adding ratings to FAA PPL
 

hello, does anyone know whether you can add ratings to a FAA PPL issued on the basis of a UK licence? Or do you have to get a standalone FAA ticket? i vaguely recall that you do..

Reason for asking is that i'm going to florida soon and would like to get a floatplane rating for a bit of fun..

also, i believe a rating like this would be transferable to your UK licence when you return.

thanks!

Yes, definitely.

However, I would advise (if you are going to the USA anyway) picking up a standalone FAA PPL while you are flying there. This gives you independence from the European licensing scene, and avoids building a house of cards.

I very much doubt it; maybe somebody here knows? Europe accepts almost no ICAO licenses/ratings for conversion purposes.

Yep you will need VISA, TSA and SEVIS authorisation to do the seaplane rating. It will be far easier to go to Scotland to do it. After all it is only 5 hours training and one ground exam. Plus all the UK seaplane instructors live there and the only two UK examiners run the only two UK schools there.

I am heading up there sometime between March and May to get th rating. Also in the UK if you do the Commercial sea plane rating you can pin that to your JAA PPL (even if you dont have a CPL yet). tha tis how I am doing it, that way when i have completed my CPL (later this year) I can automaticaly add my Sea plane rating to it.

Its my understanding that you need a visa but do not need TSA/SEVIS, as the TSA only requires approval for initial PPL, multi rating and IR.

The VISA process requires TSA approval which requires SEVIS approval. But when you look in to the legislation it contradicts the a actual process the embassy is using.

I forgot to mention if you get the UK/JAA rating you can then validate that to your FAA piggy back license.

As IO540 mentioned if you are going to the states it is well worth getting your standalone FAA license first.

You will need TSA approval for any flight training. See below,

Who must participate in the Alien Flight Student Program?
Persons seeking flight training must submit a request if they are not citizens or nationals of the U.S. and:

• They wish to receive flight training in the U.S. or its territories, regardless of whether training will lead to an FAA certificate or type rating; and/or
• They wish to receive flight training from an FAA-certificated facility, provider, or instructor that could lead to an FAA rating whether in the U.S. or abroad.

A visa is not required (and indeed cannot be issued) for a course involving less than 18 hours of training per week, which a seaplane rating almost certainly doesn't. TSA is required only for initial flight training, instrument and multi-engine.

If you have a ASEL certificate, nothing additional is required for a ASES addition. If you have AMEL, nothing is required for AMES.

While you are probably right, and I agree about the "18 hours" bit, it would not be wise to try this on the usual heavily armed and aggressive U.S. Immigration Service official, by telling him/her that you are going to do flight training and you don't have a Visa for it because of such and such bit of US Law.

There is no doubt that a lot of FAA training does not need TSA, e.g. the Commercial license, and there are clear references for this from the DHS, US AOPA, etc.

But none of this will wash in practice. Somebody going to the USA either needs TSA+Visa, or has to go there on a "holiday" and pop over to some small informal school whose owner has sufficient intelligence to read these rules and realise that if he was subjected to a TSA check all would be OK... the big schools tend to adopt a hand washing attitude and they want ALL the paperwork.