Cheap and Cheerful A320 revalidation wanted
 

Hey guys,

Found myself in a bit of an awkward situation. I have a 320 rating with CAE when joined Monarch airlines in May 2017. Well that turned out rather fun, and now I have A320 rating with 88 hours on type. (Spoilers: they went bankrupt). Along with the other friends I made during my initial stages in the company, 4 of us found an Airbus job, where me and another guy didn't. Mostly due to absence of total hours. We are fresh out of flight school.

At the moment I have a job with another airline, and another rating. The rating is super unpopular with only 160 or so aircraft in the world. :D Not very good for career progression. Naturally I would like to keep the rating current. I am in Belgium at the moment, I hold UK license.

There are a few questions though.

The rating expires 27JUL18, and financially I am struggling. 6 month unemployed, no savings, just moved to another country, new flat, deposit, furniture etc etc.. you know the drill. So it is important for me to shop around.

Under UK CAA rules, can I let the rating expire up to 3 month before I need to renew it, instead of revalidate?
The first type rating can be revalidated on a Fixed base simulator instead of paying for the FFS, or is it some BS I have heard wrong?
Does anyone know a cheap and cheerful type rating ATO/instructor, who would be happy to bare a couple of inexperienced pilots, who don't fly the type? The cheapest quote we had was 2400EUR for two of us all in.
How much financially and physically it will cost me to renew if I decide to renew this after 3 years. In my case it is the end of my bond at the current company.

Thanks guys, I am a little bit inexperienced in ratings and licenses as you can see, so bare with me if you can.
:)

Based BRU must be SSJ

And why it has to be "cheerful"? I know of someone cheap, but rather grumpy, would it work?

iggy made me smile thankyou.

:D I am sure he is cheerful at heart. Can I have his email?

If you let it lapse for less than 3 months, the extra training requirement might be 0 - the regulation explicitly says so. But it needs to go through an ATO and their HT approve it. If expired more than three months - with your experience level - the re-newal would be more expensive compared to keeping it valid.

1200 EUR for 2 hrs with TRE included sounds fair, prices are not much lower than that on the open market.

You may struggle to do a reval in 2 hours - assuming it is done properly! Three hours is more realistic as the TRE has to see a full start-up, taxi, take-off and departure. You will be struggling to do that much quicker than an hour - then there are all the other events (Departure, Arrival, EFATO, RTO, SE-ILS, SE-GA, NPA, SE-ldg, 3 normals/abnormal, 3 abnormal/emergencies). Even if you are really good you will not be doing that lot in an hour. Hope that helps.

Did you apply to FlyVLM in BRU? I heard they're getting an extra A321 this summer and might be interested in a type rated F/O.
Go and talk to them. They're located in the former Thomas Cook office building between the Brussels Airlines B-House and the the airport funerarium.
Do not confuse this airline with the one with the same name operating out of Antwerp!

Cheers

Well, can't get more cheerful than in Czech Republic. Try CATC! Should be definitely way cheaper than EUR 1200,- for two hours... ��

Follow up
 

Hi guys - there is no ultra cheap option to do a revalidation on the A320. I am an A320 TRE and do revalidations regularly. The typical cost for a TRE is typically £400-500 for a sim session. As a minimum it will take 3 hours on an A320 simulator, assuming no significant issues along the way. If there are two of you it will take the full 4 hours (the second guy does not require to do the start-up, taxi out and departure). The cheapest A320 sim in the UK that I know of is £288/hour including VAT at Quadrant Systems Ltd in Burgess Hill near Gatwick. If you wait beyond the year, then you are into using a TRTO like CAE or similar - they are big money. So, the cheapest way is to get another rated guy in a similar position and then go together to a tame TRE and he will do it if you are inside the year. That way the cost per head is around £800-ish. That assumes that both candidates are competent and do not require substantial retraining and/or retesting. Hope that helps.