Caa Fto

[Bubi352]

Maybe someone can shed some light on this. I am about to cross the pond to finish my CAA conversion. All I am left to do is my IR.

1) Does the flight school need to be a CAA approved FTO? Can it just be a JAA approved FTO from another country? Where can you find a list of approved CAA FTO?

2) If you train in a country other than UK, how is the conversion process to have the CAA license? Is this just paperwork?

3) Do you need to have a CAA examiner for your skill test or can it be an examiner from another State? I see Malaga Aerodynamics have their own Spanish examiners. Is this an issue for the UK CAA?

[Mike.Park]

The JAA does not directly inspect/regulate/licence FTOs.

It is the job of the national aviation authorities of JAA member states to do that - so for example in the United Kingdom, the UK CAA is mandated (under the JAA) to inspect/regulate/licence FTOs.

If your looking for a comprehensive list of FTOs licenced by the UK CAA, this can be found on the CAA's website in the form of Standards Document.

[Bubi352]

Thank you for the list. Let me make something clear. If I don't see the flight school (ie: Aerodynamics Malaga) in the FTO list, I cannot do the training at this particular flight school for my CAA IR Conversion? Am I understanding this correctly?

[Mike.Park]

Aerodynamics Malaga is not licensed by the UK CAA.

If you decide to do your IR conversion with Aerodynamics Malaga in Spain, you will be issued with a JAR Instrument Rating issued by the Spanish DGAC.

[davey147]

You can have a JAA Instrument Rating added to your UK issued JAA CPL (if that is what you have)

Do the IR anywhere in the EU and the UK CAA will add it to your CPL, so yes you can do the IR at Aerodynamics do the IR skills test with the Spanish authority and send the paperwork to the UK CAA to have it added.

[Bubi352]

Thanks a lot guys!

[LH2]

Aerodynamics Malaga is not licensed by the UK CAA.

Correct. It's a Spanish FTO so it appears on the list of FTOs at the DGAC website (Ministerio de Fomento, actually)

If you decide to do your IR conversion with Aerodynamics Malaga in Spain, you will be issued with a JAR Instrument Rating issued by the Spanish DGAC.

Negative. The IR is issued by your JAA licencing authority. If you have got a UK/French/Norwegian/whatever JAR licence, it goes into that.

Bubi,

1) Does the flight school need to be a CAA approved FTO? Can it just be a JAA approved FTO from another country? Where can you find a list of approved CAA FTO?

The general rule is that if you have a JAR licence, you can add ratings to it obtained in any other JAR country. There are copious exceptions to this rule if the issuing authority of your licence are the French DGAC (they are sort of in their own world), and to some extent other JAR authorities have their own peculiarities.

2) If you train in a country other than UK, how is the conversion process to have the CAA license? Is this just paperwork?

When you have completed your training, you send the paperwork to the CAA along with your credit card number (very important), and the rating gets added to your licence.

3) Do you need to have a CAA examiner for your skill test or can it be an examiner from another State?

In the case of a UK-issued JAR licence, it can be any suitably qualified JAR examiner. The only difficulty I have found once was trying to persuade a continental examiner that yes, he could sign a revalidation directly on my UK licence. I had to ring Gatwick and get the CAA bloke to tell the examiner to go ahead and sign the bloody licence.

I see Malaga Aerodynamics have their own Spanish examiners. Is this an issue for the UK CAA?

Nope.