South African PPL validity

[Dakota Queen]

Hi folks

Will the above allow me hire planes in the USA or Australia?

I know its ok for the UK, I was thinking the yanks would be stickier.

Cheerio



;)

[Garth]

For whatever the info is worth, i came to Oz with a current South African PPL, and had to convert it to a "special licence" to fly in Oz. The rules have just recently changed (or are about to) and the special licence category will fall away. To be replaced with what? dunno! Depending on the type of flying you intend doing here, you might get away with a local hire arrangement if you satisfy the establishment by way of flight test as to your competencies.
You haven't had any responses, so I thought I would offer you something. Sorry not too much fact in the content. you could also email CASA and put your request to them. Try www.casa.gov.au
Good Luck.
PS got no idea about the UK/USA

[FlyingForFun]

I think the rules for the USA are the same regardless of what country your PPL comes from:

No, you can't fly on your SA PPL. What you need to do is get an FAA license based on your foreign license. Until recently, this was a simple matter of speaking to one of a small number of authorised examiners, who would normally give you your FAA license on the spot as long as your English is good enough (which it obviously will be if English is your first language).

However, the rules have now changed. You can no longer get your FAA license without the FAA speaking to the issuing country's aviation authority and doing a background check on you. Have a look around PPRuNe - there are people from many countries who have done this successfully. The only country I know of which has caused problems is the UK, who refuse to give data to the FAA because of the data protection act. But it would be worth speaking to a South African who has done this within the last few weeks to find out if there were any problems, how long it took, etc. Or, failing that, talk to the aviation authorities in SA to confirm that they will be happy to give your details to the FAA.

Check out Richard's excellent thread on flying in the USA (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=65838) for more details.

Good luck!

FFF
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[Irv]

I see you are from Eire - turning the question round and back on you, I believe Eire is like the UK in that they do allow day VFR flying in Eire with a SA PPL in an Irish registered plane (providing you stick to your SA legal 'types' in your PPL) without any real extra formality o nthe paperwork side - is that your understanding too?