The validation is preferred as it allows piloting any aircraft permitted by the foreign licence. Were you to convert, differences training would be required before flying different aircraft makes within a class. Further, in the case of a licence, a competency check is required 12 months after issue and thereafter each 24 months. There is also an annual currency fee for licences. The SACAA does not allow a licence competency check to be done outside of the country.
Note the PPL/VFR skills test requirement for validations and conversions: “__The cross-country navigation flight of the skills test shall not be less than 200 nautical miles total distance and must include take-offs and landings at two aerodromes away from base. At least one of the aerodromes from which the aircraft takes off for this flight shall be an aerodrome at which an Air Traffic Services Unit (ATSU) is in operation.__” SA-CATS 61.03.4—1.(3).
Edited to add that the Pilot Exams SA site has a reasonably accurate air law question bank. The exam is a 45-minute 29-question multiple choice paper done on a computer under video surveillance, pass mark 75%.
Xtophe wrote:
Validation and conversion have very different meaning in ICAO annex 1 and all the (supra-)national flight crew licensing laws/regulations.
Ah that’s probably the confusion.. and I confused myself using those words interchangeably. Sorry about that. I would like to do the earlier mentioned 5 year SACAA Foreign License Validation. I didn’t mention that specifically in my e-mail to the flightschool in Stellenbosch, so guess that’s why they proposed the conversion route. I will give them a call tomorrow and check with them.
Thank you very much for checking the Lexis Nexis and providing me the number @Qalupalik. If I can’t sort it out tomorrow, I’ll give Pieter Wiese a call!
There are three exams for conversion to an SACAA PPL without an instrument rating. Air law, meteorology, & flight performance and planning. SA CAR 61.01.13, point (27)(a). For a validation only the air law exam is needed.
You’ll need to be issued a South African licence number before writing any exams, including the single (air law) paper needed for a PPL/VFR validation. Amanda Haverkamp with SACAA personnel licensing will issue the number after verifying your foreign licence. Email her copies of your foreign licence, medical, passport ID page, possibly the last three pages of your flying logbook, and an outline of the reason for the request.
Once you’ve done the training, exams and skills test, it will take the authority about ten days to issue the licence.
I was there in late 2016.
The validation was done in about 2 days at a flight school in Springs (FASI) east of Johannesburg. Waiting in line at the CAA took the better part of an afternoon though.
Navigation, low flying, short strip and bush training was done after the actual validation.
It’s torture navigating the Lexis Nexis page for the SA CARs. Will provide links later today.
Pieter Wiese at Worcester Flying Club might help. Coincidentally I am with him at Worcester SA right now. His number is in your personal inbox.
Cheers
FlyingDutchman wrote:
conversion of an EASA PPL to SA PPL
The different answer might also come from the different question.
Validation and conversion have very different meaning in ICAO annex 1 and all the (supra-)national flight crew licensing laws/regulations. It is normal that the requirements for conversion are higher than for validation.
Curious if anyone tried to do conversion of an EASA PPL to SA PPL recently. I asked a flight school in Stellenbosch and they suggested a timeframe of +-3 weeks is required. The training would consist of the following:
1. A familiarization briefing (3 hours)
2. 4 flights (each slot is 2 hours, flying time 1.2hours)
3. Briefing on navigation (2 hours)
4. Navigation flight
5. Oral test
6. Navigation test Flight
7. Airlaw online examination.
I guess the rules have become stricter over the last years since this training is more compared to what has been discussed in this topic earlier. Still curious if anyone can share any recent experience doing this.
The whole issue is not the check ride with an instructor or the Air Law theory exam (unless you don’t pass it), but the paperwork. That is why I advise getting that paperwork sorted beforehand which means to not arrange the certification once there, but by going to a notary in your home country to get it all certified and shipped by courier to SA. For our flying tours, we have an arrangement with the SA CAA that they will give us even the license in our hands already once all this paperwork is done, so that once you land in Johannesburg, you do the theory exam at e.g. 07.00 or later in the morning at a test centre at Lanseria Airport and the check ride right after that. Once you are back on the ground, you are handed your validated license, even if you do the check ride in the weekend or even if on Sunday and you are good to go.
The paperwork phase is the phase that can take quite a while (up to 3 months in some cases).
Following is a cut/paste of my post in another thread:
The SACAA Foreign License Validation “piggy-back” on your EASA license is valid for 5 years. The procedure is as follows:
At a minimum, plan for two separate half days for the exams and flights and then a following two days for the completion/receipt of docs from the SACAA – of course this is a best case scenario, so allow room for delay
If you are still interested, I made my validation (of the Belgian EASA PPL) in SA in July 2017. Basically 4 things were needed, a briefing on density altitude effects, a briefing on SA airspace, to write an Air law exam + a practical test. Obtained my local Airlaw exam at 2nd attempt (with an ATO at Lanseria FALA). Plus a small payment.
The service at SA CAA is terrible, everybody at flying schools here complains about them :( They are not utterly competent, often are not aware themselves about the details of their own procedures. Just one lady (who manages the relevant section) is really competent (I can send you her email if needed), but her employees… Well.
Anyway now I have the blue book valid until July 2022, and fly quite a lot here.
If you need contacts for the 4 items above, I can give you the ones of Cirrus SA where I made it (but had to write the Air law exam at another ATO, in Lanseria as well).
