The other question which needs a lot of response to.

On the NPA is Night flying....

and that the EIR should also be valid at NIGHT...

What points would you suggest be made on night flight, apart from the EIR should be valid at night, or is that the only one you are suggesting?

conversion
 

The 8th April 2012 confusses me a bit. i am training to get my PPL(A), I have already 35hs and 2 ground exams completed. It seems that if I complete the ground exams before 8th April 2012 my license will be converted to EASA. But do you know what happens if I finish after that date? Do I have to start again with my ground exams?

thanks

So far I've seen the NPA responses from AOPA(UK), UK CAA, IAOPA (EU) and PPL/IR (EU). All propose that EIR privileges should be extended to night if the pilot also holds a valid night rating / qualification.

The EIR certainly has the potential to extend the privileges of VFR-only pilots to include en-route flight under circumstances which require mandatory compliance with IFR, whether in VMC or IMC. Any organisational opposition to the EIR is likely to be from the self-interest of certain NAAs or ATS providers, who need to be addressed with the old RAF aircrew opinion "No stick = no vote!". Ground pounding Untermensch are only there to provide a service to the two-winged Herrenvolk; now and again they need to be reminded of that fact!

Regarding PPL exams, the CAA assure me that you can continue to take whichever exams are current at the time; provided that you don't exceed the normal validity periods any previous passes will still be acceptable after Apr 2012. But your flying school should really be getting to grips with this!

If you finish before 30 June you will get a JAA Licence that will automatically become an EASA licence however; you will have to pay to have it reissued after 5 years. If you apply after 1 July you will get an EASA licence with lifetime validity.Not much point there aren't any other exams; EASA has none.

The only real difference under EASA is that all exams have to be passed in 6 sittings; so some papers will have to be combined.

I hope there are no extra restrictions put on the 70 hours needed to convert a CAA ICAO to an EASA PPL. I've several hundred hours solo in C150/152/172 and Pa28/38, but nowhere near 70 in them in the last 5 years. I've done over 1000 in a DR1050, with 70+ in the last year. It isn't an EASA aircraft.

BEagle, while you're here could you please provide a reference for your post on the "To IMC or Not To IMC" whereby you posted:

I'm going to have trouble getting the IMCr scheduled in before April, but Jun will be perfectly feasible - also no 7 - indefinitely would be fantastic - but do you have a reference for the above to put my mind to rest?

Much appriciated,
S.

I cannot give you a direct reference; some of those points are already in the public domain (see http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/620/e-Sept2011_v3.pdf ) and others were made in a private e-mail from a senior CAA licensing member.

AOPA intends to press for greater clarification early next year; however, you may rest assured that the CAA firmly intends to protect the future continuance of the IMCR beyond mere 'grandfathering'.

The CAA's response to NPA 2011-16 may be viewed at http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/620/201112...PA201116V3.pdf ; see Item #427.

Have you tried looking here?

The last I heard, the hours in the Jodel don't count towards your EASA PPL validity.

And what was the source of that particular piece of nonsense?

But there are currently No EASA licences in existence! The UK will not start to issue them until 1 July 2012. Until then hours are hours, but once you have an EASA licence then hours flown on non EASA aircraft will not count towards the revalidation by experience illustrating the stupidity of the people at EASA.

How will an Examiner know what paperwork your aircraft has when signing your rating? Will they even be bothered, who will check on them? It is all open to abuse because of the share stupidity of it all.

It may well have changed but I seem to recall that the CAA had to make a decision that flight time in an EASA aircraft counted towards the UK -specific licences.

What the CAA couldn't state was that flight time in non-EASA aircraft (Annexe II/Permit) would count towards the EASA requirements. That was something for EASA to agree. Remember they only have competence(!) over the types on their list.

Someone please tell me I'm wrong cos it certainly sounds a lot of rubbish

Authority to convert National licences to EASA licences is delegated to the CAA. They decide.

There is a tendency to misinterpret things and whilst training in a non EASA aircraft after a certain date may not be valid for the issue of an EASA licence, conversion of existing licences is a different issue.

Actually, there is no such thing as an EASA PPL. Each State has its own exams; conducts flying training in its own unique way, all of which generically meet the rather vague syllabus requirement, which was provided by AOPA. Finally, each State issues its own licence where the only common part is the four letters EASA.

Part-FCL is not clear cut on this. This is one of the miscellaneous points to be resolved in FCL.002. I'm hopeful that sense will prevail.

BEagle/Whopity,

Thanks for those links/info - I was hoping there'd be something in stone about pushing the date back to the end of June, but as there doesn't seem to be any specifics as yet, I'll just have to bite the bullet and attempt to have the rating in hand by April.

Cheers,
S.

Whopity, I hate to say this - but are you losing it? Sorry, mate, but I'm not the first to have opined that of late.

UK CAA has made it quite clear that SEP hours are SEP hours are SEP hours - and whether on Annex II or EASA aeroplanes will certainly count for SEP Class Rating revalidation purposes, irrespective of the licence within which the Rating is included.

I can confirm the last message from Beagle. The CAA has said / written that (once you have an EU PPL) hours flown on an aeroplane (whether an aeroplane within the scope of EASA airworthiness regulations or on a 'non EASA' - i.e. Annex II - aeroplane) can count towards maintaining the recency requirements of your EU licence.

I took up this point with both EASA and the UK CAA earlier this year. The wording in part FCL (now Aircrew Regulation) is generic on this point, using the words 'category of aircraft', which means aeroplane, or helicopter, or glider or balloon (the respective licences) without qualification as to whether the said category was an 'EASA' or 'non-EASA' aircraft.

Thanks for that. The last bit of correspondence I had from the CAA was some time ago where they said they weren't able to give that assurance on behalf of EASA.

Thank goodness common sense has prevailed

EASA has published the AMC and GM for Part FCL (now Regulation Aircrew).

Here is the Explanatory note link:

http://easa.europa.eu/agency-measure...20Part-FCL.pdf

And here are the AMCs and GM link

http://easa.europa.eu/agency-measure...20Part-FCL.pdf

In the index (which unhelpfully only provides paragraph reference numbers to the main text in FCL) you can click on the index text and this will take you to the relevant part of the document.