PPL Validation............

[Just another student]

Am I right in saying that once you have obtained your PPL, the only flying you HAVE to do is in order to keep your SEP rating valid? This being 12 hrs with 6hrs being PIC, 1hr with an instructor, to include 12 take offs and landings within the 12 months prior to re-validation.
It may seem a daft question, (especially as I am half way through my ATPLS) however I just want to check if my thinking is correct.

Thanks.:D

[FlyingForFun]

You don't even have to do that. You can get your class rating revalidated (that's not the right word, but I can't remember the correct JAR-speak) if you don't meet the hours requirements by undergoing an appropriate amount of training and satisfying an examiner that you're still safe.

Although how you're supposed to remember where the throttle lever is if you fly this infrequently, I'm not quite sure...

FFF
-------------

[Bluebeard2]

Agree with all of the above, but there are some things to consider (personal recent experience):

Some people's interpretation of the 1 hour p/ut is that it should include a set content (stalls, PFLs, steep turns etc)
I believe a guide to this has been issued as an AIC - but it is not mandatory, so if you just want to spend that hour spinning then that should be fine.
You will also need to get the instructor to sign-of that 1 hour p/ut in your logbook to confirm that you are vaguely competent. Given that this implies you are a safe pilot, the instructor might want to do some of the guide content anyway.
The 1 hour p/ut must be able to be logged as a single flight - you can't do 55 mins. and than 5 mins. to qualify.
I was advised by my club that there was a set form of words to be recorded in the logbook for that qualifying hour eg "I am happy that J.Bloggs is a jolly good chap under JAR". Just in case anyone else asks for this, I rang the CAA and they told me there was no stipulation for this at all, a signature will do.
BTW, my 1 hour was part of my tailwheel conversion, for which a signature was required anyway.

[Just another student]

Cheers guys, the reason I asked was because I havn't flown for nearly a year as I have been too busy studying............ that and the weather!

Ah well IMC and Multi are next on the list.

Thanks

[FlyingForFun]

Well, in that case, as long as none of your class rating, license and medical happened to have expired in that period, you're still legal to fly.

But, as I suggested in my earlier post, legal and safe are not the same thing...

FFF
------------

[ModernDinosaur]

There is an excellent FAQ for this sort of thing at http://www.higherplane.flyer.co.uk/faq.htm - in particular http://www.higherplane.flyer.co.uk/faq.htm##9 addresses license revalidation.

My understanding, and I do stand to be corrected here, is that the current requirements to revalidate a PPL(A) SEP rating are as follows:

Option 1: 12 hours logged in the 12 months preceeding renewal, including at least 6 hours P1 and at least a 1 hour flight with an instructor (not, for example, two 30 minutes flights). The instructor you fly with must sign your logbook and an examiner must sign your Certificate of Experience/Revalidation included in your license. That's right - TWO signatures are required, and if either if not done before the 2 years are up, then you have to use Option 2...

Option 2: a line proficiency check (mini-GFT) with an examiner, appropriately signed off by the examiner in both license and logbook.

It seems that the examiner's signature required in "option 1" is often not widely known about and a number of licenses are therefore invalid even though the flying requirements have been satisfied. The examiner's signature cannot be backdated - miss the date on your CofE/CofR even by one day and you have to take the mini-GFT option. It is perhaps a shame that a clear document giving the rules in full is not available on the CAA website (or if it is then it's somewhere I can't find it!) The topic was covered in some depth at the CAA Safety Evening held at Shoreham a few months ago.

I know the Ops teams at a number of flying schools have been warned to watch out for violations of the "two signatures or you're out" rule. They will (quite rightly) refuse to release aircraft to PPLs with lapsed paperwork as the insurance will be invalid, but this obviously won't catch those people who fly their own aeroplanes.

Fly safe - and with two signatures.

MD.