I’ve just come across an article in one of UK’s ATPL training industry rags (yes, the one that uses 25 different font sizes on one page) about this.
This leads to the obvious question as to why, given that their safety record, flying (mostly) N-regs on FAA papers, is at least as good as that of the gold-plated JAA IR holding “locals”.
FWIW, it took me about 25hrs to get the (in 2011: 15hrs min FTO time) conversion done, of which some 90% was spent doing NDB holds and NDB approaches.
One could also argue that while FAA IR pilots may not be able to fly single needle raw-data approaches, they are doing a lot more flying and are thus a lot more current (on average) than JAA IR holders flying G-regs. Not intending to be controversial 
but almost everywhere I go I see N-regs as the best equipped best maintained planes parked there. At one particular airport in Spain, the N-regs were the only ones that didn’t have grass growing around their tyres. Obviously there are lots of G-reg doing a lot of IFR but the overall stats seem pretty obvious.
The latest rumour seems to be that the FAA-EASA BASA treaty might result in the initial IR test being done by a normal freelance IRE rather than the stricter CAA or CAA-appointed IR examiners, and with no other changes over the current IR conversion route.
Do you mean that it might be the same as an IR renewal rather than an initial IR test? Or is it an initial done by an IRE? The latter would be difficult as currently “industry” examiners for Initial IRs have to jump through all sorts of hoops to get such an appointment from the CAA
I suspect that there might also be a conversion route for “professional” licences (CPL & ATPL) for experienced pilots, but I haven’t heard anything.
The former – a revalidation examiner.
I agree about the political difficulty, but that has to be one of the reasons why the BASA has been “coming soon” for years.
Plus the fact that the USA already offers a paperwork-only validation route (the 61.75 PPL plus the 50-question-exam Foreign Pilot IR) so has nothing obvious to gain from such a treaty.
ATPL holders already have various conversion routes. For example FAA to JAA/EASA is “just” the 14 ATPL exams (that bit is, sadly, unavoidable and a right PITA) plus an LPC in a simulator – I am told by one bizjet pilot. I am not sure about the CPL/IR.
If the BASA does something for CPL/IR holders, that would be historically unsurprising because there have always been various validation or conversion routes around for “working pilots” – usually immediately available to pilots getting a job with an AOC operator of aircraft whose State of registry is that of the target license. I was offered such a conversion in 2011 but would have to “work” as “something” for a few months in a very nice country south of the Alps (fine for a single bloke, for sure). EASA FCL, in its attack on N-regs, has avoided making any concessions to CPL holders – either via oversight or because they knew quite a lot of private FAA IR holders actually have the FAA CPL (like I have).
It’s all up in the air, but with the derogation apparently extended to April 2016, the future looks interesting.
What I find amusing is that EASA has been telling everybody there is absolutely no chance whatsoever in the entire known universe of the April 2015 deadline being extended. But then they would say that… They are hardly going to say “if you make enough fuss, we will keep extending it”
I think this saga illustrates just how much political capital has been sunk into the EASA FCL anti N-reg attack, leaving so little, and how the EU’s near-disintegration has removed the edge from the previous sheer arrogance of their old officials.
One could also argue that while FAA IR pilots may not be able to fly single needle raw-data approaches…
What do you mean? Do you mean standard ILS, VOR, NDB approaches? What else is there? Autoland??
Perhaps the best place to do a conversion is somewhere other than the UK?
When I first passed my PPL in the USA (JAA PPL), back in 2000, I came back to the UK and did a checkout at a well known south coast flying club. The FI was chatting on the way out to the runway and asked where I got my PPL. When I said the USA his response was “ohh we don’t like those here”. Tw*t I thought, but at the end of the checkout he did admit that I flew very well.
I guess it is attitude. If you can find someone who is sympathetic that the UK is not the only place in the world to fly, then that is a plus point. If you get some old Wing Commander who is bitter and twisted about the hoops he has to jump through to get what he’s got, then the sh*t will roll downhill in your direction!
Really what I would absolutely love is for it to be allowed to do the conversion in one of the Florida pilot factories. US airspace, US rules, bingo !
If it were an LPT rather than an LST it would be amazing. In a good way.
Perhaps the best place to do a conversion is somewhere other than the UK?
Absolutely. I feel sorry for you guys in UK.
It is a very painless process here in Germany. Loads of people have done it, mostly in aircraft not even equipped with a DME, in many cases on (their own) N-reg. aircraft.
In fairness, I should say that of all the various examiners I have flown with since getting the PPL in 2001, one of the two who were utterly professional and a real pleasure to fly with was an ex RAF F4 pilot, for the CAA IR test in 2012.
It surprised me too, of course, after hearing all the usual stories.
The other was a visiting US DPE, for the FAA CPL.
There have always been some “sadists” around, and I know for a fact that some are still there in the UK, and some have been recruited into the new ranks of “industry examiners” (unsurprising, given that there is a fair number of “paper collectors” in the business and these would have gone for the IR FE job like a magnet, just to massage their self esteem) but I think the numbers are much smaller today than most people would think.
An ADF is not mandatory in the UK (though the choice of approaches will reduce as a result) but a DME was reported as mandatory in that article.
So far in my case in France, it seems to be pretty painless. I did a first flight with two approaches (ILS + GNSS). Next the instructor, who BTW has held, and maybe still holds, a FAA IR, indicated he wants to do one more flight with ADF and VOR approaches, more a/c familiarization (air work) and he was intent on contacting the examiner. I suppose I will have flown 5 hrs by then.
Maybe a lot of those who now do the IR conversion do not have all that much recent experience?
I have flown with one JAA IR holder who was totally hopeless at even maintaining an altitude and was well behind a 130 kts aircraft all the time. Don’t know how he managed to do his annual IR renewal, but apparently he did. The thing about IR is that you have to keep it up, and in that respect the FAA currency requirement makes a lot more sense than the EASA annual renewal.
The thing about IR is that you have to keep it up, and in that respect the FAA currency requirement makes a lot more sense than the EASA annual renewal.
I am not sure how it works in other EU countries, but in Czech Republic there is definitely a currency aspect as well: if you have flown 10 IFR segments over the year, then your revalidation is just two instrument approaches with an examiner, otherwise you also have to fly a full enroute segment. If you let your IR lapse, then it’s a full segment in either case.
