To be exempt G/S you need to hold an ATP with over 1500 hours and a type rating.

^^Was what I was told by their man via email a couple of months ago.

I agree on the dual rating point - there is no equivalent to an FAA CFI, I'd have to start all over again on the EASA FI ratings.

As I am to understand it, if the people teaching EASA in the US can do so unlicensed, yet to teach FAA in the EU I have to be also EASA licensed or do it for free, I am doubly disadvantaged.

Roll on April 2016. At least the US Military in Europe is exempt...

Don't hold your hopes up. I don't think that you will get much dispensation at all from EASA at all without serious multi crew jet time. I would get the books out and start working on EASA theory.

ahwalk01 - the US CFI's teaching at EASA ATO's are not unlicensed; they hold at least an FAA Commercial Pilot Certificate with Instrument and CFI(A) qualifications in addition to prerequisite experience. On the basis of this they undertake an evaluation, full or abridged FI(A) course based on an assessment of their ability delivered by an approved EASA Flight Instructor Course instructor (FIC) and an evaluation by an authorised EASA Flight Instructor Examiner. Successful candidates are provided with an approval certificate by the ATO's state safety enforcement body (NAA) which enables the holder to teach parts of the relevant EASA FCL syllabus at that ATO and only outside of member states.


What they don't hold is an EASA licence or EASA Instructor Rating (hence the approval document to enable them to teach EASA students). Also worth noting that an EASA licence holder with no FI privileges is ineligible for the 'short' bridging course described - you would have to complete the full initial FI(A) course. As has been said, this is a means of staffing EASA approved training organisations who operate partly outside of the EU member states, and the facility to enable this was negotiated by the large ATO's for the reasons stated earlier.


Any anticipated bilateral agreements concerning FCL at this level should be discounted - at least for 2016 and the near future.

Thanks for the details guys.

Will confine myself to USAF work for the time being.

I instructed the CAA and FAA courses in the USA (dual citizen). The loophole that allowed FAA to teach there is closing up. Just as the "students" that are actually working there are starting to close up by the FAA. There are many areas of part 61 which the EASA students do not demonstrate and thus should not be signed off for solo! But to teach the EASA ppl/cpl I had to do a course with the head of training in my ATO. I was then given a caa reference number which allowed me to teach various courses at the school. So in short you are standardised by the school.


FAA to EASA conversion (sorry it is a little long):

I have just converted my ATPL from FAA to EASA (FI info lower down the page), what I did was the following:
I hold an FAA ATP, which is in the UK described as a professional licence. I was therefore exempt from the ground school requirement. I did however have to take the 14 exams. Most of the exams easy, some are just of no use in practical terms whatsoever and are hard to study for because of that. If you have an ATP you just saved a few quid as you don't need a brush up course!

There are exemptions for the RT test, you would need to look at cap 804. But from memory if you have X international flight hours you don't need to do the RT test.

After you have done the exams you need a medical and some form of skills test. I did my skills test in a sim, it was an aircraft which I have 3000 or so hours in and was really very straight forward. No oral examination just the flight. But I could of taken the skills test in a different sim which I had no previous experience after a full training course.

Now I am doing the Flight instructor conversion. Which again there is a reduction for!

In the UK you have to do a pre course assessment to enable you to start the FI course. The CAA state that everyone has to do the 30hr ground and 15hr flight course BUT the ATO which you are doing it at can request a reduction in these times if you hold a valid ICAO flight instructors rating which you do as the FAA is ICAO.

Feel free to email me if you like if you want more info as I have just been through this and It wasn't easy

Thanks for the detailed reply davie7ee. I'm trying to study for the EASA CPL exams at the minute, as I have FAA commercial, so am exempt the groundschool/classroom bit and can just self study and take the exams - which I didn't know I could do until recently. Only small problem being I'll have to do them all again plus a little bit more to get ATPL theory should I need that, which I probably will in future to have any real hope of a job in the EU - although on paper a EASA CPL/MEIR should suffice, and I'll just be stuck right seat for the rest of my life, never getting a command.

I did the FI stuff, coming from FAA CFI/II AGI IGI, and have been working full-time as an FI for well over a year now... I was able to get that using the route you mentioned, logging something like 4.5 hours flying (including test) and a bit of ground. I should mention I'd also held the EASA CRI rating for over a year prior, so I think some of that helped, as it wasn't based purely on my FAA credentials. So all the talk of this 15 hours flight and 30 ground is nonsense, because as you correctly point out, the ATO can decide on a reduction which the CAA then have to accept - which is great info for any other foreign FIs trying to get into the EASA system. Fortunately the thing that works for me is the allowance of paid flight instruction on a PPL, and that I can teach students towards LAPL/NPPL without having EASA CPL theoretical knowledge passes. So there are some positives, and you can make things work if you do your research and have a good ATO that will back you up and not force you into flying for 15 hours!

Just gets my back up that we have such a stupid system where ICAO qualified people have to jump through so many hoops and get around all the beurocracy and protectionism to do the things that they are more than capable of doing, if only they had different writing stamped on their licences/certificates and certain registrations on their aircraft.

No you won't. You are not eligible for any job in a multi crew environment without an ATPL exam pass.