MEIR and ATPL exams not lost?

[Airmagnet]

Hello,

I have a JAA CPL and I live work in another country... I have 12 months left to get an IR before my ATPL subjects expire... or so I thought... I called the CAA yesterday and asked if I obtained a foreign MEIR within the next 12 months would I still have to do a UK MEIR flight test to keep my exams.... the lady I spoke to referred me to LASORS D1.3 on ATPL exams which says if an IR is obtained within 36 months the subjects remain valid for a period of 7 years.... I'm slightly confused and still unsure whether I need to do a flight test with a CAA examiner to keep my exams??????? Can anyone shed any light and / or point me to the correct bit of text..... PM if possible due time difference.

Thanks.

[whiskey1]

Airmagnet you original thoughts are correct.
You have 36 months to have a CPL and or Instrument Rating issued/added to your JAA/EASA licence.
Once you have that in place exam credit remains valid for seven years from your last instrument rating renewal for the issue of an ATPL licence.
A "foreign" IR just reduces the training hours requirements for the issue of the IR.
So if you don't gain a JAA/EASA Instrument Rating in the next 12 months you will have to do all 14 exams again if you want an ATPL issued or the IR exams to put an IR on you JAA/EASA Licence.
So if you want to fly in Europe, Do the IR.

W1

[Airmagnet]

Hi Wiskey1,

Thank you for your reply.

The lady at the CAA said as long as an IR is obtained the exams remain valid, I asked if this applied to IR's obtained outside of Europe to which she said yes.

I have no desire to return to Europe to fly but I want to eventually convert my licences to the country I'm currently residing in as I plan to be here for the foreseeable future. I've been flying here on my CPL with a Certificate of Validation. The COV can be reissued as many times as I want so rather than convert my CPL at this stage I want to wait until I have unlocked my ATPL and convert that instead of converting my CPL now and doing another conversion (ATPL) in the future.

[madlandrover]

As with any CAA question, get the answer in writing/email before you commit to any course of training - the rules have a funny habit of changing at inconvenient times with no retrospective credits.

[Alex Whittingham]

Good advice. In fact the advice from the lady at the CAA appears to be wrong UK CAA IR Fiasco (http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/487882-uk-caa-ir-fiasco.html)

[ZuluZuluAlpha]

What I'm confused about is the MCC bit, if you do your CPL/IR can you leave it at that & keep the exams valid for 7 years then do the MCC if/when jobs arise?

[RTN11]

You need an MCC certificate before you apply for your first multi crew type rating. It bears no relation to the exams or IR (other than needing the IR before doing MCC) so there is no time limit on getting the MCC as long as your IR is valid.

[Airmagnet]

The petition looks great. Fingers crossed for all in this situation.