License Conversion to FAA

[kelvin]

G'Day All, i was just wondering if anyone could tell me what's involved in converting Australian license into FAA ones. If any has successfully done it or knows anything about it i would love to hear from you. please post a response or my email is: [email protected]
Cheers!

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Kelvin,

There are two ways you can go.

The first one is just getting a conversion at an F.A.A. F.S.D.O. and they will issue a licence based on your licence. All you will need to do is a B.F.R. (Biannual Flight Review) which should not take more than 1.5hrs ground and 1.5hrs flight with an instructor.

The second way is a little more involved. You can go for a full F.A.A. Licence. That will consist of taking the written exam for the licence you seek along with the practical exam with an examiner.

The good news is all your flight experience counts towards any F.A.A. rating you seek.

If I can help answer any more questions, just let me know.

Good Luck,

Capt. Richard J. Gentil, Pres.
Naples Air Center, Inc.

[2p!ssed2drive]

I'm bringing this thread back to life! I'll be moving to the USA in about a year or two. Basically, I need the nitty gritty details on how to convert my CASA licence to an FAA.

My qualifiactions

- CPL
- Multi Engine Command Instrument rating
- All CASA ATPL exams passed
- Night VFR Rating

Thankyou to the gentleman above for being very informative. Is this information still current? (that post was about 4-5 years ago!). I've tried the FAA website but couldn't find anything.

Please be as informative as possible.

[itsbrokenagain]

2pissed, first thing is that you cant say the work pissed and mean drunk here in the USA, they will think you are really angry with them if you say that!

What Richard says above is still true, as a Oz pilot who just converted a ATPL to a FAA ATPL its true I am qualified to put my 2 cents worth forward. You can jump straight to a CPL based on your current licence level, BUT dont do it if you are coming here for a job ( ie you won the greencard lottery) or will work somewhere else on your newly acquired FAA licence. Reason is that its going to bite you on the ass later on, what I found from my real life experience is that you need to have ALL FAA licences from PPL onwards to apply for a job here, a lot of application forms online wont let you apply/hit submit unless you can fill in all the licence levels.

This is what I did:

Mandatory 3 hrs prep for PPL with instructor...
and another 3 hrs prep for the Instrument rating test.
Did the PPL and Instrument rating in a single engine, in one test

Plus there was a written test for the PPL and one for the IR, go to www.sportys.com to have a practice, they have a free test prep section of their website,

Then is was 3 hrs CPL test prep, and 3 hrs for the Multi engine ride. Then after the CPL theory test, took a single engine CPL test and then got out and jumped in the PA44 for a multi engine add on to the CPL and a Multi engine instrument rating add on.

Then without any prep I went for the ATP checkride in a PA44, after doing the written for it.

Also the PPL, IR and CPL writtens need you to have a Flight instructor sign you off for them.

Try www.faatest.com for your written prep.

Took me 5 weekends to do the above, as I was working for Richard at Naples at the time. Now flying a little Citation Ultra which is really really fun.

Have fun PM if you have any non forum questions about it all.

[Aussie_Pilot]

G'Day once again future collegues

i hope i put the thread in the righ section...

i'm earning all my flight training in Australia, my goals is to become at least frozen ATPL's holder within 2 years from today

why i choose Australia? is a big country lots of flying opportunity ( I heard in terms of jobs too) and eventough i'll leave after my student visa expire, i've passed 3 fantastic year in one of the most beautiful countries in the world...

I'm Italian but i'm holding the american citizneship at the moment altough i hope to stay in Australia, i've to consider the US way too so...

Can someone give me information about license' conversion from C.A.S.A. ( Australia ) to F.A.A.(America) ?

I heared that is not too hard is that true?

Thanks to everyone who reply my post
Carmine

[Tinstaafl]

As far as converting your future Oz licence is concerned you will have a CPL and nothing more. Although it's a convenient short hand, fATPL doesn't exist although in Europe it's usually taken to mean CPL & IR issued + ATPL exams completed. Foreign authorities only recognise the licence you hold in your hand, not some potential future issuance.

Your question has been asked a number of times on PPRuNe. Use the search function & you should find the info. you're after.

The short answer is that you will need to meet FAA minimum experience requirements for the licences ('certificate' in US terminology) you seek eg CPL or ATPL, pass the relevent theory exam for those certificates (single exam per certificate, including IR), pass at least a Cl.2 medical (CPL & higher certificates) and finally pass a flight test for the issue of each certificate.

Note that FAA min. experience requirements are often different to Oz or JAR-la-la land specifications.

[MrHorgy]

Converting JAA to FAA license

This may have been covered before, but I have some specific questions about the process for anyone who has already done this.

1) The FAA website states:

"You must have the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) that issued those certificates verify the validity and currency of the foreign license and medical certificate or endorsement before you apply for an FAA certificate or authorization. "

-Ok, so I get the CAA check done first then forward that to the FAA, correct?

2) The FAA website also states:

"A person who is applying for a U.S. rating or medical certificate on the basis of a foreign license must apply for that certificate at least 90 days before arriving at the designated FAA FSDO where the applicant intends to receive the U.S. certificate. This initial application step is the responsibility of the applicant."

-This implies I PICK UP my FAA certificate in the States from a FSDO. What is this? This is also 3 months in the future, is that a rigid timeframe? I've been rostered to LAS in 45days time and wanted to fly.

Is that correct? Any help greatly appreciated.

Horgy

[skywise320]

Hi Mr Horgy. Sorry I can't be of any help but I too are wanting to convert an Oz licence to FAA. Can you please tell me where on the FAA web site you have found your info? You can obviously navigate better than me.
Much appreciated

[MrHorgy]

Ici:

http://www.faa.gov/licenses_certific...e_verification

Hope that helps you!

Horgy

[B2N2]

Explanation is here:
http://www.eaa-fly.com/2.0/en/MainTr...ertierung.html

Can take a maximum of 90 days, the quickest that I have seen is 14 days.
Delay is generally with the CAA or other European aviation authorities, NOT with the FAA as they have been dealing with this for quite some years now.
Regards,

[Eggwhite]

just wondering...

if this only applies to PPL or ATPL as well. I plan on moving back to the States in a few yeas, I currently have an ICAO ATPL AND a frozen JAR FCL from the UK, just wondering if anyone knows, do I need to convert to FAA or can I bypass ... the whole lot. It would suck to do it all over again!

Thanks.

[sicky]

Just out of interest, is it possible to convert to an FAA and still fly with both an FAA and CAA licence, if you know what i mean?

I know you must sit the exams over here to convert FAA to CAA, but what does it take to go from CAA to FAA?

I doubt i'll ever have to think about doing this, but was just interested to know!

[B2N2]

Eggwhite, based on an ICAO ATPL, all you need to do is take the FAA ATOPL written test (single test, 100 questions) and take a checkride with an examiner.

Sicky, the conversion process leaves you with 2 licenses, your UK one and a US restricted based on your UK license. You need to carry both in order to fly a N-reg as PIC.
You DO NOT hand in one license to get another one, it is not a trade, you keep both.

[sicky]

Thanks B2, clears that up nicely

["V"]

Australian to FAA conversion and IR

Hi there,

Coming for a trip to the US for a holiday in november/december/jan up to the northwest and searching for some info about license conversions from aus to FAA license, have heard it is quite streamlined.

Currently have about 900 Total time all on singles and no IR, considering doing initial IR in the USA too.

Can anyone shed some light on any of these for me??

Many thanks in advance

V

[winch launch]

JAA to FAA

Hi,

I am a JAA CPL-IR pilot. I would like to convert to FAA, possibly in florida. Does anyone know a cheap school to do that?
What kind of visa do I need and what administration steps do I have to follow?

Thanks

Winch

[metar]

Seriously confused - JAA fATPL to FAA CPL/ME/IR?!

Hi all... really have trolled the threads and struggling to figure this out. Any thoughts super appreciated...

I am JAA CPL / ME / IR and looking to get an FAA equivalent (so I can log hours in a N-register multi amongst other reasons). I have 700 hours. Can anyone let me know which FAA written exams I need to sit, and what flight training / exams I would need / paperwork etc. Any suggestions about where I can do all this (either UK or US) would also be great.

[BobC]

Hi Metar

Based on my experience (which was 10 years ago), all the FAA`will give you is a PPL. You will need to do the ground and flight tests for the ME CPL and the IR. As you need to be signed off for these tests by an instructor, you will have to take as much instruction as it takes to satisfy the signer-off that you are ready. You might try the FAA web site for more.

Good luck

Bob

[lilpilot]

10 years is a long time, a lot has changed, namely you need a backround check, done by the dredded TSA if you want a US rating or certificate. You don't need this if you just want to build time (that might change anyday as well)
Otherwise, I think it's a lot easier to convert from JAA to FAA then the other way around.
You can actually fly in the US without full conversion, the FAA can issue a US "attachment" based on your current license, that validates your foreign license.
Or you can do a full conversion, you'll need the CPL written exam and the IFR written exam. Plus you'll need to do some training and the practical test(s). There are no minimum or maximum hours.
There is no written for the multi engine rating. Also note that you can do a Multi engine CPL without ding a single engine CPL but then you won't have a SE-CPL, since SE-ME are "class ratings" which is different from the IFR rating (the SE-ME stays with your PPL or CPL certificate, the IFR rating "attaches" to anything you fly)!!!
The rules are somewhat elastic here compared to the JAA system, so there's a lot of leeway for schools to develop their own styles, and requirements as for hours, ground schooling and sign offs.
Also there's some difference in Part 61 and Part 141 training, but not when it comes to the checkrides no matter where you train, you'll be held to the same standards (PTS).
The written exams cost $80-100
The practical exams are b/w $200-450
There are no FAA fees - God bless America there.

I also strongly encourage you to join the AOPA there's a myriad of information they provide. Plus as a student pilot your membership is free for 6 months Two-thirds of american GA pilots are members.

One last important thing is the visa issue, well I don't know much about it. Last year british citizens could still come to flight train w/o any extra visa issues, but I really don't know what's going on with that right now. (the flight training purpose is the issue not the british citizenship itself)

Hope this helps,
P.M. me if you need exact schools or something

Good Luck
Lil

[chrisbl]

As far as I recall there is a special 50 question knowledge test to convert the IR, not sure another flight test is required for the IR. For the Commercial there is another knowledge test of 100 questions in 3 hours. You should be able to do the SE/ME Commercial with about 20 hours of training.

you will need to get a visa and TSA approval. This means using a flight school with immigration status. Your best best here is to contact the many Florida based schools that advertise here on Pprune and ask them for the full SP.

Its will surprise you at how much simpler it is.