License frustration

[KCDW]

Just need to vent a little...
I haven't flown for 5 months.
Short story goes like this:
Failed medical... "don't come back until you're fixed" were the parting comments from the Doc.
Finally I got fixed last month. As I placed the spanking new Medical Certificate into my now rather tatty looking brown excuse for a license holder, I thought I would give it a once over... shock, horror, I hadn't renewed the license after 5 years! I would have been flying illegally if had not been broken.
I know, mea culpa, I mean the first thing you think of when you get your hard earned license is: "ooh, I must make a diary date for 5 years hence to renew my license"...not.
For the sort of dosh we spend on these things, you would have thought a reminder letter would have not gone amiss.
Anyways, 2 weeks later, (and 60 odd quid poorer), my new license returns. We now have a case of groundhog day, to whit:
...as I placed the spanking new license into my still rather tatty looking brown excuse for a license holder (couldn't they have replaced it with a nice blue one), I thought I would give it a once over... shock, horror... my radio license runs out in a couple of months :{
For Pete's sake. Why do they have to be separate? Why couldn't they have run out at the same time? Where's my b****y reminder letter? Somebody please tell me I don't have to send the blooming thing back to b******t castle.
I haven't had the strength to check their website for the inevitable bureaucracy and wallet damage yet...
End of vent.
I feel much better.
Hello, remember me?
KC

[Keygrip]

I just know you're going to growl at me for saying this...but - YOU are responsible for keeping track of the dates etc. (You are a responsible person, are you not?).

Anyway - the good news. Fill in http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/FORSRG1106.PDF and send to the address that they have printed on it.

Attach a covering letter asking for a new brown folder for your PPL.

Don't send any money - for either the FRTOL or the new brown folder. They are both free.

Now....smile!!

[KCDW]

Keygrip
How can I growl at a cat, particularly one bearing good news :) .
Thank-you.
2 points -
re: the form. My points regarding bureaucracy remain moot. I can't divine any point to renewing it if there is not renewal test/proof of experience required. Plus a reminder letter is a common business courtesy, we are human after all.
re: responsiblity, I have a dual personality - in a plane, coolness, maturity and professionalism personified; out of a plane: still act half my age, to my shame tax returns are almost always done on the very last day possible... :uhoh:
Thanks again

<<edit: My dog growls at cats - when he thinks they want his biscuits.>>

[oscarmike]

Similar thing happened to me.

It was only due to a paragraph in a newsletter from my former flying school, advising PPL holders of the JAR variety should be taking a peek at the renewal date.

I did, and found mine had expires two weeks previously without my realising it. As KDCW says, five years is a long time, and with what we fork out to the CAA surely a reminder notice wouldn't go amiss?

However, on the positive side, they did also renew my RT licence so that the two dates are now synchronised.:ok: