Advice please. Can historic RAF Flying scholarship hours towards a PPL
 

I was having a discussion recently and we could not find a definitive answer. Perhaps you learned people could assist.

Bloggs did a flying scholarship in 1990, completing 30 hours, of which 10 were solo. All done at an approved FTO.

Bloggs then decided in 2015 that he wants to take up the hobby again.

Obviously, there would be cobwebs etc but does anyone know if Bloggs could use those 30 hours towards the minimum of 45 for a EASA PPL A?

We agreed that the written exams and frtol would need to be completed and that there would be considerable refresher training before he would be current and safe. 45 hours is the minimum, but in theory, if Bloggs did a theoretical X hours to get back up to speed taking him over 45 minimum (say 55 for example) and met the required standards would he be eligible for the licence?

Our point of contention is that would the previous hours count and if so how would he go about getting them recognised?

Many thanks.

As the Head of Training of Bloggs' new Flying School will have to sign a Course Completion Certificate, he will have to be presented with convincing evidence that the training took place for it to count.

An RAF Flying Scholarship should be certified in the pilot's logbook by the CFI of the Flying School concerned, and his original training record might even still exist.

If neither of these are available, it should be possible to confirm the completion of the Flying Scholarship from the records kept by HQAC.

In any case there is no time limit on the validity of flying training, and, so long as evidence can be produced, it will still count.


MJ:ok:

Mach Jump, thank you sir. I think you have just made Bloggs very happy.

Does Bloggs still have a logbook from back then, or the little booklet thing that cadets record their flights in? The number of it escapes me just now.
If not I wouldn't hold out much hope for HQAC providing much evidence.
A year or maybe two ago, I had a guy get in touch looking for proof of his MoD FSS hours, as he'd lost his logbook. He'd not had any luck with asking the RAF. As it happens, we were able to provide sufficient evidence from instructor's old logbooks and other sources with a bit of effort

It's never that simple mrmum. Bloggs doesn't have his logbook, but the school where he did his training is still going and apparently may have the records buried deep in a hangar. The instructor he did most of his training with doesn't work there anymore.

I'll keep this thread updated with any progress.

Thanks for the assistance.

3822 ☺

IIRC the 3822 did not have space for all the flying in a Flying Scholarship, in fact I think mine was overfilled with just the cadet flying I did outside the FS, though that did include a load with the Swedish Airforce on a Cadet Exchange.:ok:

I had the same; did my RAF flying scholarship at Manston in 1996. Sue at TG Aviation kindly dug out my records and sent me a new log book with all the hours, registrations and the exercises I'd done for the 20 hours (they'd reduced the scholarship from 30 hours by then, but free is still free :) ).

Al

I had a very similar situation at the beginning of my PPL(A) course. I had 20hrs from my RAF Flying Scholarship but had a log book provided by the school and signed off by the CFI and his number at the back. According to the CAA it can only count for up to 10hrs of your total PPL(A) time. So, if you can provide them with the proof, you'll only have to do a min of 35hrs.

So the question, worded a different way is: "Can a candidate reduce the amount of training to be taken now toward a PPL, citing 25 year old piloting experience?". Were those skills retained over that time?

If there is some doubt about accepting these hours towards a Part-FCL PPL (and the 'CAA says 10 hours only is a new one on me!), all such hours, if properly recorded, certainly would count for the NPPL. Bloggs can then upgrade his NPPL to either a LAPL or Part-FCL PPL by following the conversion requirements in CAP 804.

The NPPL would need to have been obtained before Apr 2018; it can converted as required even after that date.

Lately, we had a recently retired student, who entered the training with 55 hours of flying in his logbook documented in a paper cadets logbook, signed by his superior officer and confirmed in his letter of relief from service 1972. He was proud like hell, had a lot of fun - and ended up in having over 120 hours when taking exam and checkride. So, no problem to let these ancient things count, but it may not help reducing the amount of training.