18 month expiry of PPL exams question
 

Hi all,

Surprised I wasn't able to find an answer to this using the forum search as I would have thought it would have been asked before. If it has, apologies!

I understand from the CAA Info Notice IN–2014/147 (http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/Informa...ice2014147.pdf) that students must complete all exams within an 18 month period otherwise retake them:

Just slightly confused as to whether this works on a rolling basis, and if not, how to reset the rolling basis. In other words if a student takes their first exam in month 1 (1 sitting), then due to life getting in the way doesn't take any more until months 16, 17, then 18 but doesn't manage to get them all finished, the 18 months timer ticks over - have they then lost ALL of their exam results and wasted their time in recent months as the above wording would seem, or just those from the first sitting (effectively starting a new 18 month timer ticking, starting at month 16)?

Hope that's clear and that somebody might be able to shed some light - thanks!

The CAA is very good at confusing the issue, which is why I always prefer to go to the source material.

The actual requirement (FCL.025(b)(2)) states:The clock starts ticking at the end of the month in which you pass the first examination and if you haven't passed all of the others within the following 18 months, all of the passes are invalidated and you have to start again. You cannot reset the clock within the 18 month period.

A similar rule applies for the ATPL exams. In the past the CAA has agreed to restart the sequence part-way-through if they considered the circumstances warranted it. If for example a student signed up for a distance learning course but then found that he/she could not learn that way, the student might decide to transfer to a full-time course. Or a student might find that his/her school was rubbish and decide to go to a different school. If a significant part of the time/attempts/sittings limits have already been used up, it makes sense to start afresh. I have known the CAA agree to this for the ATPL exams on quite a few occasions.

Although the PPL situation is slightly different, I suspect that a similar level of flexibility would be applied. Spending 16 months in a coma following a car crash after passing the first exam, would probably get you a restart. But bone idleness would not.

Thanks for your input guys - does this not seem barmy to anyone else?

If you've done a couple of exams then (even through being bone idle) not done any for over a year, you've either got to get them all done in less than 6 months - or not bother doing any until the 6 months is up? Can't make sense of that :)

No - because the chances are, if you took the exam 18 months ago, you'll have forgotten everything in it since then!

I certainly agree with that! I would have thought though that it would only be that first sitting that is "erased" if you don't finish all of the exams in the 18 months (a new 18 months starting from the second sitting you took)

The wonders of European Bureaucracy; you'll get a chance to vote on it in the next 24 months!

Hi Whopity,

I really don't think the outcome of the Referendum is going to change the UK's involvement in EASA. There are a number of non-EU countries who are in EASA, I think the UK will stay in even if leaving the EU.
Taken to its silly extreme and assuming independence for all areas wishing it, there will be an English CAA, excluding Cornwall and Yorkshire of course. We'd have the KAA (Kernow Aviation Authority). UKIP is a force in the land West of the Tamar.

More seriously, it seems the only check the CAA have on exam passes is when a Course Completion Certificate is submitted. They depend upon an examiner interpreting the 18-month rule as above, not sure all would do so in the same way...

An on-line exam system will wash all these issues away.

TOO