Today I received the above letter from the CAA informing me of the proposed changes to Flight Crew Licensing due to new European legislation.
As usual with the CAA, the letter was about as much use as tits on a fish, with an overwhelming caveat of "it's up to you to try and understand this bollocks and if you don't, then tough!"
I followed the advice of the letter and went to CAA website to see what it's all about. Having read the 'painful' 35-page document (
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/620/c-May2011v3.pdf) I'm now even more confused!
All I want to know is what I have to do, if anything, to keep my licence or get it exchange for whatever new, fangled European licence is being issued.
My UK CAA PPL(Aeroplanes) was issued in 1997 before JAA-PPL were invented. It states that the licence will remain valid for life, unless revoked, suspended or varied and that I can exercise the privileges as long as I hold a valid medical certificate. It also states that I can exercise the privileges at night. So basically, in my eyes, I hold a CAA PPL(A) with night rating with a SEP(LAND) rating. I thought that my current licence was valid in all European member countries.
Reading the documentation, it constantly refers to NPPL(A) - (National PPL(A)), which is where I become confused, is my CAA PPL(A) now being referred to as a NPPL(A) or is that something different altogether?
Also, if I read the documentation correctly, I actually will require 2 different types of licence to continue flying the current aircraft which I fly because a PA28 is EASA aircraft, whereas the YAK 52 is a non-EASA aircraft because it's on a Permit-to-fly. Is this correct?
Having got to the end of the document, it does little to tell you exactly what you need to do to keep or exchange your licence.
Am I the only thick person here or does someone else actually understand this? If you do understand it and can explain it to me in plain, simple English, then I'd very much appreciate it!
Thanks,
Dom