Originally Posted by
parkfell
Unless the regulations have very recently changed, the UK CAA deployed an examiner to Jerez to conduct the initial UK IRST.
Those EASA Spanish students were tested by authorised FTEJerez staff examiners.
As FTEJerez have both EASA & UK CAA approvals no UK base exists or was necessary.
Discussing the merits of Spanish v. UK weather conditions are to some extent not an issue as the MCC/APS course provides various weather scenarios which more than makes up for a fair weather base.
The regulations have indeed changed. For EITHER a UK or EASA initial IR skill test, familiarisation flying and the test itself must be flown in the relevant airspace - EASA for an EASA IR, UK for UK IR.