Loophole?

[Sam Rutherford]

I have a friend who has failed his JAA medical :uhoh:, but passed his FAA medical:ok:.

He does though, have a JAA microlight, and appropriate licence.

He is asking if he can:

Go to US and get his FAA PPL.
Come back here, and fly a G registered aeroplane in the UK using his FAA PPL.

My gut feeling is yes - but I am not sure.

Additionally, I suspect he can probably use his FAA PPL with a G registered aeroplane, and fly it around Europe (subject to individual countries giving him the okay - as per the other post about this).

Am I missing a key piece of the puzzle?

Safe flights, Sam.

[172driver]

My understanding is that a US PPL is good worldwide for day-VFR in a G-reg.

What your friend will not be able to do, is go down the conversion route for a JAR PPL as this requires a JAR medical.

[IO540]

He can fly a G-reg worldwide on any ICAO PPL (VFR noncommercial, etc) but this concession (in the UK ANO) is set to end in 2012.

Why exactly did he fail the JAA medical and pass the FAA one? There are not many conditions which can do that, and anyway there may be ways around it. For example (as I posted recently) the UK CAA is allowing initial medicals to be done on the renewal limits.

[znww5]

I'm not quite clear whether he has a JAR PPL(A), PPL(M) or both - its been a long day!
Either way, wouldn't the NPPL be a solution, especially with EASA eyeing up FAA licensed, european-based pilots?

[Jan Olieslagers]

He does have a JAA microlight, and appropriate licence. Making it sound as if like there existed a JAA microlight license - is there really such a thing?

Sounds rather like "He has an ultralight registered in some JAA country, and the corresponding national license" - which would be the NPPL(M) in the UK. But since no medical was required, France seems more likely.

Please clarify?

[Jan Olieslagers]

I'm not quite clear whether he has a JAR PPL(A), PPL(M) or both.

Unless I missed a lot of things, the only JAR PPL definitions are PPL(A) and PPL(H).
As I guess, they are now working on a European LSA equivalent (ELSA was it, right?), which would more or less correspond to your PPL(M). Once that is in place, the national authorities are left to controlling their equivalents of US'an ultralights (FAA part 103). But Europeans are strong on traditions, in this case that means nothing much will change in the next few years. Administrations were never fast, and the bigger the slower, and Brussels is very big.
Too big, I'd say, if't were not for the money I can occasionally gain there.

[Sam Rutherford]

Hi, I'm guessing he has an NPPL(M).

He owns and flies his own microlight; around Europe.

I can ask if that's not the info needed.

How sure is the 2012 deadline?

Cheers, Sam.

[Pace]

How sure is the 2012 deadline?

I very much doubt anything regarding N reg will ever go through in its present form or anything like.

More likely is that before then a bilateral agreement will either be signed or agreed in principal meaning the N reg issue will be put on indefinate hold.

Pace

[IO540]

I am inclined to agree, but I also think the CAA ANO concession on flying G-reg on any ICAO license is a lot more vulnerable than N-reg stuff.

This is because very very few people know about it (if everybody knew, the UK flight training business would be severely damaged because many more people would go to the USA) and I suspect very few use it.

Also converting a US PPL into a UK/JAA PPL, if you have 100hrs TT, is pretty easy.

OTOH the EASA proposals contain a rather vague bit about the local CAA having the option to accept foreign licenses, and historically, for a pure PPL, this has not been an issue. It is the IR which causes all the axe grinders to come out of the woodwork...

And 2-3 years (allowing some transition time) is a long time. None of us are getting younger and a few years' privileges can be priceless.

[172driver]

Chaps, you are mixing apples and pears here. The FAA PPL has nothing whatsoever to do with any microlight, UK-based or otherwise, that Sam's friend may or may not be flying.

If he holds a standalone FAA PPL he is good to go day VFR in any G-reg, AFAIK worldwide.

The only uncertainty at this point in time is the EASA threat to FCL, well documented in two other threads here.

[Whopity]

He can fly a UK Reg aircraft on the basis of his FAA Certificate at the moment however the rules will be changing under EASA in 2012. The CAA has the right to prohibit him from exercising the privileges of his FAA licence if they wish to do so and they have done this in the past. Therefore, if he has failed his UK medical and wishes to operate on a FAA certificate, the less people who know about it the more likely he is to get away with it.

[IO540]

I would think that with most NPPL holders being pilots who failed (or could not get) the CAA Class 2, it would be more difficult for the CAA to keep an eye on this than was the case years ago.

[G_STRING]

I0540

Why exactly did he fail the JAA medical and pass the FAA one? There are not many conditions which can do that, and anyway there may be ways around it. For example (as I posted recently) the UK CAA is allowing initial medicals to be done on the renewal limits.

Can you direct me to your recent post concerning initial/renewal limits?

Thanks