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CAA turn around time

I know a lot of people talk about how slow the CAA are to issue the all important bits of paper. But does anybody know why it takes so long? DO they do background checks or anything? Contact your flying school to verify your application? There must be some aspect of it that slows the process down surely?

At the moment turn around time for license or rating issue is 25 working days. It's purely due to the high volume of applications as a result of the conversion to EASA and made worse by the fact everyone's automatics level 4 language proficiency has expired.

Jørgen

EHLE, Netherlands

The turnaround time is largely dependent on the number of applications and to some extent the quality of those applications. If the forms are not filled in correctly it will waste a lot of time and slow the whole process down.

I recently applied for a "permission for aerial work" with a UAV and it took over 2 months. And my paperwork was perfect!

Administrator
EGTR / London, United Kingdom

That is processed in a totally different way to licences. There is almost an assembly line to process licences and ratings. Permissions will be dealt with on an individual basis by just one or maybe two individuals who have other tasks.

I sent a conversion application to EASA licence on September 26th. I have not heard anything and my card has not been debited yet. I have not actually found anybody yet who has received their licence through the post in the last few weeks.

Ashbourne

I waited 4 weeks last July/August. I chose to take the paperwork in person to the CAA in Gatwick rather than send it – which turned out to be a good move because there was an omission on one of the forms which I was able to put right on the spot! The CAA took the payment about four days before I received the license – that’s the point at which you’ll know you will soon be flying on your own ticket!

Good luck,
Phil

PJL
EGMD, EGKA

What I don’t understand is why the CAA system doesn’t give you a temporary license the moment you pass your checkride which is part of the paperwork the examiner does, so you’re good to go straight away, rather than waiting 4-6 weeks to be able to fly again. It’s what the FAA does. It’s even what happens with a UK driving license.

Andreas IOM

The problem of the UK CAA is that they offer this “same day” service for a hefty fee. It’s available for almost every process. Whenever a same-day application is there, it gets priority over the others. So in order to shorten waiting times, more and more people use the same day service which means that non same-day applications get pushed out further and thereby it’s a self-accelerating scheme.

Same-day just means you get an initial answer the same day, usually why your request cannot be completed and what is missing. The follow-on answers are far from being same-day!

I know this “acceleration fee” from other countries where I do business, it has a different name there but the idea is the same

Not a big fan of the same-day service!

Maybe the CAA is paranoid about instructors with lapsed qualifications, and they want to check the instructor’s/examiner’s bonafides on their file before issuing the certificate?

It does happen.

I have heard of quite a number in the FAA system. I personally know one guy who did a checkride for something, got slightly concerned when it didn’t appear on his FAA record for months, then went elsewhere to do another checkride for something else, and was told the previous checkride pass (for which he had only the certificate signed by the DPE) was not accepted by the FAA. The FAA would not divulge why but it was prob99 due to the DPE having been temporarily banned. Another one had to re-do a bizjet checkride in a similar situation, which would have cost him a bit of money! His instructor told me that he took legal action against the FAA and got the rating issued (which is IMHO correct). A UK pilot who I used to know personally did an IR checkride in the USA but the FAA refused to issue the rating, for reasons which appeared to be related to the FAA not liking something which was (or more likely wasn’t) in his logbook (but, one assumes, which the DPE didn’t notice). All the foregoing was quite some years ago but clearly it can happen.

There have been cases in the UK CAA system too. I recall reading about some c. a year ago. Instructors with expired ratings, and collusion. The CAA did, IIRC, issue the ratings to the test candidates in most but not all cases. Where they required a re-test was where there was suspected collusion (bribery, presumably) between the candidate and the instructor.

Plus we have the general distrust of “freelance anything” in Europe

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
13 Posts
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