NAA Licensing Comparison - your contributions are needed

My personal opinion on DGAC is avoid if possible. And that was before Covid.
If you don’t speak French, I would rather say run away.

I just moved my licence to French DGAC (I had DGAC licence moved to UK CAA and now back to DGAC), now I find them very cheap and very helpful: 1/3 UK CAA prices, email reply in 2 days vs 20 days or never, you can use online portals and yes one need to spread/write French

They are bit stringent on paperwork but it’s NAA after all (the worst was LA FAA FSDO )

Ibra wrote:

They are bit stringent on paperwork but it’s NAA after all (the worst was LA FAA FSDO

I never had any issues dealing with the US FSDO, albeit these were people in Montana. Went quick, got the info I wanted and even though they changed the procedure for issuing FAA licences based on foreign licenses, they worked it through quite quickly….

I think that was specific place/time, their office was to be moved shortly in the next months and not a lot of people were happy about it, so maybe reflected in the customer experience, to be fair I did not have any issues elsewhere with FAA

rschris wrote:

it seems that … Ireland [is] not accepting any SOLI transfer anymore.

The IAA should continue accepting applications made until 1st Jan.

To fill a bit your spreadsheet about france
Re validation is very easy, FI sign your licence with a number you get from a dedicated website. Sigbel. On this website you have your pilot life step by step.
That part is simple and efficient. It is free.
About medical, you are obliged to go to an aeronautical doctor. There is an official list.
after 40 years old it I must be each two years and after 50 years old it is once a year with a électrocardiogram less than two years old. This part is boring.
This is valid even for LAPL…
I don’t know what is requested for foreigners
Language is not a French strength but for aeronautical matter it is easy to find help.

For the IAA:

Price: Comparable to the UK CAA, check IAA fees order (Latest SI 523 of 2015).
Residency not required.
Customer service very good. Emails answered quickly. Licensing are working from home and dealing with as much as they can. They’ve received a lot of SOLI in requests increasing workload. Licensing will answer your questions, or get an answer and come back to you. Email best, limited access by telephone.
Revalidations can be signed by an FI/FE. Will only accept instructors with FCL.945 issued by the IAA (eg. a UK FI with FCL.945 cannot sign revalidation by experience in an Irish licence). Renewals must always be endorsed by the IAA regardless of the rating/certificate in question. [note]
Language: English/Gaelic
Medical: EASA
Aircraft: EASA
Examiners: EASA (subject to test notification and minimum notification periods)
Other: Allows industry examiners to conduct initial CPL/IR tests

In general a very pragmatic NAA with helpful staff. If anyone is in need of an Irish EASA examiner, please get in touch. I’m based in the UK.

[note] There is a way around this, but involves being an IAA ATO with agreed minimum training for renewals.

For the Netherlands: Licensing is split between the ILenT (a branch of the government) and KIWA (a private company).

ILenT handles all medicals, plus the licenses that were previously issued by the KNVvL, such as gliders and balloons. KIWA handles PPL(A) and up. This leads to some weird situations, especially if you hold both a GPL and a PPL. As far as medicals is concerned, ILenT checks your medical and then sends a “notice of no objection” or something to KIWA, so that they can issue your license.

Both organisations are fairly pleasant to work with. Reasonably quick to respond, fluent in both English and Dutch. The only real issue is that KIWA is considered extremely expensive: The initial issue of a PPL/CPL is well over 600 euros. And the transfer of an EASA license to KIWA is considered an initial issue. Other KIWA prices are similarly high.

Add this to the CAA permission form for allowing them to release my details to KIWA (45 UKP) and sending my medical info by email to ILenT (100-something UKP) and the total cost of my SOLI transfer from the UK to NL will run in the neighbourhood of 800 euros. For zero additional privileges or benefit. Thank you Boris.

(Edited: KIWA does print your license on a proper light 150-or-so gr. cardboard with some embossed, coloured and faux-silver inlaid logos, instead of the laser printed wad of paper that you get from the CAA. I fly from Rotterdam and regularly need to get through security by showing my license. They are more likely to let me through on my Glider Pilots License than on my UK CAA-issued PPL. They just don’t take that bit of paper seriously.)