Conversion PPL to FAA PPL
 

I have a Belgian PPL, restricted to the Belgian airspace.
I have 170 hours on Piper PA28, Cessna172, registered in Belgium.

This year I wanna have a FAA PPL and go to a US flight school.

Does my hours count in the US, or do I have to fly al the required hours again for the FAA PPL?

If your Belgian PPL is an ICAO PPL, then the conversion does not require you to do all the instruction hours all over again. But if it's restricted to Belgian airspace I suspect it's not an ICAO PPL somehow. After all, an ICAO PPL would allow you to fly worldwide. So I guess we're going to need a few more details on the exact license you have, and where the restriction comes from.

If it's the equivalent of, say, the UK NPPL, the Dutch RPL or the FAA Sports Pilot License then the conversion may not be as straightforward as the conversion from an ICAO PPL.

FAR 61.41 - Flight training received from flight instructors not certificated by the FAA.
(a) A person may credit flight training toward the requirements of a pilot certificate or rating issued under this part, if that person received the training from:
(2) A flight instructor who is authorized to give such training by the licensing authority of a foreign contracting State to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, and the flight training is given outside the United States.


In other words, it does not matter if your licence is non-ICAO, as long as you received training from a JAR instructor.

This is the text on my restricted license:

"The private pilot license has been issued in accordance with the standards of ICAO.
The restricted private pilot license has been issued in accordance with the Belgian Regulations."


I have this license just before the JAA was born, 10 years ago I think..
The only restriction I have is that it is only valid in Belgian aerspace.

why is it restricted?

Before JAA, there was a national PPL, (what I have), and an international PPL (what required R/T and a flight one hour on 10000 feet).
The only restriction is Belgian airspace.

Then why don't you apply for a JAR compliant licence. You are entitled to do so under the rules.

as long as your hours are in the class of aircraft required your hours will count . You may have to do about 10-20 hours just to get all the maneuvers down. I dont see it being a problem , you will just need a 3rd class medical

All of your flight time counts.
You will need training to proficiency and the PPL written test.
The training to proficiency could be anywhere from 10-30 hrs.
You can do a lot of preparation before you come to the US.

This famous paragraph

has had many people running around in circles, and had led to much controversy along the lines of "the only training acceptable towards any FAA license or a rating has to be done by FAA instructors" (which I have in writing from not a few FAA training outfits in Europe, over the years :ugh: ), but actually it is crystal clear:

Any instructor legal to do the training in the relevant airspace is just fine.

And obviously if he is not legal to do the training the why are you logging it :)