What's needed for an Aussie to work in England?

[purpletank]

I am an Australian with an Aussie CPL, ME CIR and partially through the Australian ATPL's and want to go to England in a few months (chasing a long time girlfriend). Want to know what I have to do to be able to live and work in England in aviation. Any license conversions and etc.?

Thanks for any help provided.

[Luke SkyToddler]

Try using the 'search' function both here and on the D&G forum, look for posts by redsnail and/or myself, and you ought to find there are several long and detailed posts explaining the entire process.

The very short version of the answer is, about 6 to 9 months of time and around £20,000 worth of money. Resits of all the written ATPLs, CPL skill test, compulsory training course for the IR and an MCC - very few exceptions can be made unless you have a lot of multi pilot or big jet command time.

Oh yeah, and take my hard learned advice, don't refer to this place as 'England' on the forums or you'll have a bunch of uppity Scots and Welshmen jumping down your throat in short order <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

[purpletank]

Thanks for the help.
I think that kinda money might be a little out of my league.
Damn, I really love that gal aswell. better go over and do bar work, probably more money in that than GA at the moment anyway.
Thanks mate.

[redsnail]

Purpletank,
The main question(s) you need to ask is "do I have a British passport, is dad a Brit, is Mum a Brit? are any of my grandparents British? who can I marry?" Without the right of abode/passport then the chances of working in Britain are very small.
As I understand by your post you have yet to gain an Aus ATPL. For a "foreigner" to turn up without turbine time and airline experience then the wait for a good job will be long.
So, assuming you get the right of abode sorted.
To summarise my previous posts you will have to do the following.
Class one medical at Gatwick. Between 189 pounds (if you have +500 hours) or 400 pounds.
Groundschool for the ATPL. Min of 350 hours face to face, normally 650 hours or Distance Learning.
Approx cost 4,000 pounds. Usual time, 6 months min full time. (Note, cost of food,rent etc not included)
Exam fees. 718 pounds for the 14 exams. (Note, fees do not include resits or reschedules)
IR again. Sky's the limit. 10-14,000 pounds.
MCC course 2-4,000 pounds.
Then you will have a CPL/IR with ATPL credits. Aka a "frozen" ATPL.
Yep, it sounds harsh, expensive and very unfair. It probably is however, this is the current state of play in the UK.

BTW $A1 = 35 pence on Sat 5 Jan. Now look at those figures again...

[Whirlybird]

reddo,

No "probably" about it - it's harsh, expensive, and very unfair.