FenFlyer

Is there anyone here who has any experience of flying/hiring GA aeroplanes in Argentina?

I'd be interested in hearing about any problems you encountered and of any appropriate airfields near Buenos Aires.

Bluebeard777

I think you should start by checking the licensing requirements, I have a feeling you have to have an Argentine licence to fly an Argentine-registered aircraft...... and this is a non-trivial exercise unless you speak fluent Spanish .
We investigated this some time ago.

FenFlyer

Thanks, that's what I suspected.

I found this partly translated explanation -


* speak Spanish

* first and it completes leaf of flight log certified by the organization that governs the air activities in the origin country, in the case of paises like Spain where at the moment the pilots are what their hours certifican, copies of the law where he appears the norm preferably and a note of the organization where brevet was done the course recognizing and the hours that have flown in the same one, and explaining the norm that prevails in Spain (Haya Stamp)

* License (Haya stamp)
* Book of flight, first and last leaf (Haya stamp)
* Valid Psicofisiológical certificate. You can revalidate you original certificate at the INMAE.

Dan Dare

I flew there about 4 years ago. As far a I can remember it would have been posible to get an Argentinian licence based on my FAA PPL, but my (lack of) language skills made that unnecessary. I understand that even if ATC understood your english, they would not be allowed to respond in english without an appropriate rating (probably a good thing) and only international airports had english rated ATC. You would have to have quite good aviation spainish to consider going alone, but even then a local instructor could give you some ideas about where to go, or more importantly, where not to go. I ended up hiring the aircraft with local instructors and paying their lunch and costs for a days touring. When I was there the currency had recently been devalued so everything seemed very cheep for me - the flip side to this is that genuine aircraft parts for maintenance would have been incredibly expensive for them! I remember how exciting it was seeing the one other GA aircraft flying while I was there (and yes I was looking!)

I think that it was about £50/hour dual in a PA28-235 and about £100/hour for a BE58 at the time. I will try to fish out some phone numbers and destinations if you're interested.

FenFlyer

Thanks. That'd be very useful. Feel free to PM me.

172driver

Dan, pls keep me in the loop. Always wanted to go flying in Argentina (I know the country quite well). Spanish shouldn't be a huge problem for me, I speak it - would need to brush up on phraseology, however.

Does anyone know if the conversion (from FAA or CAA) license entails a test ? Language, radio work?

Dan Dare

I got the impression it was a paperwork exercise to get the lincece much like the CAA-FAA conversion, but I think it worked from FAA-ArgentinianAA. Never did it though, so I'm not 100% sure. Its not a bad idea to at least learn local procedures before holiganising someone elses airspace though, and it wouldn't hurt to know their laws. Not too difficult if you know their language, but far beyond my "dos cervesas" standard of spanish.

Amoung the memorable trips was Buenos Aires to Colonia in Uraguay (just across the river). It was probably not much more expensive than the tourist ferry across the rio plata, but much more slylish. EVERYONE was onthe take though, from the half dozin Argentinian officials who had to sign paperwork to let you out to the taxi fares of the Uraguayan officials, who had to come and stamp our passports (in and out at the same time) when we got there. I think we paid $100 or £100 in fees over the flying costs. Still a worthly trip though.

The best place I flew from was called Hangar Norte on an airfield in a northern BA suburban. A quick google revealed that they don't seem to internet anymore, but I'll make further enquiries...

egld0624

Dear All,

I was in touch with a very helpful fellow ppruner some weeks ago and discussed the same topic of conversion.

He kindly forwarded me these pointers which I think will help: [I'm sure he won't mind if I share the info in case somebody else has success or a lead at this process].



The website for the Air Force is http://www.cra.gov.ar/
With info relating to converting a foreign licence at http://www.cra.gov.ar/dha/index.php?...164&Itemid=147
and files http://www.cra.gov.ar/dha/images/sto...valida_ppa.pdf
The Air Force contact details are http://www.cra.gov.ar/dha/index.php?...=12&Itemid=138

There is also info for their AIP at http://www.cra.gov.ar/dta/ais/aip.php then clicking on the AIP file icon. I have found that the web page doesn't always download properly so you may have to reload it several times.

The Process
1. Before leaving the UK, obtain a legalised copy of the relevant pages of your Pilots log book, current medical certificate, original medical certificate from when you first obtained your licence (if you still have it), first & last pages of your pilot log book. Remember this process can take some time to complete.

You can try to complete the process yourself by visiting the relevant Government Building in London, however it is much easier and quicker to use the following agency http://www.apostille.biz/ to complete the process for me which cost about £150. He sent his original licence, medical & log book to them with the pages I needed copying highlighted with little post it notes and they returned the official documents about 7 days later.


2. Once you arrive in Argentina, get the notarised documents translated into Spanish, by an official Argentine translator


It may be worthwhile sending a scanned copy of your legalised docs before you leave to speed up the process.

3. Apply for an Argentinean medical certificate. This can be obtained from
El Instituto Nacional de Medicina Aeronaútica y Espacial (INMAE)
Belisario Roldán 4651 (1452), Buenos Aires, which is in the park between Palermo & Aeroparque.
Tel: 0054 11 4777 2757
http://www.faa.mil.ar/mision/inmae.html
The office may only be open in the morning. They will fill in a form, take a copy of your medical certificate then ask you to return in a few days to pick up the Argentine medical certificate.

4. Submit all this to the Argentine Air Force, the office near to the main bus terminal in the centre of BsAs.

5. Take some flying lessons to get used to the radio.

6. Sit the written exam - if required?? Like wise check if and what is required.

7. Take the flight test with the examiner.



And it is point 6 & 7 that NOBODY can confirm (yet) . The Airforce are not too sure of their own rules nor do the schools/clubs have so many punters going down this route each week to know either. I’m off next week to Bs As and after a couple of days visiting – I’ll try to make enquiries and let you know. I'd also like to point out because of nobody knowing if exemption can be given to points 6&7... my fellow ppruner has not been able to complete the process.

QUESTION: Is anybody here that converted their licence obliged to sit an Air law exam & do a flt test????


Kind regards,

EG

FenFlyer

Thanks EG - that's very useful to know. Some of the links seem to be broken, but I'll navigate about the sit and see what I can find. It all seems quite daunting though - and I will definitely have to wait until my Spanish is better.

I'm off to BsAs again in a month, and plan to have a sniff around for some GA, so I can get my spotting fix if nothing else!

Dan Dare - I envy you that trip to Colonia. It's spectacular enough to arrive there by Buquebus!

Dan Dare

If any of you get to Iguazu falls (HIGHLY recommended) there was a privately owned cub there, which could be available for tours. Enquiries at the town pharmacist (something like: - "yes I'd like some toothpaste, plasters, condoms {whisper} oh, and do you do flights in a cub "). I didn't get time, but I think it would have been amoung my most memorable flights. The 10 min hop in a heli just wouldn't have done it for me.