Hour building (USA)
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Hours building in the US
The button said "New Topic", so I feel a little bit of a cheat.
I know this type of message pi**es people off because it's boring to some, but it is important to me and other so...
Can somebody give me advice, (or point me in the direction of reference material) on all areas regarding qualifications, laws, visas etc etc for aq qualified PPL to fly whilst on holiday or specific hours building in the good old USofA.
Many thanks in anticipation.
I know this type of message pi**es people off because it's boring to some, but it is important to me and other so...
Can somebody give me advice, (or point me in the direction of reference material) on all areas regarding qualifications, laws, visas etc etc for aq qualified PPL to fly whilst on holiday or specific hours building in the good old USofA.
Many thanks in anticipation.
Last edited by Mosspigs; 14th Jul 2004 at 16:12.
Guys this topic has been covered over and over again on this forum. I suggest you use the search facility and have a look through it makes good reading.
I personally did my PPL, Hours Building and CPL in the USA in Florida at Naples Air Center
www.naples-air-centre.com
I am sure all the information you need to know is on their site, if not ask them
Have Fun
I personally did my PPL, Hours Building and CPL in the USA in Florida at Naples Air Center
www.naples-air-centre.com
I am sure all the information you need to know is on their site, if not ask them
Have Fun
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Hi Mosspigs,
This has been covered before so I'll probably be brief in my reply.
To fly as Pilot in Command on N registered aeroplanes in the USA you will require an FAA PPL at the very least. These come in two flavours.
One that is based upon your JAA PPL (assuming that is what you have) and the other that is a full FAA PPL. See the following link for further information.
Licence Conversion
Obtaining the full FAA PPL isn't too stressful. Just an FAA Private Written Test and an FAA Private Checkride. The Checkride is probably the more stressful as it includes an Oral portion with the examiner which lasts around an hour but can go on for some time. The manouvers are the same except the FAA require you to demonstrate ground reference manouvers such as S Turns on your checkride. You learn these within a couple of hours.
As for a visa. If you're going to obtain the FAA PPL on the basis of your JAA PPL then you will NOT require a visa. You will require a BFR (to validate your FAA PPL) but that is not seen as training.
However if you are going to obtain a full FAA PPL, ie take the written and checkride then you will require an M1 visa as this is counted as training even though you already hold a JAA PPL (or any other ICAO PPL).
For visa requirements see the following post.
Visa Requirements for Training in USA
Hope this helps,
Charlie Zulu.
This has been covered before so I'll probably be brief in my reply.
To fly as Pilot in Command on N registered aeroplanes in the USA you will require an FAA PPL at the very least. These come in two flavours.
One that is based upon your JAA PPL (assuming that is what you have) and the other that is a full FAA PPL. See the following link for further information.
Licence Conversion
Obtaining the full FAA PPL isn't too stressful. Just an FAA Private Written Test and an FAA Private Checkride. The Checkride is probably the more stressful as it includes an Oral portion with the examiner which lasts around an hour but can go on for some time. The manouvers are the same except the FAA require you to demonstrate ground reference manouvers such as S Turns on your checkride. You learn these within a couple of hours.
As for a visa. If you're going to obtain the FAA PPL on the basis of your JAA PPL then you will NOT require a visa. You will require a BFR (to validate your FAA PPL) but that is not seen as training.
However if you are going to obtain a full FAA PPL, ie take the written and checkride then you will require an M1 visa as this is counted as training even though you already hold a JAA PPL (or any other ICAO PPL).
For visa requirements see the following post.
Visa Requirements for Training in USA
Hope this helps,
Charlie Zulu.
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You could do worse than going to Tulsa, Oklahoma (Riverside Flight Centre). I went there and can recommend them.
Being slap bang in the centre of the USA, what you can do is fly out of KRVS in various directions and visit parts of the USA you would never otherwise visit. The mountains of Arkansas? 2h there, 2h back. Kentucky (KBWG) and the Green River (for Mammoth Cave NP*)? 6-7h. Lake Texoma? All places that are well worth seeing that you might never otherwise get the opportunity to go to... let alone actually take the opportunity to go to.
You can also visit the more popular areas of the USA- eg Grand Canyon, Vegas, which are also easily accessible from Oklahoma.
*HIGHLY recommended
Being slap bang in the centre of the USA, what you can do is fly out of KRVS in various directions and visit parts of the USA you would never otherwise visit. The mountains of Arkansas? 2h there, 2h back. Kentucky (KBWG) and the Green River (for Mammoth Cave NP*)? 6-7h. Lake Texoma? All places that are well worth seeing that you might never otherwise get the opportunity to go to... let alone actually take the opportunity to go to.
You can also visit the more popular areas of the USA- eg Grand Canyon, Vegas, which are also easily accessible from Oklahoma.
*HIGHLY recommended
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Multi hours building in US
I'm thinking of going back out to the States next month for a couple of weeks of hours building in a multi. Just wondering if anyone wanted to come along and join me to share costs.
I was in Anglo American (California) last year but don't mind going back there or trying Florida.
Regards,
Ratpup
I was in Anglo American (California) last year but don't mind going back there or trying Florida.
Regards,
Ratpup
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I am also considering building some twin time in the states, possibly tour the carribean Islands though not until early 2005.
When were you considering going, which twin and how many hours.
When were you considering going, which twin and how many hours.
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Anyone been/done PPL and hour building at NAC?
These forums are fantastic, my research using the search facility has given me loads of information, but has somewhat made me quite confused about the structure of my planned route!
I intend to start at Naples, Florida in February 2005 to do my PPL and about three quarters of my hour building requirements before coming home to do ATPL's and CPL etc etc....but:
1) How should I structure my hour building in terms of making the best use of it - is it worthwhile going on trips around various cities or should specific exercises be carried out locally?
2) Will I be able to come up with some sort of schedule for this using my instructor and will he/she be able to help me plan them?
3) How much of the required 150 hours will have to be P1 - how much of the PPL is P1 (what is classified as "P1")?
4) Roughly how many hours would one recommend to reserve getting used to UK skies on return - and I suppose I'll have to convert my FAA PPL - is this a hassle?
5) What other ratings should I do after my PPL, such as Night, IMC, MEP, and others?
6) Will these ratings have to be FAA as well - then also converted on return to the UK?
7) Do these further ratings count as dual time thus not towards time as P1?
Sorry for the barage, I just want everything to be clear in my head so I believe I am making the correct decisions!
If anyone out there has or is doing the same sort of thing, please let me know your experiences and what I need to do to make this as beneficial as possible and value for money!
Thanks a lot.
I intend to start at Naples, Florida in February 2005 to do my PPL and about three quarters of my hour building requirements before coming home to do ATPL's and CPL etc etc....but:
1) How should I structure my hour building in terms of making the best use of it - is it worthwhile going on trips around various cities or should specific exercises be carried out locally?
2) Will I be able to come up with some sort of schedule for this using my instructor and will he/she be able to help me plan them?
3) How much of the required 150 hours will have to be P1 - how much of the PPL is P1 (what is classified as "P1")?
4) Roughly how many hours would one recommend to reserve getting used to UK skies on return - and I suppose I'll have to convert my FAA PPL - is this a hassle?
5) What other ratings should I do after my PPL, such as Night, IMC, MEP, and others?
6) Will these ratings have to be FAA as well - then also converted on return to the UK?
7) Do these further ratings count as dual time thus not towards time as P1?
Sorry for the barage, I just want everything to be clear in my head so I believe I am making the correct decisions!
If anyone out there has or is doing the same sort of thing, please let me know your experiences and what I need to do to make this as beneficial as possible and value for money!
Thanks a lot.
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Hello thejakes,
I'm here at NAC right now. FYI it's not perfect, but I'm having a great time and would come here again (and indeed plan to do so). Any downsides are exactly what you expect at any US school.
Anyway, the reason I'm posting a reply is this. A chap called Gavin just got back from an hour building trip here; he went to Vegas and back. For an answer to your questions, I'd suggest getting in touch with one of the folks here at Naples (Bea, Nikki, Richard) and see if they can forward your email/phone to him, and he can give you advice.
FWIW, on the PPL front, I came for a JAA PPL and (fingers crossed) I'll probably be able to come away with both the JAA and FAA tickets. You might want to consider doing this, that way you don't need to worry about conversions. You get the JAA night rating in the bag as well by doing that.
I'll leave you to it, and let one of the NAC staff or regulars step in to answer queries . . .
Best wishes, DPM
PS Hi to the NAC regulars who I emailed about coming here. Solo QXC complete today, so I'm a happy boy!
I'm here at NAC right now. FYI it's not perfect, but I'm having a great time and would come here again (and indeed plan to do so). Any downsides are exactly what you expect at any US school.
Anyway, the reason I'm posting a reply is this. A chap called Gavin just got back from an hour building trip here; he went to Vegas and back. For an answer to your questions, I'd suggest getting in touch with one of the folks here at Naples (Bea, Nikki, Richard) and see if they can forward your email/phone to him, and he can give you advice.
FWIW, on the PPL front, I came for a JAA PPL and (fingers crossed) I'll probably be able to come away with both the JAA and FAA tickets. You might want to consider doing this, that way you don't need to worry about conversions. You get the JAA night rating in the bag as well by doing that.
I'll leave you to it, and let one of the NAC staff or regulars step in to answer queries . . .
Best wishes, DPM
PS Hi to the NAC regulars who I emailed about coming here. Solo QXC complete today, so I'm a happy boy!
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dpm,
I'm under the impression that for hour building I'll need an FAA PPl, but for the other ratings a JAA PPL. Surely I don't want to pay for both, but to convert from one to the other when needed?
WX Man,
what are these other schools you seem to prefer?
I'm under the impression that for hour building I'll need an FAA PPl, but for the other ratings a JAA PPL. Surely I don't want to pay for both, but to convert from one to the other when needed?
WX Man,
what are these other schools you seem to prefer?
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thejakes,
For the FAA as well as the JAA I just have to take the written test (which has forced be to brush up on US air law anyway, so that's a good thing; their airspace actually makes sense to me!) and take the checkride. For the cost of that checkride, I get an unrestricted FAA rather than restricted, and don't have to go through the adminstrative hoops to do the conversion. All that means is that I have to pay for the checkride . . . seems fair enough! I encourage you to get in touch with NAC and/or other schools to get the real lowdown, since I'm just paying attention to flying at the mo.
WX Man,
Just to explain, "what I expected" on the downsides was the kind of mildly negative stuff drawn from pprune style searches. I guess I could sum it up by saying that NAC feels like an efficiently run profit-making school, whereas my home base in the UK (South Warwickshire at Wellesbourne) feels like a not-for-profit club. (It's actually not quite as extreme as that, but I think you get the idea.) No comparisons to other US-based schools were meant to be made; I meant the expectations of US training in general! (If I had meant to compare US schools, then I would've used the word experience rather than expectation.)
But, since I don't have any experience of other US schools, feel free to lay in with gossip!! I quite enjoying reading the "Florida Flight School Battles" on pprune!!
As I said before, I plan to come back here again; but then again I also plan to go visit the school-that-shall-not-be-named as well, just for the variety!
For the FAA as well as the JAA I just have to take the written test (which has forced be to brush up on US air law anyway, so that's a good thing; their airspace actually makes sense to me!) and take the checkride. For the cost of that checkride, I get an unrestricted FAA rather than restricted, and don't have to go through the adminstrative hoops to do the conversion. All that means is that I have to pay for the checkride . . . seems fair enough! I encourage you to get in touch with NAC and/or other schools to get the real lowdown, since I'm just paying attention to flying at the mo.
WX Man,
Just to explain, "what I expected" on the downsides was the kind of mildly negative stuff drawn from pprune style searches. I guess I could sum it up by saying that NAC feels like an efficiently run profit-making school, whereas my home base in the UK (South Warwickshire at Wellesbourne) feels like a not-for-profit club. (It's actually not quite as extreme as that, but I think you get the idea.) No comparisons to other US-based schools were meant to be made; I meant the expectations of US training in general! (If I had meant to compare US schools, then I would've used the word experience rather than expectation.)
But, since I don't have any experience of other US schools, feel free to lay in with gossip!! I quite enjoying reading the "Florida Flight School Battles" on pprune!!
As I said before, I plan to come back here again; but then again I also plan to go visit the school-that-shall-not-be-named as well, just for the variety!
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Ahem. Further to my previous posts. Apparently NAC will be posting no profits this year due to the damage caused to all of their C152s by my crappy landings . . .
For the avoidance of doubt, following some PMs I had from others, I'm having a great time here and will definitely come back again. Assuming that Richard lets me after all the fun I make of him . . . .
Cheerio!!! DPM
For the avoidance of doubt, following some PMs I had from others, I'm having a great time here and will definitely come back again. Assuming that Richard lets me after all the fun I make of him . . . .
Cheerio!!! DPM
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the jakes, I did my hour building with NAC last summer and apart from a few minor slip-ups, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Nicki was very friendly and most helpful.
You might need to be a bit stubborn with the staff if you're trying to get the hours completed within a certain timescale because I can remember on a few occasions where I was nearly fobbed off with a non-IFR equipped 152 and expected to use the GPS to navigate around southern Florida, which I wasn't having as I was preparing for my CPL and IR back in Blighty where the GPS wasn't the done thing.
If you can, try and do a mixture of DR Nav and VOR/ADF tracking on your flights. Don't rely on the GPS. Also, do proper flight planning for every flight, nav-wise. (working out your heading etc given the winds etc) That way, when you do your CPL and IR you'll be up to speed with the whizzwheel, will hopefully save yourself money in the long run and you won't have just burnt holes in the lovely blue sky!
Above all, enjoy it! You'll look back with fond memories!
And Good Luck.
MB
<<edit: Also practice calculating runway lengths required - not forgetting factored, at whatever factor is given in the NAC CPL training manual, for public transport operations.>>
You might need to be a bit stubborn with the staff if you're trying to get the hours completed within a certain timescale because I can remember on a few occasions where I was nearly fobbed off with a non-IFR equipped 152 and expected to use the GPS to navigate around southern Florida, which I wasn't having as I was preparing for my CPL and IR back in Blighty where the GPS wasn't the done thing.
If you can, try and do a mixture of DR Nav and VOR/ADF tracking on your flights. Don't rely on the GPS. Also, do proper flight planning for every flight, nav-wise. (working out your heading etc given the winds etc) That way, when you do your CPL and IR you'll be up to speed with the whizzwheel, will hopefully save yourself money in the long run and you won't have just burnt holes in the lovely blue sky!
Above all, enjoy it! You'll look back with fond memories!
And Good Luck.
MB
<<edit: Also practice calculating runway lengths required - not forgetting factored, at whatever factor is given in the NAC CPL training manual, for public transport operations.>>
Last edited by Keygrip; 24th Nov 2004 at 11:14.
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Sorry to stick my nose in again. On the scheduling front, the folks at NAC appear to be bending over backwards to accommodate timescales at the moment. For instance, it's Thanksgiving tomorrow and they've offered to open up (despite a planned one-day closure) to help anyone who needs it to catch up on schedules. It's appreciated by the students here.
Best, DPM
Best, DPM
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The same happened with a couple of us multi guys back in July of this year.
Richard was bending over backwards trying to get a couple of us finished with our Multi courses and having the Seminole go out for a couple of days on its 100 hour check didn't help matters for him!
However... by Saturday evening the Seminole was back online and although it was Independance Day the next day I had a telephone call asking if I could get in contact with my instructor.
They had planned to close the school for the day on Independance Day which they did but two of the multi instructors still went to work with their respective students (just myself and someone else).
Between the two of us we did lots of flying that day!!!
The only downside is that I didn't get to spend the day at the beach like everyone else.
Best wishes,
Charlie Zulu.
Richard was bending over backwards trying to get a couple of us finished with our Multi courses and having the Seminole go out for a couple of days on its 100 hour check didn't help matters for him!
However... by Saturday evening the Seminole was back online and although it was Independance Day the next day I had a telephone call asking if I could get in contact with my instructor.
They had planned to close the school for the day on Independance Day which they did but two of the multi instructors still went to work with their respective students (just myself and someone else).
Between the two of us we did lots of flying that day!!!
The only downside is that I didn't get to spend the day at the beach like everyone else.
Best wishes,
Charlie Zulu.
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Orlando Flight Training - Hour Building
Hi All,
I am off to Orlando Flight Training next week to do some hour building while studying for my modular ATPL ground school exams.
Already have a JAA PPL which I trained for at Goodwood.
Has anyone come back from visiting them recently for hour building or who can provide any feedback on their experience.
If so, did you ever fly anywhere for a few days across the U.S or did you have to return the aircraft every evening back to the school?
I am off to Orlando Flight Training next week to do some hour building while studying for my modular ATPL ground school exams.
Already have a JAA PPL which I trained for at Goodwood.
Has anyone come back from visiting them recently for hour building or who can provide any feedback on their experience.
If so, did you ever fly anywhere for a few days across the U.S or did you have to return the aircraft every evening back to the school?