Canadian PPL in the UK - HELP NEEDED

Just do it. You won’t regret. Canada is a fabulous place to learn to fly.

Regardless of what happens on or after April 2017 for EASA aircraft, for private flying, a foreign ICAO standard licence will remain valid in UK airspace to fly G registered non-EASA aircraft of types which the licence would cover back in the issuing country.

These non-EASA aircraft include many which can be shared and flown on a small budget.

Flying on a tight budget is tough anywhere in the world, but while in Canada you may be able to accumulate a fair few hours if you can find a partnership or syndicate (I don’t know what they call shared ownership in Canada!) in a modest aircraft such as a Luscombe, a Cessna 120 or 140, or something similar: an aircraft that has a relatively low buy-in price and a low cost to operate. A very large part of the cost of aircraft ownership is the fixed costs, and when shared between 4 owners it can make it a lot more accessible. Shared ownership of course has its drawbacks, though – you need to join a group which has a similar ownership philosophy to you to begin with, and at some point you’re going to need to sell your share which might not be a tremendously quick process!

Of course this still applies when you return to the UK. You could get as much flying as you can in Canada, then join a syndicate for a G-reg Annex-II aircraft back home when you can afford it (which you can still fly on a foreign ICAO PPL) and if you later wish to do the EASA (or whatever transpires post-Brexit) conversion, you’ll have gained the hours.

But Jacko’s right – just do it :-)

Regardless of what happens on or after April 2017 for EASA aircraft,

I think you mean April 2018?

Just do it! I learned to fly in Vancouver and now live in the UK. The flying is half price in Canada and relatively hassle free.

There are lots of great sights to see all over the lower mainland, the Gulf Islands (and San Juan Islands in the USA), Vancouver Island, down the coast to California, north to Alaska, inland to the Rockies.

If you need to keep the budget down (as others have suggested) I recommend buying into a group/share of an airplane. I bought a share in a PA28 before I finished my license and it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. You get tired of paying the flying school rental rates just to go for a short local flight.

In a group of 10 I was paying about $90/hr CAD all in. That means an overnight camping trip to Pender Island was about (0.4 hr flight) $36 each way and you don’t have to worry about what time the aircraft had to be returned! This was so much fun and really rewarding. It transformed my flying! Adventures to be had everywhere!

There always seem to be shares for sale; go to the notice boards in the Cafes and flying schools at Pitt Meadows, Langley, Boundary Bay, etc and you should be able to turn something up.

I don’t know much about them, but the group linked below were located in the hangar next to me at Boundary Bay, I think they had a couple of Cessna’s and a Piper shared among a bigger group. Seems like it might do the trick.

airsharezbb.blogspot.com/

Have some fun, you will never look back!!

Also, to answer your specific questions, it is not difficult to maintain your Canadian license:
a) The license does not expire, it is yours for life.
b) You need a current medical. As you are under 40, this will be one every 5 years. Probably best to get one renewed before you leave Canada. This will give you five years to sort out your license where ever you move to next.
c) To keep the license current you need to take one flight in the category of aircraft you are licensed for every 5 years, otherwise you have to pass a short written test and do a flight review with an instructor. The flight doesn’t have to be in Canada. Here is a Transport Canada link for the details.
d) To carry passengers you need to do 5 take offs and landings within the last 6 months.
e) You need to do some sort of recurrent training every 2 years, there are lots of options and it is pretty straightforward (One option is to do the self test on the back of the Transport Canada mailing and keep the results – see the link above).
f) You can get a FAA license on the back of your Canadian license… then you can fly N-regs anywhere in the world (Europe’s issues notwithstanding).

Back in the UK, you can currently fly (non-commercially) any G-reg on a Canadian license until April 2017- although this deadline might change or be postponed forever. The links to this are a bit obscure, so make sure you confirm the current state of affairs before you fly in the UK with a Canadian license

Or you can swap your license over by doing the air law, radio-telephony and human factors test, and then going for a flight test. Shouldn’t be to hard.

In general, I think the flying is fantastic in Canada and the USA, so don’t be shy and get started now!

I agree with the others: Get the Canadian license, fly, then in the U.K. deal with the transition… have fun.

FWIW I have a colleague who did his FAA-PPL when he was studying in the US. He did not fly then for two years or a bit more, but our local CAA said as they couldn’t possibly accept the licence itself, they would accept it as finished training and so he just had to get in shape for the skill test. He was a bit rusty due to not flying for 2 years directly after getting his lisence but we did only fly for a couple of hours to make him cproficient enough to pass the skill test. There will be not much flying necessary without a long pause. He was, however, obliged to do a theoretical skill test, too.

That sure was a very wrong application of Part-FCL.

If it weren’t, it would be a bombshell.
Most people get discouraged from doing the PPL in the US because of the 100 hours PIC required for conversion.

If one could just come over with an FAA PPL and then do a few hours here to get up to EASA-PPL test standards, them do the test, that would make it much more attractive (despite all the hassle with fingerprints and visa).

Alas, this will most probably not work with any other local German PPL licensing agency (it even probably doesn’t work anymore at the same place).

Just do it. Canada is a great place to learn – especially at 50% of the cost. If you don’t so it whilst it is at 50% – it is unlikely you will ever do it.
Conversion is not such a hassle. I learnt in Goose Bay Labrador and converted to U.K. PPL when I came home (but that was long before all of that EASA stuff.

There is a friend of mine named Michael Peare Who has been instructing at a flying club in Vancouver for several years. See if you can track him down. I’ll try to get his contact details.