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Any N-reg pilots here, looking at EASA FCL?

I simple terms, if you are flying in the country of registration, you only need the licence issued by that country. Country, however, EU / EASAland is not a country, so if your EASA licence is issued in Luxembourg you won't go far...

To fly IFR, you need an instrument rating. Any IR attached to your licence will do.

Some specific activities require a rating "issued under this part", in that case your local rating will not do. For example you are not allowed to make specific instructor endorsements unless you hold an FAA instructor certificate.

The FAA basically says - "if you are licenced to do it in a local-reg, you can do it in an N-reg without bothering us with paperwork..."

Biggin Hill

61.3 allows you to fly an N-reg outside the USA, without any FAA papers, on papers issued by the owner of the airspace you are flying through.

So your (for example) French issued JAA/EASA PPL/IR is good for French airspace only.

The JAA/EASA mutual validation system is of no validity under 61.3.

References to FAA Chief Counsel decisions here

One important thing is that an IR has to be on the same license on which you are flying. So for example an EASA IR is of absolutely no use with an FAA PPL. Quite a lot of N-reg pilots think that if they have an FAA PPL (only) and an EASA IR, they can fly IFR in EASA-land. They can't.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Not what I wanted to hear guys, so don't come to LESB soon, lest I will shoot the messenger :), but thanks a lot for your answers. A no-no it is then.

Private field, Mallorca, Spain

Aart

getting your faa ir should not be overly difficult. really, in your case it can be done in a few days in the USA. In europe it will be a bit longer .. basically you need to pass the 60 question theory test. most difficult part there is getting used to the US rules and the weather services.

then you only need a few hours with a faa cfii. Your jar training will count in full. He will need to do a few obligatory items as well as prepare you for the checkride and the oral. You can do everything in europe if you wish.

I recommend Orbifly in europe.

I did my FAA IR in 2006, using the IMC Rating as the "experience base".

The FAA accept all non-US training (in terms of logbook entries) but I would not expect to do an FAA IR in a few days. Mine was really hard. It took me 2 weeks/20+hrs, and I was as good/bad then as I was before my JAA IR test.

Orbifly use this DPE.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Any updates on the April 2014 deadline for those of us with FAA only licenses? Is everything still full steam ahead in EASAland?

Great Oakley, U.K. & KTKI, USA

Nothing I am aware of, beyond what is here.

Fairly obviously, if EASA is going to postpone the April 2014 deadline, they are not going to do it until absolutely the very last moment. Otherwise it's like your kid saying "Daddy can I have an ice cream" and you saying "No but if you make enough noise then you can have it".

Various rumours credited to sources close to the process suggest that a postponement to 2016 is likely, but it's a high risk game they are playing.

There is no way IMHO the CBM IR will be ready in time for anybody to finish it (or even a conversion) by April 2014.

Not that EASA gives a flying **** about grounding most of Europe's IFR community, including most corporate jets. They might just stick a finger up and let it happen... EASA FCL is law now so EASA doesn't have to lift a finger in April 2014 and everybody who has not done the current JAA IR process will be technically grounded.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

If this chap is legit, it would appear that the deadline has been postponed until April 2015, I guess this also increases the probability of further 'extensions'.

I have mixed feelings on this, some friends would have been shafted, but having just converted my CPL/IR, it might have lead to some opportunities...

Anyhow, I'm sure this is a victory for common sense, and good news for the majority.

That thread contains some of the usual misunderstanding / wishful thinking / meaningless one-liners / elitist "N-regs are cheats" stuff.

There has "always" been a conversion route for commercial pilots who have a certain experience.

For example, from EASA FCL (somewhere in here) an ICAO ATPL holder who has 2000+ hours on a Part 25 aircraft can now and will be able to convert directly to an EASA ATPL, without sitting the 14 exams. I think there is a sim check (LPC?).

More generally, there has been a standard procedure whereby one State will validate another State's CPL/IR or ATPL, with a flight test and sometimes an air law exam, for use on the former State's aircraft reg only, for both private and AOC ops. Rumours abound of these concessions. One bizjet pilot I know was told Turkey will validate an ICAO ATPL into a Turkish one with a checkride (the problem being that Turkey might take a long time to be accepted into EASA FCL, despite working towards JAR-FCL for years i.e. this is a long shot). I spent some time trying to chase that one down via my contacts in the Turkish GA community but without success so perhaps it is one of the many "face to face only" concessions. These routes also sometimes open up ways to collect interesting papers such as an initial JAA Class 1 medical (the most useful piece of paper of them all)... The standard first step on this route is getting a job (any flying job that needs a CPL) on an aircraft registered on that State's registry, and take it from there... I was once offered that, in a country south of the Alps.

The "problem" is with non AOC pilots i.e. who operate outside the national CAA operated AOC paperwork system is that these do what are formally private flights (which includes being a paid CPL/IR or ATP pilot, FAR Part 91) and they are not going to get any license conversion concessions beyond what the national CAA offers as standard.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter, I was primarily interested in the first poster's 'email' excerpt from the CAA, saying that the derogation had been extended to April 2015.

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