JAA IR Working Group Update
An update.....
We held the last meeting of the IR working Group this weekend and are preparing the report for submission to PLD. I have plagiarized some words from one of my working group colleagues as an excellent summary of events.
I will publish a copy of the report as soon as it is ready for submission.
To summarise for those who haven't read the thread and background:
Coming out of the GA Strategic Review earlier this year, the CAA set up a Working Group with Industry to review the requirements for the PPL/IR in order to make them more proportionate and accessible.
The meeting yesterday was the final one, to agree the final recommendations.
I think the "Industry" team found it a positive process. The recommendations represent an agreed CAA and Industry viewpoint. There are plenty of items I'd personally add to a "wish list", but the outcome is a good balance between "the politically possible/acceptable" and the orginal views we started with.
The most significant recommendations are
A. Redesigning the PPL IR Theory syllabus so that it excludes material relevant to CPL, ATPL privileges and Type Rated aircraft and focuses only on knowledge relevant to IFR privileges
B. Removing the mandatory classroom attendance for the theory course
C. Making the exams available "on-demand" at 3rd party testing centres
D. Making the flight training more "competency-based" rather than requiring 50hrs for all candidates. Pure competency based training would not have any minimum training hrs. The recommendation is a hybrid, with 25hrs minimum consisting of the 10 hr Basic IF module already in place and a further 15hr Applied IF module. This is a major step forward from the current 50hrs. IMC holders may be able to get credit towards the 10hr Basic module
The main subject we have not made progress on is relaxing the requirement for all training to be at JAA Approved FTOs. This principle is deeply embedded in EASA and JAA thinking and it was considered futile at this point to try and push it forward.
The next steps are that a formal report will be finished and submitted to the Head of PLD ( the Personnel Licensing Dept of the CAA). A significant number of the recommendations should be within the discretion of the CAA, the remainder will be submitted as the UK position to EASA and EU-FCL.
I would be cautiously optimistic that something may happen in the next 6 months to implement some of these recommendaitons, but the outlook will not be clear until the CAA's PLD have reviewed the recommendations and decided how to act.