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FAA Instrument Rating in Europe

Hi,
I’m an Italian resident that owns a C182 N registered.
I have the EASA PPL and received the FAA conversion recently.
I’m now considering starting the FAA instrument rating training to make better use of my C182 that is IFR rated.
Can you explain me what is the situation regarding the change of legislation at this stage?
Will I be able to fly my plane IFR within EU (and UK) if I get my FAA IR licence?
Thanks in advance for for your help!
Roberto

I would not bet on it at this stage.

IIRC Italy has not opted out from the requirement that EU residents must have EASA paperwork (don’t have a good Excel reader handy so not able to check). If that is the case you won’t be able to use your FAA IR on Italy. Nor in Spain.

The UK CAA seems to imply that the opt-out is for the airspace, and they have recently introduced a US license validation process which has been subject of much discussion here.

You would be able to fly in France until April 2019. Beyond that, nobody knows.

So I would say you are better off getting the EASA CB-IR.

LFPT, LFPN

Even the CAA regime requires you to have 50 hours P1 IFR to get the concessionary IR validation, so it is not really designed for someone starting out.

I agree with @Aviathor. Accept that the bastards have ground us down and just get a CB-IR. It is nowhere near as much of a challenge as it was a few years ago.

EGKB Biggin Hill

The main thread is here.

You need the FAA papers to fly an N-reg anyway, anywhere in the world (except as provided by FAR 61.3 i.e. you can fly an N-reg on local papers issued by the airspace owner).

In Europe, the safest position is to have the corresponding EASA papers too. That “EASA attack on N-regs” came out in 2012 and got delayed just before each deadline. Today, we have an ambiguous situation, partly because some countries have not opted into the delay (but there were always some countries which did not opt into the delay). There is no known enforcement but as usual there may be insurance angles.

I have some info here but it needs updating with the latest UK stuff where amid some astonishing lack of understanding of aviation they declared FAA Class 3 medicals invalid and then changed their mind.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Aviathor wrote:

So I would say you are better off getting the EASA CB-IR.

In any case he still needs to get an FAA Instrument rating to fly his N reg IFR anywhere except in the issuing country of his EASA IR (Italy?)….in relatively short order he can build up 50hrs PIC under the IFR by flying VFR to get out of Italy to say France and then filing IFR..then he can get the CB-IR with just a flight test….no TK or ATO…. IMO this is waaay better than starting a CB-IR from scratch!

Last Edited by AnthonyQ at 05 Sep 06:19
YPJT, United Arab Emirates

You can present those sums the other way round.

He has to do 40 hours, of which 10 in an ATO, to get the CB-IR, then do a simple Foreign Pilots Instrument exam and he has an FAA IR whereas he has to do the 40 hours for the FAA IR plus the 50 hours IFR and then do an aural exam and an EASA skills test = 92 hours.

IMO this is waaay better than starting an FAA IR from scratch, then converting!

EGKB Biggin Hill

(NB, there is a TK exam to convert, it’s just that it’s aural, not written.)

EGKB Biggin Hill

Timothy, perhaps you are missing the fact that he already owns an N reg aircraft….getting an FAA IR is not optional…

YPJT, United Arab Emirates

Getting the FAA IR now is a bit of a nightmare – you have to get TSA authorisation to start the training anywhere in the world, and if you go to the US to do it then you have a nice trip along to an embassy to take your fingerprints and interview you

Unless you need it for a particular purpose, I’d wait a bit and see what happens to the regs

Or transfer your aircraft over to EASA, but the cost of that I suspect will be huge to make it compliant

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Oxford EGTK

Charlie wrote:

Or transfer your aircraft over to EASA, but the cost of that I suspect will be huge to make it compliant

Most of the time, not. There are ways to get a boilerplate approval for all existing FAA STCs when moving it onto an EASA register.

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