Does anybody know whats involved in converting an FAA CPL license to local license in Ghana? I heard there is an Air Law exam but who administers it?
what other tests (eg skills test?) are involved?
The Air Law test is administered by GCAA's Personnel Licensing section.
The test itself is quite straightforward. If you qualify to sit the test, you are provided with a study guide. Together with a review of the GCARs and the current Ghana AIP, that should be more than enough for a properly qualified CPL holder to pass the test. I do not know of anyone who has failed the test, and that includes some folks who I seriously have concerns whether they knew which side of the plane pointed up.
To be permitted to sit the test, you must be able to show significant ties to Ghana other than simply those related to aviation. That means you should be a citizen of Ghana, born in Ghana, permanent resident of Ghana, or something other than simply trying to get the license in order to land a job with a Ghana carrier. This is at the discretion of GCAA - lately they have been very strict about this due to abuse of the system.
If you cannot show the Ghana ties as above, you cannot get a license CONVERSION but rather a 6-month VALIDATION (which is renewable at GCAA's discretion). The key difference between the two is that the validation requires you to have a type rating already endorsed on your FAA license (unless you want a validation to fly an aircraft type that doesn't require a type-rating), while the conversion permits a basic Ghana CPL/IR to be issued without the type-rating. Once you have the Ghana CPL/IR you can undergo a GCAA approved type rating course and then have the type-rating directly endorsed on your Ghana CPL/IR.
Africa World Airlines only conducts GCAA approved type-rating courses, which means that the prerequisite has to be a Ghana CPL/IR or ATPL and not just a validation. However, pilots who already hold ERJ-145 type ratings on their ICAO license can apply and go through the validation process.
Hope this clarifies!