Hi G.
Firstly, don't blame your School for being confused by the turmoil that UK Pilot Licensing has been through in the last 15 years. The EASA Part.FCL shambles has just been piled on top of the JAR FCL debacle, so we are just now beginning to understand the mess we are in.
To keep a long and sorry story short, your original CAA lifetime PPL is still valid, and all you need to do is renew the 'Group A' Rating.
The 'Group A' no longer exists however, so now, you have to Renew it as the nearest EASA equivalent, which is a 'Single Engine Piston Class Rating'(SEP)
To do this, you have to go to a Approved Training Organisation(ATO) or Registered Training Facility(RF), and your Flying School will be one of these.
The Head of Training(HOT) or Chief Flying Instructor(CFI) will then assess what training (if any) you will need to complete, to pass the Renewal Proficiency Check(PC). After you have completed any training, and even if you didn't have to do any training, they will issue a Course Completion Certificate(CCC), which you will need to give to the Examiner before you can do the PC.
The PC is essentially the original issue Skill Test, without the nav part.
Once you have passed the PC, the Examiner will sign your Licence, and fill in a form SRG1119e. You are then good to go for Aeroplanes up to 2000kg VFR, until April 2018.
After April 2018, you will be restricted to non-EASA aircraft, (These are aircraft with a UK, rather than EASA, Permit to Fly/CofA) unless you convert your Licence to an EASA one.
As for the Tailwheel and VP Prop, I would suggest that you email the CAA at
[email protected] and ask them if they will accept your Australian endorsements. If they won't, the worst that can happen is that you will have to do a checkride with an EASA Instructor, so that he can endorse them for you. Having said that, you will probably have to do that anyway, before you can hire a school's aircraft.
You could, however, kill all these birds with one stone, by doing the PC in a tailwheel/VPP aircraft!
No Aerobatic Rating Is required on a UK PPL.
If you convert your Licence to an EASA one in 2018, however, an aerobatic rating will then be required.
Hope that helps. MJ
Ps. In the meantime, if you still have a valid Australian Licence, with a valid single engine rating, and valid Medical, you can use that to fly UK registered aircraft, VFR on private flights, until 2016.
MJ