Licence issue timeframe
 

I passed my PPL skills test this Saturday and just wondered if anyone has recently applied for their licence from the CAA and how long it took to come through.

I am looking forward to taking some friends and family up but understand that I cannot do this with the pass certificate and need to wait for the actual licence.

Took them 15 working days to issue mine (last month) - BTW was told not to cut it up in order to fit the individual pages in the plastic licence holder that comes with it.

Typical waiting time for a PPL of 15 working days/3 weeks is also what I was told by the CAA, and the CFI at my flying school.

In my case my examiner didn't submit a test notification to the CAA prior to the skills test as per new regulations, and the CAA kicked up a fuss about it. I actually ended up waiting 98 days for my license to arrive from the day the CAA got my completed application, and ended up missing out on a course for my ATPL theory (PPL required to undertake certain aspects). :(

I would therefore suggest you double check with your examiner that this has been done, otherwise you are in for a world of pain with the CAA. :p

I would also double check you are actually allowed to fly PIC without passengers before getting your license. When I passed my skills test, and started hunting around for a place to hour build at, at least 3 schools/clubs insisted that I would not be permitted to fly without an issued license. When I phoned the CAA, the CS rep I spoke to was very adamant that I would not be able to fly without a license (passengers or not) and that I should not log any hours. There were a few schools (including the one where I did my PPL) that say it is OK, and I know plenty of people do continue flying before license issue, but I figured I should probably just play it safe and wait. I will now need a checkout, but it's better than possibly causing grief for myself with the CAA later on.

Licence issue timeframe
 

Thanks for the heads up. My school will let me use their planes as PIC (no pax) with the test pass certificate and 7 day recency increasing to 45 days once I have the licence.

98 days is a worry as I'm off to the US for 5 months in mid July and was hoping to do some hours there. I'll wait a week then call CAA to check all is ok.

I passed my test at the start of December, applied by post and had the licence through the post by mid January.
They were closed for a week over Christmas and were very busy at the time so I think under normal circumstances a few weeks is what it takes.
As others have said though, make very sure you have all the relevant paperwork filled in, no missed signatures, everything in order or it's sent back, at your expense, and you start from square one again.

CAA website was promising 17 working days last time I looked. I,ve just converted a JAR ppl to an Easa ppl. Application went in on 22nd April, money was cashed onn 17th May and licence arrived on 23rd May.

In terms of taking passengers, my advice would be to spend 5-10 hours on your own first. Work out where you are going to take them (I have a specific 'trip around the bay route'). When everything is familiar, it keeps the cockpit workload low, which I found essential just after I qualified.

oh and remember the addage 'if it's exciting for you, it's probably terrrifying for them'

It took them bloody ages to issue mine, about two months in the end. There were no issues at all or any queries from the CAA, it just took a very long time indeed.
I think it was about the time they were very busy with converting military licences before some EASA deadline, but it was still a very poor service considering the very high fee charged for what have amounted to about 30 minutes work to check my log book and exam results.
In the end I had to kick up a fuss as I needed my passprt back for a business trip.

Others who sent their licence application off just a couple of weeks before me got them back in less than a month, so it seems to be a bit of a lottery.

When I got mine there was a page on the CAA website that had a one-liner at the bottom saying something along the lines of 'We are now processing licence applications received on xxx date'.

It gave a good indication of when it might arrive, though I can't seem to find the page now. Nobody seemed to know about it on here at the time either, so it might still be there.

In my case, that was only because my examiner hadn't submitted the test notification.

If your examiner has completed this procedure properly then I sincerely doubt you'll be waiting that long. ;)

About 7 weeks to get a SLMG rating added to my NPPL SSEA. The LAA bit was done in less than a week!