How easy to convert Australian Lic to UK?

[novicepilot]

I've spent many hours searching for commercial courses in the UK & Australia. I still can't decipher how realistic it would be to apply Australian qualifications to the UK. If anyone has got any advice, please feel free to help.

Firstly, if I came away from Australia with a CASA licence, what would be the financial and practical costs of converting this to a JAA licence?.

I have looked at the Western Australian Aviation College and know their fees are approx £45k for a Uk JAA licence.

The question really is, if I added together the cost of a CASA course and then converting it to JAA, would it be financially more beneficial or am I better to pay for the WAAC course in the first place?.

If I took the CASA course I would have the option of staying in Australia (I have residents visa) but I don't want to make it impossible or difficult to come back to the UK and get the JAA. I did hear that if you have the JAA its easier to get that turned into a CASA than vice-versa (but that was WAAC who told me, so I'm cautious)

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

[neilia]

Assuming you're aiming at ATPL, you would have to pass all 14 JAA ATPL exams, and do 15 hours minimum training for CPL conversion. Don't know what you'd need to do for IR conversion. I investigated this route and concluded it wasn't worthwhile for me as all I wanted at the end was a JAA licence.

[Benny71]

If you want to end up with a JAA licence then that's the licence I would obtain. It appears to be much easier to convert a JAA licence to an Australian, just look at CASA's website. I think you need only take the Flight Rules and Air Law exams and a flight test, and there doesn't appear to be any minimum hours for conversion.

[JoeGlum]

NovicePilot,

I was thinking of doing the same thing.

I was looking at Moorabbin and then the mcc in europe and pay for type rating.

I'm struggling to fin good info on the actual conversion process.

How are you getting on?

[hogespa28]

How about converting a CASA CPL to UK CPL then doing JAA ATPL's in the UK? I've got residency in the UK and assume employment prospects in the EU is higher than Aus?

[neilia]

The details are all in LASORS, or the CAA will tell you if you ring them. You have to do all 14 ATPL exams to convert to a JAA CPL. There's no easy way around it. Unless you happen to have several thousand hours multi-crew time.

[redsnail]

To go from the CASA license to the JAA one is expensive and time consuming. The other way around is comparatively easy.

Note, you only covert licenses. If you have a CPL with IR and ATPL subjects valid for JAA land, if you come to Australia you'll convert the license only, you'll have to do all the Australian ATPL subjects and they're not the cake walk some folks like to make out. (Then again, they're a lot more "sensible" than the JAA ones)

If you're considering flying in Australia you'll have a ball and do the sort of flying that the Europeans only dream about. (or have nightmares..)

For once, the job prospects in Australia are good, even for low houred guys. Admittedly, you'll have to head away from the nice cities but that's part of the fun.

I've got both JAA and CASA licenses.