License Transfer Confusion
 

Hi All, hope someone may be able to advise me. I currently hold a Spanish AESA license , however in the past 12 months moved to France and since my medical required renewal it was easier to perform the medical (Class 2) in France. So now I am in the process of transferring my Licence to DGAC. However both authorities are extremely slow, so although my license is still valid my SEP expired. No problem I performed a full skills with a French examiner and have the new SEP……however I was expecting at the time that the SEP would be transferred straight to my new French license, however since both DGAC and AESA have now been dithering for best part of three months I still do not have a French license and DGAC have just informed me that unless the FE was also AESA registered the SEP will not be valid on my old license, in essence I’m stuck between two agencies and if and when I finally receive my license from DGAC they expect me to re fly the skills test to get my SEP……!! Anyone else out there been in this position?

Not quite correct. Examiners must be approved by each national authority that issued and holds your licence. The paperwork following each revalidation/renewal must be sent to the authority that issued your current licence, I presume Spain. The examiner should know that. Your licence and associated ratings will be part of the transfer from Spain to France. There will be no need to be retested for the EASA unexpired licence and ratings once the transfer to France is complete. All this is also true of your medical.

Silly thought... can you get the examiner to hang on to the paperwork? When you receive your French licence, go back to the examiner, send in the paperwork for the flight you already did and have that processed by the DGAC. If the examiner who flew with you is not AESA registered, he was allowed to perform that skill test for a French licence holder, so just await the licence and take it from there. The main downside of this is of course that you cannot exercise the priviliges of that licence while you await your new papers... but it might be a way out.

Why transfer? The Spanish authority can accept a French issued medical, and you can fly French aeroplanes on a Spanish licence. Any EASA examiner can test any EASA licenced pilot.

I'm British, my EASA licence is Irish, my AME is qualified in Norway, the examiner for my last few renewals is approved in Malta. None of this is a problem for anybody.

Seems completely unnecessary.

G

It should be unnecessary, but that does not rule out the possibility of complications I'm afraid. I looked into this a while ago, trying to help out a Greek colleague, and it appears that some national authorities have implemented a local rule that they need to approve or register non-national EASA examiners.

Even then, if you have a favourite local examiner, getting them registered with your licence state of registry is probably a lot less aggro than SOLIing.

G

Jhieminga , Genghis, thanks , yes I originally thought about not changing and just leaving it as it was, however it seemed simpler ( perhaps not in retrospect !) to have it all under the same authority. I too thought that any EASA examiner could test any EASA licensed pilot but it seems that in some authorities they have to be ‘recognised’ even though this may mean that they just have to perform an on line course in order to be recognised by that state …….so much for EASA providing uniformity ! I’m checking to see if my FE is recognised, meantime it would make sense to just delay the paperwork as suggested by Jhieminga, however since AESA have taken three weeks just to acknowledge their receipt of an e mail that seems like it could be a long delay. Honestly the bureaucracy in some places !!! Never thought I’d be wishing for the efficiency of the CAA !!

Not quite - an EASA Flight Examiner may only test an EASA licensed pilot if he/she complies with the relevant national section of the EASA Examiner Differences Document.

Thanks Beagle, so I’ve been looking at the Examiners differences document in EASA website, this is what comes under the Spanish AESA section, so I assume that my test was a License Profiiciency check for revalidation of my SEP rating, in which case it allows for any EASA examiner to complete the test, provided that he -she has gained prior approval from AESA and they can also endorse the license with the new validity period. However in a subsequent table that follows it states that the examiner cannot endorse the license, that requires the AESA, so its a bit confusing !

However the key point is that I did not request prior approval for the French examiner to perform the test (unfortunately) so they will likely not accept it. They do state that the request must be done at least 5 days prior to the test flight via their website, however since it takes almost a month for them to acknowledge receipt of an e mail I cant really see this working in practice.

Sadly i think the only thing I can do now is transfer the license sans the SEP rating and then re perform the test under the DGAC criteria.

I have a new found respect for examiners who have to disentangle these rules on a regular basis !

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