Keep your EASA MEP / EASA IR up to date!

I just want to mention that recent EASA moves have really tightened up the renewal options for these.

These need to be revalidated every 12 months.

If you do it within the 12 months, it is a “revalidation”. This can still be done with a freelance instructor, as before. The usual cost is about £150, plus the cost of the aircraft.

If you let it go past the 12 months, it is a “renewal”. This cannot be done purely with a freelance instructor anymore. You have to go back to an FTO which has to assess you and potentially you are stuck there for some “retraining”. There are 2 or 3 stages of “expiry” which force different amounts of FTO involvement but obviously any FTO involvement is a significant hassle and expense (they are in business after all). You could easily be into 4 figures.

If the period of expiry is less than 3 months there are no recommended minima for refresher training. However, you will still have to obtain a certificate from an FTO (now called “ATO”) to confirm either that they determined that no training was required or that the required training has been completed.

Another thing is that previously if you had a JAA IR and an FAA IR, but didn’t have any need for the JAA IR, but you flew regularly on the privileges of the FAA IR (example: N-reg owners, or UK airline pilots working outside Europe) so you didn’t bother revalidating the JAA IR, you could revalidate it anytime just with a flight with a freelance examiner. The flying on the ICAO IR kept the JAA IR from expiring. This has ended too, and has caught a lot of professional pilots with their trousers down.

If you let the JAA IR lapse for 7 years, you have to do it all again, i.e. the 7 IR exams, the 50/55hrs training!

While the JAA IR is relatively rare in the private pilot IFR community (most of which is N-reg/FAA IR) this is yet another factor working against private pilots maintaining the much more common twin (MEP) rating, if they don’t own or regularly fly a twin.

The reference is in AMC1 FCL.625(c) and the relevant page is 226. I hope I got this right!

How long have you been flying, and the biggest changes over that time?

It’s just occurred to me that I started just over 20 years ago.

The main change I notice is the ease of getting preflight information, because mobile data is available practically everywhere, and there are many more sources for weather. Flying itself, and the vast majority of airspace and airports, is exactly the same.

Satnav also works a lot better. I always had GPS in some form, but some of the contraptions I was using back then – example example – look hilarious today.

Then, the IR in 2006 completely transformed the procedures for flying across Europe.

Alternator after start check, and dual alternator load sharing

Looking at a sample of typical POHs, excluding a start with an external power source, the ALT field is ON before start, and is switched off after engine shutdown. With an external power start, the ALT is brought on line after start.

In a twin engine you might check an individual engine at idle, to see if the other engine’s alternator picks up the electrical load, and vice versa.

I recently came across a pilot who had been told to switch the ALT field off after starting in a twin to check the load on the other ALT, and vice versa. I pointed out this was not in the POH and could cause an electrical spike when the ALT was brought back on line, which might damage the regulator, and I sort of recall an engineer telling me it could even damage the accessory drive. I am guessing this scenario is with the engine in the cruise, and not after start at relatively low RPM.

There is a great body of knowledge on the forum on electric systems, so hopefully someone can point to the most authoritative answer to this scenario.

PH-reg experimental

Hi to everybody. I’m trying to gather information about the possibility of register an experimental in the process of being built as a PH but I hardly find something on the net.
What are the pros and cons?
What’s the process? Costs?
Any other useful info?
Thanks in advance.