Thanks for the input guys, interesting comments. I’ll clarify further the important factors in terms of making a decision:
- I am an EU resident, no right to live in US
- I want to choose the most comprehensive training (I get the impression this is EASA so far)
- Choice of aircraft : I need to obtain a suitable aircraft, there are a lot more on offer in the US
- I would obviously need to route via non EASA & US states too (Asia, Africa…). Are EASA/FAA IR privileges recognised worldwide so long as the respective rating is in the same state as the reg of the aircraft?
- I am prepared for the commitment and hard work involved in TK exams.
- the trip will almost certainly be after April 2019
@Timothy, I would agree and I certainly do not regret competing the EASA IR. However, I have met pilots who have deliberately gone down the FAA IR route to circumvent the EASA writtens. am I correct in thinking that if you want a stand alone FAA IR you will need to complete the FAA PPL and the associated written exams? If so it would be ‘as broad as it is long’
Marsen wrote:
Are EASA/FAA IR privileges recognised worldwide so long as the respective rating is in the same state as the reg of the aircraft?
I wasn’t able to get a ferry tank installed on my EU registered airplane. That may be an argument to go N/FAA.
If anyone has done so in EASA-land, it would be very interesting to hear.
Rob2701 wrote:
am I correct in thinking that if you want a stand alone FAA IR you will need to complete the FAA PPL and the associated written exams?
Yes you are correct, that is what I did 10 years ago, however it appeared that at that time nobody (that I met) completely understood the route, if I recall correctly, first I had to get a sign off with a FAA designated instructor here in the UK following a 3hr flight assessment, then sit the PPL written at Farnborough (no longer possible I am told) followed by IR written exam and then being told that I had sat the wrong IR exam and that I need to sit again the IR Foreign Pilots exam (4 additional questions in database I believe) then once I had all that along with the M1 VISA from the American Embassy in London I set off to Florida to do a PPL flight test, then back to UK to do the IR flight test with a well known FAA designated examiner.
@Timothy, Timothy wrote:
The JAA/EASA IR gained a quite deserved reputation for being over engineered. We sorted that out a few years ago
Agreed, totally over engineeered and pilots should thank Timothy and others in PPL/IR for sorting it out.
When I did the UK I/R in the late 1980’s it was in the format of mutiple guess answers, along with negative marking which meant you lost points for every wrong answer, one also sat all of the exams in 1 day with maybe 20 mins break between, and bloody Morse Code as well!
However, we did have in those days the benefit of the City of London Poly which ran I/R and ATPL courses.So in answer to the original question ….. today, I would get the FAA I/R first and the convert same to JAA/EASA.
@quatrelle I think you are describing the process for adding Instrument privileges to your FAR 61.75 Private certificate… ie you did not get a stand-alone FAA PPL…. you end up with a full FAA IR which requires your EASA PPL (and medical) to be valid…it’s a good solution….
Whereas I think Rob is asking whether it is necessary to do the (standalone) FAA PPL first…clearly you don’t.
Firstly, you would not want to be doing a round the world trip in an EASA reg plane, because if it needs a major signoff then you have to fly out your local CAA (or some other EASA) inspector out to inspect it. Or your CAMO has to authorise some local company to do the work. Whereas if yours is an N-reg then you just need an FAA A&P (or in some cases A&P/IA) and you are done.
As regards which way round to collect the papers, in depends primarily on what sort of life you have and how much freedom you have. In an ideal world one would go to the USA and do a full US PPL/IR out there. It will be an efficient process – much better than doing it piecemeal out of Europe and throwing money at various people over here for massively overpriced checkrides. I wrote up the route I did here and that article is reasonably current. You will end up with standalone FAA papers which nobody can take away from you.
Note especially that the Brussels-driven screwing of FAA licensed pilots who are resident in Europe is not in any way going to affect your FAA papers. Only the FAA can take those away from you. They will be the most widely recognised pilot papers in the world, and will always be valid subject only to you getting an FAA medical, FAA BFR, and an FAA IPC. Also this EU move (a long thread here and a summary here) will in no way affect your ability to fly an N-reg outside Euro-land. It is merely the EU trying to screw US licensed pilots into getting European papers in addition to the State of Registry (FAA, for N-reg) papers they need already.
Then, with 50hrs PIC IFR time under your belt, do the CB IR conversion here in Europe and with a European medical you will have a European PPL/IR. No need to sit the Euro IR exams on this conversion route. I am assuming you already have a European PPL.
The FAA IR pilot training is IME a lot more rigorous than the European one in terms of aircraft control (I know this can be debated but a fresh EASA IR holder cannot even file a valid IFR flight plan in the Eurocontrol system 
) but the biggest factor in IFR is how current you are on the type.
Yes, you can fly worldwide on both
Not quite.
An FAA pilot license is not valid worldwide. There are a few countries where it is not valid. These are rather “weird” countries though, so probably no factor a typical RTW.
I wasn’t able to get a ferry tank installed on my EU registered airplane. That may be an argument to go N/FAA.
THAT would be the biggest factor (if a ferry tank is needed – loco did not need one). Together with being able to get repairs signed off by an FAA A&P.
AnthonyQ wrote:
@quatrelle I think you are describing the process for adding Instrument privileges to your FAR 61.75 Private certificate… ie you did not get a stand-alone FAA PPL…
Hi Anthony ….. that was the process that I followed to get a standalone FAA PPL, then having already done the I/R Foreign Pilot written I did the FAA I/R flight test back in the UK.
As I said I dont know if it was the correct or easiest process at the time to get to where I wanted to be, but there were so many conflicting views I had to start somewhere.
I was also told that to fly a SET on the N registration I needed a standalone FAA licence, I am still unsure if that is correct or not, but thats what I was told and why I did the standalone licence and not a 61.75.
Like a lot of things in aviation, FAA and CAA, plenty of ambiguous rules that no one can clearly understand.
I was also told that to fly a SET on the N registration I needed a standalone FAA licence, I am still unsure if that is correct or not, but thats what I was told and why I did the standalone licence and not a 61.75.
That’s probably correct if your EASA license only contains SEP privileges. On that case, only those are validated. If you get an stand-alone FAA license, then you’ll get single engine land privileges, which includes SET.
quatrelle wrote:
Hi Anthony ….. that was the process that I followed to get a standalone FAA PPL, then having already done the I/R Foreign Pilot written I did the FAA I/R flight test back in the UK.
Ok cool…although I thought the foreign pilot written was only if you were adding the US Instrument to your 61.75….i don’t doubt you for a second but I did the Normal Instrument written (not the foreign pilot) to add it to my standalone Private certificate… as you say…lots of ambiguity in aviation!
