Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

FAA IR Training

Hi,

I’m new to the forum, so my name is Mickael, i’m a French private pilot based in south of france (Cannes LFMD ), i’ve flown in order :
PA38, PA28 warrior, archer III, TB10, 172, 150, 152, Cardinal 177RG. I have 200hours of flight and night rating.

Thanks all of you for everything nice tips, beautiful pictures of travels and interesting discussions found on this website!

I’m interested to pass an Instrument Rating now.
My goal will be to pass the FAA IR in USA, so with this i will be comfortable i think to fly somes hours in USA for touring.
The final goal will be to fly IFR in Europe on an “N” registered airplane or an European registered as i understand that after 50hours PIC IFR, it’s more easy to convert to CB-IR.
I’m considering maybe to buy an airplane in USA and bring back to Europe ( with help of a ferry pilot).

I think FAA IR training seems more adapt for a private pilot but most of the schools i saw were in sunny places ( florida, los angeles, arizona, …) and i tend to think that pilot who trained IR there didn’t get into a cloud !
Do you think in order to have a more interesting IR training is better to do this in places where weather is not too friendly ?
Do you have any schools recommendations ?

Best regards
Mickael

LFMD, France

Welcome to the forums! I would go ahead and get the rating even in good weather. Back in Europe nothing will prevent you from taking an instructor up for weather training even after you have the ticket. FWIW I hope to finish up my FAA IR in the Florida over late Dec-early January.

Tököl LHTL

Welcome and +1 for what WP wrote. I did my insrtument training about ten years ago in southern Germany between February and June. We had some serious IMC and some ice, but would my training have been significantly worse if it had been in Florida? I don’t think so. Now I have quite some experience flying in the US as well. Things might be different in many parts of the US, concerning the weather, but not necessarily easier. As WP writes, you can fly a few hours with an FI or an IR pilot once your back. This might be a good idea not only because of the weather but also because of the different rules here.

EDFM (Mannheim), Germany

Welcome to EuroGA @mktime and many thanks for the good feedback

IT training is under the hood, or they might allow you to take it off if you are in actual IMC. It is usually more pleasant to fly in IMC than with the hood. However IMC brings other problems e.g. icing conditions, embedded convective (hazardous) weather etc and results in cancelled lessons, so the IR just takes longer and costs more – while you are living in some dump of a motel, eating junk food…

So I would train where you can get it done fast.

Also most IFR flight is done in VMC. The name of the game is to climb up through cloud to sunshine and sit there for the whole route, avoiding IMC as much as possible. In European IFR flight in the Eurocontrol system you are usually high enough – even in the summer – to get structural icing in any IMC. There are exceptions but most routes are generated for FL100 or so, and above.

The FAA IR can be hard work. I did mine in Arizona. The writeup from 2006 is here and the actual IR part is here. It has since become harder administratively e.g. you can no longer do the written exam in Europe.

Also the advantages of having an N-reg plane are smaller than they used to be and apply most to owners who are pro-active on maintenance. EASA is forcing everybody to get EASA licenses/ratings/medicals (in addition to the FAA ones) and if you are the typical owner or some ordinary type who just takes the plane to a maintenance company and lets them do what they want, you may as well be F-reg or whatever.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I think it’s wuite a good plan IF you can take the time to do your IR in the USA and then build up 50hrs PIC under the IFR (not too difficult if your plan is to buy an aircraft there and bring it back to France….you could obviously fly IFR in the US and in France once you got it back…assuming you have the FAA PPL/IR by the time you leave the US to return…

Last Edited by AnthonyQ at 09 Dec 08:18
YPJT, United Arab Emirates

That’s true; you are going to clock up 30+hrs just on the ferry flight, depending on where you start from…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Thanks for advices about training.
It’s important to do training fast also for me.

For now i have the FAA licence by equivalence to my french licence.

I didn’t understand the advantage of passing the FAA PPL if i have the FAA licence based on my french licence?
I saw that IR can be put on this kind of licence, and i plan to keep my easa licence.

Thanks

LFMD, France
I didn’t understand the advantage of passing the FAA PPL if i have the FAA licence based on my french licence?

There is none. If you do not need a standalone FAA-license for any reason, you can also add the IR to your validation. It will then be marked as „Instrument Airplane US test passed“, so that it will be credited for any future issuance of an FAA license.

Friedrichshafen EDNY

FAA 61.75 PPL:

Plus: no flying needed to get it, and you can fly an N-reg worldwide on the EASA medical (no FAA medical required)
Minus: anytime the EASA license changes (even your home address) you have to re-do the 61.75 issuance, and the issuance can be a difficult process in Europe

FAA standalone PPL:

Plus: it lasts for ever and nobody (except the FAA, in theory) can take it away from you, valid for life subject only to a valid BFR, and you can use it to get other country local validations (outside Europe), not reliant on EASA papers or what happens in Europe.
Minus: you need an FAA medical (which can be much harder to get in “special issuance” situations than the EASA one)

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

You’re building a house of cards if you do it that way. Now you have to comply with two agencies requirements and if any of them is not current, the license isn’t valid. This might mean, you’ve done a BFR every 2 years dutifully, but then you’re EASA license expires in 1 year and the whole thing collapses. Or your medical. Or you change address. Or you might not have a night rating on your EASA PPL, then you can’t fly IFR at night a you don’t have an FAA PPL (where it’s included), etc, etc.

I would suggest doing standalone PPL first. All you need is a few extra hours and a checkride. All your experience counts.

Last Edited by AdamFrisch at 10 Dec 19:46
18 Posts
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top