FAA licenses?
 

Hello my fellow rotorheads, I need advice regarding FAA licenses.

I am military pilot (1900h total, 180h IFR, 250night, mostly Mi-8/17, SAR, CSAR, external cargo, firefighting, mountain, instructor/examiner, maintenance test pilot), thinking about civil carrier.

Due to crazy situation in my country (actually crazy CAA) I can't get any licenses. We accepted JAR and will switch to EASA, but that blocked all helicopter operations...we are too small to have FTO and we don't even have any commercial helicopter operator.
Our CAA thinks that only reason of their existence is Croatia Airlines.
(in their brilliance they signed every single paper EASA put in front of them, and now due to fine print Croatian airplane licenses are actually national license becuse we are not full member of EU :ugh: )

I managed to get my military hours in civil logbook and got ICAO CPL(H) with type rating for Schweizer300, which expired but I can renew it and convert it to JAR. I also have ICAO ATPL(A)+IR theory, and did conversion course for JAR ATPL.

I guess it is possible to convert JAR CPL(H) to FAA...

What is bothering me is IR, from what I reed in FAR it seems that my military IFR hours might count for 40h of IFR for license and that i need maybe only 15h of training?
(I tried that for JAR IFR ME, but ended up that I have to do all 55h (we don't have any FTO so I would need to do it abroad, so nothing cam be transferred from military), which cost that much that there is no economical sense to leave military and go to civil flying)

From what I have seen that is currently only option for me. I don't have money to get JAR IR...

Thanks for all inputs.
Fly safe

A simple "conversion" from any licence to the FAA-licence is not possible-you will always (only) end up with a FAA PPL(H), and then have to show proof of completion of the necessary hours for CPL(H), ATPL(H) and/or IR (IR only necessary if you´re going for the ATPL).

What i would recommend:

Fill out the form for conversion of your CPL(H) into the FAA PPL(H) (although it is not necessary, but at least it gives you another licence).

Then go to the US (you HAVE to take the exam there..), and find yourself a small flight school that guides you through the conversion process.
Check if you fulfill the requirements:
CFR 14+49 FAR/AIM text section 61.151 though 61.169 with special emphasis on 61.161.

FAA Regulations

At least you´ll have to do two checkrides (it is possible to do the IR in a Schweizer...don´t know about the ATPL-checkride)...

Zlocko, try to PM fellow Ppruner MarkerInbound, he's a wealth of knowledge when it comes to FARs. Good luck to you:ok:

Then go to the US (you HAVE to take the exam there..)

FAA Test

You can do your FAA PPL and CPL here in UK written and flight test.
I'm an helicopter FAA CFI PM me if you need any more details.

H7

You can sit FAA writtens at certain schools that are LaserGrade (or rather, PSI now) or CATS. It's usually at certain premium outside USA. Up until about year ago, it was less, now 150 bucks in the US.
I can't tell you'd fulfill all requirements for FAA ATP regarding FAA crosscountry.
You do look like you'd only need the minimum training/flight review after validation for PPL(H). It's usually 3hrs preceding 2 months before checkride/flight test.
I don't see a point trying to do FAA ATP if you only need CPL


Those have to be with FAA CFI, other training will be credited, as long as the requirements as to the kind of time is met.
Also, initial FAA licence and instrument, you'll technically have to pay 130 bucks each, for TSA 'clearance'.

Doing flight tests in UK or France is possible with freelance DPE, but the fees are hefty and you'd have to be sure you got all paperwork correct.
Plenty info if you search, look at e-cfr.gpoaccess.gov as linked already. part 61.129 has the flight experience requirements for CPL and then you search the exact one for instruemnt rating. It's mainly straight line distance XC, total distance, daytime, night time, etc.

I'm still not getting your situation. Your heli CPL is Croatian or from other country. Why don't you get it renewed and converted to JAA compliant one?
I can't tell about other countries, or their CAAs, but there's this 'change of licence issue state' possibility, but usually tied to proving that you have lived somewhere past 6 months or so, or majority of year. That way, if you could, IF, swapping to other (EU) country and then have EASA licence once it's rolled over from JAR.

You've got a point regarding the IR training/conversion. But you also have reasonable credits for having IR(A), though not as good as ICAO IR(H).

Wish I had your hours and MI-17 time. That'd be handy for some places/countries.

Thank you all for such quick reply,
it seems that it is easier than I even thought.

Regarding my situation, we use to have Ministry of Sea, Transport and Infrastructure regulating our licenses.
It was a nightmare, when military pilot cams to get his hours from military log book transfered to civil one they would refuse, every time with different crazy explanation: we dont have Mi-17 in civil registry, no MiG-21 in registry, it is not regulated with Air Force, the person who needs to do that is somewhere else...and if one was persistent enough they would transfer only such amount of hours that military pilot would need to do all modules of training, from doesn't matter how many hours one would get maybe 100... it was personal decision with no clear rules. :ugh:

Then we got Croatian Civil Aviation Authority and JAR, and everybody were happy...for one week.
In JAR it is stated that national CAA can accept military licenses and develop some form of conversion into civilian like UK CAA does, well our bright civil servants decided that it can, but doesn't have to, so they decided not to! :}

I got my ICAO CPL(H) in one neighbor state. Now they adopted JAR so to renew it I will also convert it to JAR CPL(H), which is not a problem, just expanse :*

Regarding my hours in Mi-17, with right passport (US) and 10-15h in Mi-17 sky is not a limit.

Thanks for the information about taking the written part outside of the US!

I was looking to "convert" my JAR-licence into the FAA ATPL within the next month; all flight schools (of course!) i got in contact with in the US told me that i HAVE to sit the exam in the US only, and that it is not possible to do it outside the US....

It´s going to change all my plans, then...
Zlocko, if you´re heading to do it somewhere in europe-let me know, i might join you.

Maybe we can share some costs.....

Cheers,

You can sit the written exam for the FAA ATP in UK at Flight Safety in Farnborough. The exam sitting is monthly but fills up quickly so call them to make a booking. You'll need to study the appropriate FAA manual and practice exam book.

The flight test has to be completed in USA (I believe) and is equivalent to an Instrument Rating test.

I've done both recently so if you need any advice just ask.

HR,

taking FAA writtens is easy. You can learn every question/answer from the Test Prep series. Only the instructor rating FOI database has been changed considerably and thus (maybe not now, but fairly recently) it was harder to pass the FOI test. it's theory of instructing, but lots of ambiguous discutable answer options off one book.

You could get FAA licences in Europe, but it's probably not worth the hassle and cost, as sorting visa and dropping in to US, take the written at the school or school nearby, booked ahead, you show up, gone in one hour or less, with the A4 pass confirmation you present to examiner after checking logbooks, totalling times in form 8710 and whatever flying 3hrs+ needed.

I have put through a few FAA PPL (H)students here in UK and couple of FAA CPL (H) students and they did their exams with Flight Safety in Farnborough and flight test with UK DPE Examiner

H7

is it possible to do all three exams first (IR, CPL, ATP) and then to do flying part?

If you have sufficient experience to qualify for the ATP then you will only need to sit the ATP written. The flight test is also an IRT.

the main FAA ATP requirement for you to check would be the 500hrs qualifying FAA XC (50nm+ straight line in fixed wing or 25nm+ in helicopters with landing at the point away. There's some US ex-mil credit for those on long range bombing/recon missions without landing away, but can't recall the exact regs)

Other than that with your brief hours rundown you should be fine. Actually, from your past interest in some international jobs, FAA ATP would be more useful in your case, to be honest.

so ATP written test would cover for IR and CPL?

do I have to do CPL flight test or I could just do IR and ATP flight test?

i have more than 1600h in Mi-17 and i guess that some o3 hours flights (around 600km/330NM) will cover distance on XC navigation.

all jobs that would pay off my investment in civil licenses and resigning military seems to be in ME and Asia...
I don't think that I have chance in North Sea...

Not so fast people-----

One of the requirements for the ATP is that you hold a commercial license:

FAR 61.153--Eligibility for an ATP

You can use your prior hours but are not eligible for the license purely based upon your non-US military experience.

One of the requirements for a commercial license is----you guessed it---a private license.

It has been a while since I was in full time instruction---so I am open to being corrected, however, the way I read the FAR's, You will need to do ALL of them. Long gone are the days when you could go right to commercial.

Is there anyone on this forum able to take our (Zlocko´s and mine) FAA-ATPL-checkride and help us setting up an appointment for the written?
Zlocko, hope you don´t mind that i jump in.....?

Planned on doing this in June/July (in the US, have been just about to book everything), but am off for 6 weeks in February/March-would it be realistic to book an appointment at the end of march, to get the written part done in France or GB?

ok, so with my JAR CPL, I can get FAA PPL

do I have to do all three written exams, or just I could take ATP written? If I take written exams how long are they valid if i don't do flying part?

As Gordy pasted,

if you have a JAR CPL and IR you can just take the ATP written exam. As for the period of validity you'll have to check. I have a JAR ATPL(H) IR and took the FAA ATP written in UK, then 3 months later took the ATP flight test in USA.

Top of the World
 

Namaste zlocko

go get a tourist visa for Hawaii - USA, then go do the on-line learner site for theory coaching, then you do 3 on-line exams, & then fly the tests for PPL, then CPL, then IFR(R) finaly the ATP - IF flight test....then You have an FAA - ATP(R) :D

Aum & Happy landings :ok:

VF :cool:

Careful there VF,

he gets his IR, so no tourist visa, it's an M visa plus the complete TSA shebang.