Could this sad story have a happy ending

[ISA]

Some years ago I obtained a fixed wing frozen CAA ATPL with MCC (only frozen on night hours) and could not get a job and the money ran out. My class one medical lapsed couple of years ago and my CPL (A) lapsed in May 2005. I have over 1000 hours P1 fixed wing.

So I now work elsewhere (not in aviation) and fly for fun. Then I did a trial flight in a helicopter and was hocked.

So now doing PPL (H) and am thinking about possibly a FI (H) but could not face the theories again and wondered if anyone had any idea of what the CAA would credit me if anything.

I understand the CAA theories are long since gone but if I did get a job I would be one of many fixed wing jet pilots with lots of commercial experience.

Would the CAA said to a BAA captain retake you theories? I guess not so there must be a route open to me (all things crossed)

I was thinking of writing to the CAA now but then thought perhaps I should get PPL and then approach a flying school with a work for low rate deal and an offer to buy a batch of hours and an instructor course and get them to support my request to the CAA. (possibly a waste of time but hey ……)

Any idea's recommendations?

Many thanks in advance

Any one want to email me direct [email protected]

[puntosaurus]

HaHaHa. Freudian spelling mistake there.Then I did a trial flight in a helicopter and was hocked.

You will be my son, you will be !

Seriously though, I had a brief dabble in LASORS but I don't think you're going to be happy with the answer. You should check for yourself (it's available online here (http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?categoryid=33&pagetype=65&applicationid=11&mode=detail&id=1591)), but section J1.9 seems to indicate that even if you reactivated your CAA CPL(A), and converted it to JAA, the fact that you're timed out on the original theory exams would rule out any kind of bridging. It looks like you're going to have to do at the least the CPL theory again.

The good news is that you're now spared the full ATPL horror because several companies are now offering CPL(H) exams, which means nine papers rather than 13 and no unnecessary FW bollocks. The ones I know about are Dragon (http://www.dragonhelicopters.co.uk/cplgroundschool.html) and Atlantic (http://www.flyaft.com/) though I've no direct personal experience of either.

I don't think waiting or anything you do in the meantime will alter the answer you get I'm afraid. Just email the CAA ([email protected]) with details of your qualifications and what you'd like to do, and about a fortnight :bored: later you'll get the answer.

Best of luck !

PS I don't know about the CAA, but I would probably recommend therapy to any operational BA captain who wanted to work with helicopters.

[hemac]

I was thinking of writing to the CAA now but then thought perhaps I should get PPL and then approach a flying school with a work for low rate deal and an offer to buy a batch of hours and an instructor course and get them to support my request to the CAA. (possibly a waste of time but hey ……)


Unfortunately you can't work, even for payment in kind,on a PPL otherwise everyone would be doing it to build hours.

Good luck anyway.

H.