Originally Posted by
Bahama Breeze
What options do I have in terms of doing the checkride? The majority of my multi IFR time is on the Dash 8 400 but I can't exactly go and rent one for a checkride!
There's nothing that would require you to take your ATP checkride in a Dash 8. Take it in whatever is available and economical. Piper Seminoles and Beech Duchesses are common.
Originally Posted by
Bahama Breeze
Also, in Australia the 1500 hours must come from "aeronautical experience" whereas in the US I keep seeing "total time". The distinction I'm hoping you can clear up is whether or not copilot time counts fully towards the new FAA ATP 1500 hours, as in Australia copilot time is only 50%, so it's in essence taking me twice as long to reach that goal in the eyes of Australia.
Copilot time counts fully, except for those requirements which are specifically PIC experience.
Originally Posted by Part 61
61.159 (c) A commercial pilot may credit the following second-in-command flight time or flight-engineer flight time toward the 1,500 hours of total time as a pilot required by paragraph (a) of this section:
(1) Second-in-command time, provided the time is acquired in an airplane—
(i) Required to have more than one pilot flight crewmember by the airplane's flight manual, type certificate, or the regulations under which the flight is being conducted;
The Dash 8 requires 2 pilots, so you're covered there. This is just to exclude guys trying to use C-172 "copilot" time. So your time in the Dash 8 will count toward:
1500 hours total time
500 hours Cross Country
100 hours Night time
75 hours instrument time.
I would think that by the time you have 1500 hr, most of it flying the Dash 8, you'd have all that covered, with the possible exception of the instrument time.
Your Dash 8 time will not count toward:
250 hours PIC
100 hours Cross Country PIC
25 hours night PIC.
Depending on how you arrived at where you are, you may be lacking those requirements. If so, you need a plan for accomplishing that. Bear in mind that all of those can be logged in a C-152, there's no requirement for them to be multi-time, or even in an airplane, just in an aircraft.
As far as the knowledge test, Normally, at the moment all you need to do is have an instructor's endorsement that you have done a self study course. If you can figure out a way to get this done before August 1, it would save having to go through an ATP program. There are a number of test prep courses available commercially and of course there's always the route of just getting the books and studying. The ATP exam really isn't too difficult. The most challenging for you would probably be the Regulatory questions, weight and balance, or aerodynamics is the same in the US as it is in Australia. At any rate the Test prep courses will give you a sufficient number of sample questions that you'll know what you need to know for the exam.
As others have mentioned, once passed the knowledge test id good for 24 months, so that's something you could do well ahead of time, and is relatively simple and inexpensive (except for the part about getting to a US testing center)
As far as I can tell, the guys who are saying that you need to get a US Commercial certificate with Instrument rating are mistaken. According to this:
Originally Posted by Part 61
§61.153 Eligibility requirements: General.
To be eligible for an airline transport pilot certificate, a person must:
(a),(b),(c) not relevant to question at hand.
(d) Meet at least one of the following requirements:
(1), (2) Not relevant to you.
(3) Holds either a foreign airline transport pilot license with instrument privileges, or a foreign commercial pilot license with an instrument rating, that—
(i) Was issued by a contracting State to the Convention on International Civil Aviation; and
(ii) Contains no geographical limitations.
So, unless I'm missing something else here, it seems like your current Aus CPL and IR is all you need to enable you to take the ATP practical.
I wouldn't worry too much about trying to migrate your Dash 8 endorsement to you USA certificate. If you can turn that into a Dash 8 (SIC Only) type rating without too much effort, great, if not, no big loss. The SIC only type rating is a pretty useless thing, it doesn't confer any real privileges, and it's something that's handed out to anyone who qualifies as SIC at an airline. It was dreamed up a few years back to satisfy certain countries who require the SIC to hold a type rating. The US does not. Even if you were hired by another Dash 8 Operator, it wouldn't save them any time or money. They still have to put you through initial training anyway, and once they do that the SIC only type rating is only a pen stroke away.
Hope this helps.