I have a Q about adding the Spanish IR onto one's UK PPL or CPL.
Normally, a UK resident pilot will have a UK PPL, and cannot get a Spanish PPL until resident in Spain for 180 days.
This exposes him to the theoretical risk of the UK CAA refusing to accept the Spanish IR onto a UK PPL.
AFAICT, this is not a problem these days, provided that
- you sat either Spanish IR exams or the UK CAA IR exams (at LGW)
- you did the flight training and the checkride both in the same Spanish FTO
- you can deliver a photocopy of the Spanish examiner's IR, showing it to be valid at the time of your test
But I wonder if a lot of ATPL students actually do a complete Spanish CPL/IR - because they have spent enough time in Spain to qualify for the Spanish papers.