Alexander. Thanks for the update. It's not as if EASA sprang into life overnight and said "ooh - need to change over licences tout de suite". The licensing authorities have had plenty of time to prepare.

Sapco2 - so what have you learnt about CAA admin from this! Does this mean you can't go to work?

And weren't pan-european licences supposed to simplify matters?

At least the fee that I paid is helping somebody...

Mr Haines’ salary will remain unchanged at £250,000 per annum; the CAA’s funding comes from the charges it imposes on the industry, rather than the taxpayer - he holds no other public appointments.

I'm sorry, but this has all gone too far.

I went to the CAA for my EASA licence. It was issued within 4 hours and I was met by a very friendly team.

If your income depends on your licence then take it to the CAA in person.

I hear what you're saying, and I have no doubt that the counter staff are very helpful. However I don't understand how it's possible to produce a licence in a matter of hours if I turn up in person, whereas it hasn't been possible in close to eight weeks, and after phone calls and pressure from an MP. It's a principle thing. Having said that I can't afford to have principles.

Omnishambles, like so much else in this country. Bet it doesn't take MPs 2 months plus to get their expenses back? No, thought not...

@ Delta Hotel, I'm not sure yet how to play the next stage. Im due back to work on Tuesday. The 4th EASA licence was promised for today but it never arrived. The bosses are aware of the situation and they've been really understanding!

Get to LGW and do it over the counter. Be there early (opens at 9 but first in the queue are there before 8) Make sure you get a number for the queue.
I think the CAA should recommend more over the counter applications, increase the hours its open, add more staff, open the slots at lunch time. Pilots are being grounded because of this.
Once you get to the counter service is more than efficient

I went last Tuesday, got there at 7 30 and was number 4, out by 11 am, the guys on security give you a number card on arrival, they said if Ihad gone on Monday I would of been No 10 by 7.30.
I waited over 5 weeks using the post service, gave up and drove down there.

The public counter is open from 8.30 at the moment. Good luck.

Umm...so I should aim to leave home before 4am, wait around down there for an unspecified length of time, and then drive back home again. Then I'll be back to work the next day for an eight to ten hour day of back to back training flights. Will the CAA reimburse me for my travelling expenses and loss of earnings? No, of course they won't.
Alternatively they could just post me my new licence.
I'll point out that at no time over the last eight weeks have I received any form of communication from the CAA.

Umm... my issue 1 licence came from over the counter but with an LV omission... then came version 2 via post; this time they included the LV certification but removed the IR... then version 3 came via post - they'd altered my test dates this time and listed my IR as an expired rating... I emailed them and telephoned them as soon as their office opened, they promised faithfully I'd receive version 4 by last Saturday but it never arrived... I'm giving them till Monday. If I haven't got it by then, it's a 4am start to LGW for me too, probably on Tuesday.

Klaxon

I too have my application in and still have a couple of weeks to go. Am I right in assuming you already had an application in the system when you rocked up to the express counter? If this is so then I can keep this method in my back pocket should it get a little too close to the cut off date. :hmm:

Him Jim, yes it was in the system, I was expecting a fight on arrival but it was very straight forward in my case. I did not pre book, just turned up. There were people arriving when I left so maybe I was a bit early?.

Top tip: it does not have to be the licence holder to take all the paperwork to Gatwick for the same-day counter service, it can by ANYONE. As long as they have your number in case they need to make any additional enquiries. They confirmed this and I had a friend do it who lives nearer to Gatwick, and got my EASA licence the same day.

Thanks for that, now wish I'd got copies of the 'validation from a head of training' bit, that was a real headache. Still, it really does beg the question, which has been asked inummerable times before, why can I get it done in a morning down in Gatwick yet it takes five weeks plus by post? Bizarre! :confused:

I've received a phone call from FCL. They're sending my licence out today by FedEx, so it should arrive tomorrow. A big thank you to whoever finally sorted this out for me.

Can you use the same day service for initial issue of a CPL?

The CAA has become a pigs trough for the Directors. Just have a look at their Annual report. All of the Exec Directors - and a woman who is not a member of the board but is a Director (????) - are paid more than the Prime Minister.

Pigs trough.

And yet they can't even cope with a 100% predictable rush on one of their most basic tasks - issuing licenses. Shouldn't they take a large salary cut for their incompetence???.

You can't invent stories like the CAA - reality is just so much crazier than fiction.

Worrying indeed.
So I've got a JAA ATP issued by uk CAA which doesn't expire until 2014. Am I thinking I need to get my ass down to gatwick by April to change it, at no doubt, considerable cost ??

Question:

Why if you have a UK issued JAA licence not due to expire for several years are so many people wanting to exchange it for a EASA licence?

Is it a requirement to do so?
Is it the curiosity of wanting a new licence?

Is it possible for a TRE to just continue signing the space in the old licence for IR renewals until the licence expires, or at least until the expiry date gets closer (win 12 months).

And its a reasonable question. Answer:
Nobody freely wants to change, it's just that any change whatsoever, be it a change of address, an additional rating or such like will trigger the changeover under CAA rules at an involuntary cost of £139.00.