What can I do in 9 weeks?
Hi folks.
I am about to change jobs in three months and am planning on taking some time out before starting at the new job. I will have about 9 or 10 weeks. I would like to go to the US and get some flying done towards my eventual goal of fATPL (JAA). I have already done the PPL.
Obviously I can get some hour building in but what else can I do that doesn't involve a lot of ground school? I am planning on doing the ATPL ground school by distance learning when I come back so don't want to spend too much time on that while I'm there nor do I want to duplicate work. I am also planning on doing whatever flying I need to do here (UK) over the next couple of years so whatever I can't get done in the US I will do here eventually; I just want to use this time to get a good start.
JAR-CPL requires 150 hours before starting so is probably not possible in the time available - also a lot of theory. JAR-IR doesn't have the hours requirement but there are 7 papers to pass before the skills test. Are those papers ATPL level? As far as I can see I would only get a credit for the IFR communications paper in the ATPL. Does that mean the rest are PPL level and my PPL passes would count towards these papers?
Could I do the FAA IR instead and convert once I have done the ATPL groundschool? Does the FAA IR require much ground learning before the flight test?
Is there some other way? I'm not too keen on an IMC because it doesn't count towards the fATPL, I would be logging P/UT rather than P1 time and I am planning to do IR anyway.
Any advice gratefully received.
Thanks