Not really. Get the FAA IR now, fly 50 hrs IFR as PIC until April next year and then take the EASA IR practical test. Or don’t you even have an EASA PPL yet?
There is a guy local to me who is both EASA and FAA rated and he doesn’t charge silly money. 25 or 30 quid per airborne hour depending on what flight training he is doing. He is also more than happy to use peoples own aircraft and he charges very reasonable travel expenses if you want him to come to you. He is currently flying out in the states but will be back in the UK in a couple of weeks.
If you pm me I can pass you his details
There is a guy local to me who is both EASA and FAA rated
It ought to be mentioned that the FAA accepts all non-FAA training (except for the final 3hrs within 60 days of the checkride) and thousands of Europeans have followed such a route – unless you use a particular UK based DPE for the checkride who essentially disagrees. Anybody doing everything in the USA can use their existing logbook entries. I have an article on the FAA IR here (I did mine in Arizona) and I think it is still mostly up to date.
However if your plane is N-reg and you will be doing flying in circumstances where you are not legally capable of acting as PIC (e.g. you don’t have the correct (or any) IR and will be going into Class A, etc) then the instructor does need to have the correct papers, which will be an FAA CPL/IR. If you want to log it as flight training then he will need an FAA CFI (for the PPL or CPL) and FAA CFII (for the IR). And if he is charging you money for the flight training he will also need (if in UK airspace) a JAA/EASA CPL (or maybe just the CPL exam passes) 
Not to mention the DfT permission for N-reg (if payment is made and it’s in UK airspace), which the CAA will soon be selling from their website
I am told by DfT its being given over to the CAA from 1/4/2014
It will be very interesting to see how much they charge.
Not really. Get the FAA IR now, fly 50 hrs IFR as PIC until April next year and then take the EASA IR practical test. Or don’t you even have an EASA PPL yet?
Where I am at with licences at the moment…
Converted my CAA PPL to EASA PPL
IMC now shown as IR Restricted on the above
I have my FAA Pilots Certificate on the back of the EASA Licence
I have recently passed the FAA IR Theory exam
So my strategy is to do a few weeks training down in Cannes with Orbifly in my aircraft then take the test at Le Touquet with Tom Hughston
If I cant use my aircraft (which Orbifly tell me I can) then they have quite a nice Commander which would also work.
But if all this is going to fall in a heap next year due to the regulations discussed I will PROB40 rethink this.
As with all this stuff, hard to dispose of it in just a few lines, but I would not today recommend somebody getting FAA papers unless they will be flying an N-reg (which itself is worth doing from the operating costs point of view – but only if you are a particular type/personality of owner who is willing and able to get involved).
Putting it another way, if somebody was starting in the ownership game from zero and was the type of owner who wants to treat his plane like a BMW/Merc (drop it off at the dealer with a key and a blank cheque on the seat) then the FAA/N-reg route probably won’t give you advantages, when one looks at an ab initio EASA PPL/IR as currently proposed (bear in mind the CB IR is not available yet and hangs a lot on how/when the FTO machine will set up for it).
I would recommend you get your 61.75 PPL converted into a standalone FAA PPL, while you are doing your FAA IR. A 61.75 is sure to be a long term hassle.
Noted, my plan was to convert my aircraft to 2- reg though, not N reg
To get full FAA PPL I understand you have to pass all their PPL theory exams and take a flight test (Painful!)? The EASA licence counts for nothing in this process??
I am not looking for maintenance savings on this, its just a convoluted route to get to where I really want to be which is to Fly IFR in Europe, if my IRR covered Europe with the same privileges as in the UK that would be more than adequate for my purposes. Which is why I find the whole thing so nuts
Yes – see the FAR/AIM for the requirements. Your UK training all counts, you may need to do extra night time (the FAA PPL includes night privileges and there is a night X/C flight) and there is 1 written exam.
Putting it another way, if somebody was starting in the ownership game from zero and was the type of owner who wants to treat his plane like a BMW/Merc (drop it off at the dealer with a key and a blank cheque on the seat) then the FAA/N-reg route probably won’t give you advantages
Actually, there is a way of doing this (without the blank cheque 
).
As Peter rightly says, there are big advantages to flying an N reg but you do need either to know enough to control the maintenance process yourself, or have someone who knows to help you.
I use a company called Savvy Mx (www.Savvymx.com)) to manage my maintenance and liaise with my service centre to ensure that whatever really does need doing gets done and what is optional is properly considered and a sensible decision made.
It is run Mike Busch, who is quite well known here, and is very highly rated by the Cirrus community in the US.
The service costs $750 p.a and is well worth it.
I have no link to them other than as a satisfied customer.
