Caa Rant
 

Ladies and Gentlemen

Rant ON

I went to visit our friends and allies at Aviation House, Gatwick on Friday to get my CPL/IR (with Multi-rating) issued. "Lucky Me" you might think! "A lovely day out visiting cheerful buddies and re-living examination heydeys." But think again.....

While grimacing and preparing to hand over £185 of my own money to get them to issue my licence (as typed on MS Word), I was informed that it cost an EXTRA £100 to to add my MECR at the same time.

I know that this represents stunning value, even on a Friday afternoon, but it does seem a little irregular. Has anyone else come across this- or is the bonus payment of £100 discretionary, perhaps at the whim of the woman on the desk?

To cap it all, the directions to Aviation House (my previous visit had been by bus) were pretty hazy at best, and in fact I'm quite sure that they tried to take me down a prohibited road. The list of documents to be submitted did not include ID docs- in fact, it specifically EXCLUDES the requirement to submit a photocopy of your passport if you already hold a JAR-FCL licence.

What do we pay these people for?!

Rant OFF!

Ciao for now
CC

Chuff - fraid the 100 sterling (no pound symbol on this laptop keyboard) is clearly on the CAA website.

Often heard people saying applying for both CPL (usually done on a single) and I/R (usually on a twin) at the same time would save you one hundred pounds............so went to have a look at their price list (mainly because I didn't believe it).

The web-site says that you can open your CPL with EITHER the single engine that you did the CPL with, or the MEP from the I/R - but if you want BOTH, then it's an extra one hundred.

Not discretionary - on their site (no matter how much we disagree with them)

yeap ! it's right. 185+100 if you want both SEP + MEP on your license (including ME/IR).

:yuk:

the radio operator license is free ... :}

Wouldn't mid so much I got £285-worth of service from them. And complimentary cakes.

CC

i got the very same kick in the nuts, its a crusher when you have to wait half a day too!
Got a second glancing blow when i took my licence to have another rating put on but this time was only £100 so i walked away feeling not as sore.
Its not easy to work out their fees either, i had no idea what to pay for my FI rating so sent a cheque for £85 (which is what i think i interpolated from the caa website which coincedentally is the most difficult site to navigate imo.
They dont like to make it easy!

Hi folks.

I have applied through the post for my fATPL at the beginning of November. They debited my Credit Card for the cool £285 on the 26th of November but still no little blue plastic book yet!

Tried calling....put on hold for whart seemed like forever and ever.

Tried emailing, nada response!

Anybody else in the same boat? Nice to see the CAA being consistant in taking our money and receiving nothing in return.

Had a chance last week as acting safety pilot but had to turn it down due to not having my licence in my posession. What a fantastic start. Cheers CAA.

:{

devokeuk

That's jolly interesting, old boy...

...especially as a cursory glance at the CAA website indicates that (as updated today) they are dealing with applications received on 27 Nov. Well worth chasing them up, I'd say.

They received mine on the 28th. So I'll probably get my licence in Feb sometime.

Ciao for Now
CC

Are you allowed to exercise your licence privileges if it's in the CAA's possession? Just wondering - it might mean Devo. could have been able to use his/her PPL even though the CAA had it.

I recently sent my stuff off to the CAA in order to remove my night restriction on my FI ticket. They charged me £67 for looking at the signature of the training instructor in my logbook, amending my details and printing a piece of paper, perhaps 10 minutes work (that works out at £400 per hour). What do I get in back the post, the wrong piece of paper, a PPL license sheet with my new FI details on it. Aaaarrgghhh, :mad: you all know how frustrating it is to phone the CAA. I’m assured that my CPL sheet is winging its way to me, first class, but when they charge that much money, you expect them to get it right first time… :hmm:

Getting your monies worth
 

Any visitors to FCL might be interested to know that they are entitled to eat in the building's restaurant which is heavily subsidised. Always used to visit it with as many people as possible to try to claw back some of my license issue fees :cool:

I collected my CPL(H) a few weeks ago. Firstly on dropping in the paperwork the 2 people at the FCL front desk could not finish a sentence without referring to their copy of Lasors. They then managed to misinterpret the info given causing further dealy.
On collection I asked to have a quick chat with someone I knew in the department, they didn't even know of anyone by that name working there! :confused:
We pay top dollar for this.........? :*

ohhhh I always like this subject.

Can I firstly ask why you pay twice for a licence?

You pay £600 then you pay £185 if your not getting your SEP put on your licence.

That is without the CPL £600 and the extra £100 for issue.

That is £1485 for flying without the a/c costs. Now that is a very serious amount of cash for passing a exam.

I don't know any other industry that punnishes you for passing a test.

Unbelievable.:sad: :sad:

Why does the cost can not just be said to be what it is, as in the day of the exam which happens in the states. I am not saying (yes here it is again £1485), is ok to pay as it is not. For a CPL SEP/MEP IR should only be half of that.

It is :mad: fleecing us for a couple of hours of absolutley misserable company. :*

You don't even get one of these :D for it either!

This is just great.
 

I've just had the privilege of spending 20 mins on the phone to the CAA. Their opening gambit today was:

"PLD is experiencing an unusually high number of enquiries at present..."

After choosing a couple of menu options, 20 minutes of waiting and some pleasant classical music (presumably designed to calm my nerves), the female automated voice advised me to ring another time, and then hung up. Cheers.

But back to the opening sentence- the unusual part in particular sounded kind of familiar. From the concise Oxford Dictionary (New Edition 1977):

unusual a. Not usual; exceptional, remarkable; ...

There's a number of things that could be going on here:
1) I have just been unlucky. Every time that I ring the CAA, it's when calls to SRG hit their peak. Something to do with an ancient curse or something.
2) The definition of unusual has changed radically since 1977.
3) That woman has been programmed to give the same little message whoever you are, whenever you ring up.
4) Or something else.

Ladies and gentlemen, I propose a little straw poll. Please speak up if you have called the CAA in the last 6 months or so, and if so, were you told that "PLD is experiencing an unusually high number of enquiries at present...". Or maybe not.

I'm going to try again in a few minutes, when I've calmed down.

Ciao!
CC

One of the snags with the PLD number is that they are swamped with people calling to ask simple questions - the answers to which all lie in LASORS or the internet.

If people followed the correct protocol, then the phone line would not be so busy - and the people at the other end would, probably, be less frustrated and more helpfull.

Keygrip can I ask you a question.

Are you CAA? I don't know many people who say protocol and mean it like you said it.

Cmon that is why you pay taxes and why we pay fee's to the CAA.

Yes you can look it up in the Lasors. Let us be honest after reading it you generally come up with more questions than answers:oh:

They are there to provide a service and should conduct that service when we have questions that are perfectlly legit to ask.

The same as a police officer or a nurse or a teacher. That is there job.

Rant On - £100 extra for MECR
 

Chuffer,

FEAR NOT! This problem was raised by my FTO (who shall remain nameless but reside at an airport somewhere in Oxfordshire) and they were a great help.

Basically both your CPL (SEP) and MECR are both skill tests.

For the license issue price you can have one class rating but not both so:

Apply for IR (MEP) with MECR

If you happen to know your CPL (SEP) examiner then they are usually more than happy to sign the class rating insert for absolutely no charge at all (having said that....not done mine yet but she knows whats coming).

I checked with a couple of CFI's and they see no problem at all; I may even have mentioned it to the school's man from the CAA but cant be certain.

Points to note:
Must be a CPL SEP not CPL MEP skill test - your PPL one wont count either so if you did do the CPL MEP you cant have a CPL SEP - - - Cheers CAA!!!!!???!!!!!

Hope this is a help to you.

Andy

I reckon a large proportion of people that call are wondering where their documents are.

The evidence suggests that hoarding cash is first priority with returning paperwork, passports etc relegated down the list in between replacing pompous answer phone messages and providing a value for money service to their clients.

I know of no other agency that take two hours for lunch then call it a day at four o’clock.

They swiped £146 quid from my account within three days of my application and yet I am still waiting, 38 days later, for my PPL and passport.


Good work.

Well!

I managed to finally get through to a human this morning. I was so very proud.

She told me that they were working on applications received on 27 Nov (the day before I submitted mine), so that didn't sound TOO bad. BUT I pointed out that, according to the website, they had been working on applications from the 27 Nov since first thing Monday morning. It's now Thursday. The nice CAA lady didn't sound surprised when I pointed out that they had been working for 3 days on 1 day's worth of applications.

It doesn't take the brains of an archbishop to realise that this is not a viable situation. In fact, if these relative rates of submission/processing remain the same, by this time next year, it will take over two yeard to get your licence back.

Maybe get it next week, maybe not. Just fan-tastic.

Ciao!
CC

Andy me old mate.


I think the trick is to remain anonymous.

Classic Bungle!!!! :ok:

Ali,

That depends on how many people you are slating!!!