PPl exams in the UK...Flight training in Spain

[frert]

I've searched for this for a while now but can't find anything specific to these questions.

If I sit my PPL written exams in the UK, will they be valid in Spain?

Can I do the written exams here and then go to Spain for flight training and skills test?

I know they're booth JAA licenses but not sure of the legality surrounding this issue.

Would it be better to do all the exams here, then go to spain for all the training and then come home and take the skills test in the Uk?

Would I be able to do solo training in Spain using the Air Law exam I sat in the UK?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Keygrip]

Let me help then, at PPL level, "No" they can't be transferred (as the questions, especially air law, do not come from a European database but are specific to the one country), at ATPL Level the questions *MIGHT* be accepted by another state - but you have to ask them specifically.

[172driver]

check with these (http://www.aerodynamics-malaga.com/) people, they train a lot of foreign pilots in Spain.

[BackPacker]

JAA is great once you have the PPL. But before the PPL, hardly anything is transferable. Although the flight experience requirements do not specify a country, so flight experience/training, as long as properly signed off, can be had in any country.

One caveat though: for a number of reasons (aircraft familiarization, local area familiarization, procedure familiarization, pre-skills test check), expect the last five or so hours before your skills test, to be flown in the country where you do the skills test.

Although some clubs require a pass in certain exams (air law mostly) before going solo or x-country solo, this is NOT a legal requirement in the UK. It's also not something that JAR-FCL prescribes. It might be a legal requirement in Spain. I don't know.

The reasons clubs sometimes want you to do air law before going solo (and/or nav before going x-country) is mostly that they want you to study the theory while training, and by forcing exams on you during the flying training they force you to keep theory and practice in balance. Another reason often quoted is insurance, "duty of care" or something, but this could easily be covered with an FAA-style pre-solo exam made up by the school. (Recent discussion about this elsewhere on PPRuNe.)

So here's what I guess you should do:
- Sit all theory exams, and the R/T practical, in the UK.
- Go to Spain to get flight trained, including x-country solo, for something like 40 hours
- Do the last five hours with an instructor in the UK
- Do the skills test in the UK.
- Send the whole lot to the CAA to be issued your JAR-FCL PPL.

You can do it the other way around, or do the whole lot in Spain to be issued a Spanish JAR-FCL PPL, but then I guess you've got to do the theory exams (and possibly the oral part of the skills test) in Spanish.

[llanfairpg]

Contact CAA first of all and get it in writing.