Just got my new EASA PPL/IR(R)/Night with over the counter service at Gatwick - only took 1.5 hours wait! Saved courier charge of £6 and it was very pleasant experience, lunching in CAA restaurant whilst waiting. Highly recommended, but...........the new licence is a miserably small bit of paper that has to be folded to the size of a credit card to fit into the cheap looking blue plastic folder. Much less impressive than my original CAA job. But here's the big tip given me at the desk when they handed it over. Apparently people have been known to cut the paper licence up, so that the sections fit into the seperate sleeves within the plastic wallet - I can see why that would be tempting (and it would then be like the old licences - PPL, FRTO, Experience and IMC renewal sheets etc. in different sleeves), but was warned that that would invalidate the whole thing! Don't cut it up!
