was it possible to obtain an FAA licence? He
disappeared into the back office and was gone for about 15 mins. I was a bit unhappy about having to wait so long for the answer to a simple question.
But he returned and handed me back both my Aus licence AND my new FAA CPL licence (annotated not for commercial ops).
An hours check ride to the east of San Diego in the late afternoon (with my westward return following I8 into the San Diego smog) left me fully checked out for private flying.
The good old days.
Seabreeze