Is the JAA PPL Dead?
The CAA have recently confirmed that you can use an ICAO compliant licence to fly G- Reg aircraft in the UK and exercise the privileges of your ICAO licence at private level.
What this means is that an FAA PPL ME IR + medical holder is entitled to fly a G-Reg ME aircraft in IMC in the UK on their FAA certificate with NO conversion.
The French authorities (along with several others) have stated that whatever the CAA allow, then they will allow, and confirm that the ICAO (say FAA) PPL holder will be entitled to fly the G reg aircraft into French airspace. They also confirm that no conversion would be required to fly a F reg aircraft.
As many ICAO PPLs (ie FAA) include night flying as part of the PPL issue, this also means that the hypothetical FAA PPL ME IR holder is not restricted to day and that the FAA IR will give the same privileges as the UK IMC holder, so now the holder is no longer restricted to VFR...
So...what is the point in doing a JAA PPL any more?
Rgds
EA