JasonC without wishing to be pedantic I dont think the sign off is JUST for your insurance company. As has been said the licence is not valid on type without the endorsement, as a seperate matter your insurers might not be thrilled, but I have never had an insurer ask, but I guess it will be usually be covered in the declaration. In fact I have never been asked for a copy of my licences, endorsements, ratings or anything else, much beyond hours on type and total.
What I was getting at is that the pilot could have got any FAA CFI to sign him off to fly a PA46 (any version of a PA46, piston or turbine), in terms of US license legality.
And do the BFR too.
There are lots of them in Europe.
Trawlers working the area might have co-ordinate for obstructions, to avoid. Angling charter boats would have them as good sites. Whether they share them with one another I don’t know.
Fuji_Abound wrote:
JasonC without wishing to be pedantic I dont think the sign off is JUST for your insurance company. As has been said the licence is not valid on type without the endorsement, as a seperate matter your insurers might not be thrilled, but I have never had an insurer ask, but I guess it will be usually be covered in the declaration. In fact I have never been asked for a copy of my licences, endorsements, ratings or anything else, much beyond hours on type and total.
What US signoff do you mean? I agreed that a high perf and complex endorsements are needed. There is no PA46 specific endorsement in the US system though. It is an SEL type and that is all you need.
Peter wrote:
What I was getting at is that the pilot could have got any FAA CFI to sign him off to fly a PA46 (any version of a PA46, piston or turbine), in terms of US license legality.
Peter, such a sign-off simply doesn’t exist in the US system, the PA46 doesn’t need a type rating.
I didn’t say it did.
172driver wrote:
They are legally required in FAA-land, FAR 61.31 refers.To legally operate the accident aircraft, you would need:
- a license
- a valid medical
- a valid BFR
- a high-power endorsement
- a complex endorsement
- a high altitude endorsement IF the service ceiling is above 25.000ft (not sure if this is applicable to the aircraft in question, though; there appear to be variants with a higher service ceiling as per Google search)
JasonC – as above. I was referring to the endorsements which may, I agree, have arisen on a different type, but may well have been on the Malibu. I have equivalent endorsements for glass, retractable, twin, VP, high performance all done in different aircraft be in DA42, or Cirrus, or Aztec, so I take your point.
Peter – yes but you would guess this sign off was in the UK and while there are FAA CFIs around I wouldnt have said there were large numbers and those that do this work will know most of the pilots in their area which was my point.
you would guess this sign off was in the UK and while there are FAA CFIs around I wouldnt have said there were large numbers and those that do this work will know most of the pilots in their area which was my point.
You might be surprised to find how many there are.
And if a particular one has not signed off this pilot, he can’t be sure that the pilot didn’t get a signoff from another one.
Most FAA licensed pilots who either own their plane or fly lots of different planes will have the entries in their logbook sufficient to fly a PA46 or similar (in the US, or in Europe where derogations apply) 
I certainly have and have had since c. 2004, even before I went N-reg. I don’t have the hi-alt one but could get one from any FAA CFI. Insurance is another matter.
That said, there are quite a lot of Europe based N-reg owners (and especially N-reg renters) who have problems finding someone to do a BFR. This is where e.g. this is so interesting.
Yes, fair point, the sign off could go back years and on any of a large number of types. I guess my point was more based on my perception that pilots often “use” the same person or school over a lot of years, but accept even this isnt always so. I guess in this case in due course this will be explored in more detail and how the various elements interact which will be the interesting aspect, assuming of course the investigators take that much interest. I have an idea who may have been involved, but we shall have to see.
Pilots, FAA and EASA equally, certainly use the same AME, all the time the AME can hold a pen (being non-dead is optional)
The FAA signoffs are lifetime ones. Only the BFR, and of course the FAA medical (note the FAA medical is not required if the PPL is a 61.75 piggyback one) are done periodically.
I am sure the FCL angle will be closely looked at in this case, with the interaction of France, CI airspace, and the UK, N-reg, EASA FCL dual papers requirement, you name it…
