Validity of PPL exams with Ultralight

[Patza]

Hi,

If I'm not wrong the PPL exams are valid for 2 years from the date of last pass and within this 2 years I need to pass my skill test else I have to re-answer all the exams again otherwise not.

Well, my question is what if I pass all the PPL exams but pass the skills test for Ultralight. Will I have to give the PPL exams again in the future if I want to upgrade from Ultralight to Airplane ?

Thanks !

P.

[Patza]

I'm referring to JAA PPL...

[Jan Olieslagers]

I can't be sure, because even though the PPL rules are governed by JAA and thus more or less the same all over Europe, microlights are under national ruling, much more varied - and I am not in the UK, and have trouble enough keeping up with my own national ruling.
That said I am afraid that yes, you will have to sit the exams again. ISTR JAR wants you to have succesfully passed a theoretical exam less than two years before passing the practical (called "skills test" in the UK).

[Genghis the Engineer]

It is country specific - and your post doesn't help advise you much since your location is shown as London, and the term "Ultralight" isn't used in the UK, nor is "Airplane".

What country, what licences?

G

[Patza]

Thanks for your responses.
The reason why I am asking this is that I have already taken theory classes for PPL and have paid for it in Austria, but for now I have decided to go for Ultralight due to the financial reason...I don't wanted my time and money to go to waste and hence still wanted to go ahead and answer the PPL exams though I now opted for Ultralight. So, I was just checking if I can save on re-answering the exams later in the future if I ever decide to go for Airplane PPL.

[Whopity]

As has already been pointed out, we do not have Ultralight in the UK so presumably you mean Microlight.

Microlight licences use a different set of exams and whilst Microlight licences have been issued in the past on the basis of someone passing the UK PPL exams, there is no precedent for accepting your Austrian exams.

As the licence you obtain will not be a JAA licence, the exams you have taken will expire unless you obtain a JAA/EASA licence within the exam validity period.

If however you do your training on a European "Ultralight" with an EASA C of A which is an SEP then all should be OK however; you will need to do the UK radio licence as well.

[RTN11]

As above, going from NPPL(M) to JAR PPL(A) is very difficult with very little allowances.

However, going from NPPL(M) to NPPL(A) and then NPPL(A) to JAR PPL(A) is a far easier route. You may still have to redo the written exams, but the flying allowance is much better and you'll only have to worry about the longer QXC, which you could include in the NPPL(A).

Admittadly it does involve more flight tests, but I've seen a few guys do it and it works well.

[IanPZ]

You sure about that RTN? I was under the impression that whilst going from NPPL(M) to NPPL(SSEA) was a relatively simple route, going from NPPL(SSEA) to PPL was only simple if you had logged enough supervised flying hours in a CofA plane. I believe that the flying hours in your logbook that are listed as Microlight only count 1:10 (so for each 10 flying hours, only counts as 1 for a plane) and only up to a maximum of 10 hours.

So, even if you are an NPPL(M) with thousands of hours, you can still only count 10 towards PPL, plus however many hours your training required for getting from NPPL(M) to NPPL(SSEA).

Easier, but not easiest route.

I'm happy to be told otherwise, but I did a lot of research before deciding to start my NPPL(M), so that I knew where I stood.

Genghis or Whopity are the ones who I think will know for sure!