Brexit and general aviation, UK leaving EASA, etc (merged)

Thats because pretty much everyone has already converted before the original Spring deadline!!
Welcome to the club!!

Regards, SD..

PS – did you make sure you have an ICAO UK PPL aswell before transferring, just in case?

DavidC wrote:

A) finding an AME that is approved by and can access the AustroControl records

As a data point, I asked my (UK) AME if he could do the medical for AustroControl and he can.

skydriller wrote:

PS – did you make sure you have an ICAO UK PPL aswell before transferring, just in case?

Interesting, first time I hear this … under what circumstance would that be useful?

DavidC wrote:

I’m assuming you don’t expect to have to travel to Austria.

So far I didn’t have to travel to the UK to maintain my UK CAA-issued licenses either, so I don’t expect a change to that with an Austria-issues license. Furthermore, it seems that Austro Control is a lot less bureaucratic then the UK CAA, see above.

I understand that Austro Control accepts a revalidation by experience even from non-Austrian licensed EASA flights instructors or examiners — this would make things much easier for a lot of people. Can anyone confirm this?

Is there currently a paperwork way to go from 1 EASA (UK) licence → 1 EASA (non-UK) + 1 UK licence?
Ideally keeping all my ratings ( ME / IR / CRI)?

I can’t answer you fully but if you generally live in the UK then the chief advantage of the UK “national” PPL is this i.e. you can fly a G-reg, UK VFR only, on either the NPPL – which you should apply for also, btw – or the national PPL, without a valid medical, using the medical self declaration.

The IMCR can also be used with the national PPL.

And the national PPL is valid worldwide in a G-reg, for IFR too if you have a Euro IR.

If you are “young” then you will live for ever but as you get “older” you realise this is not assured and the majority of pilots who stop flying do so due to the loss of the medical. In most cases they could recover it but the costs of consultant etc test and reports is easily into 4 figures, and most are not “invested” enough to bother, especially given the general hassle in GA.

You can apply for the NPPL without having a medical but to apply for the national PPL you must have a current Class 2 medical. I believe this requirement is illegal but the CAA operates it, so you have no option. So now is the time to do it.

The above are just paperwork exercises. The NPPL takes a few weeks or less. The national PPL, I don’t know.

You can revalidate everything in one flight with an examiner e.g. the annual EASA IR test.

Wait, the NPPL is not the “National PPL”? (genuine question, I know very little about this).

A bit early to start thinking about health issues (in mid 30s and good shape), but I’m all for doing paperwork and “hedging” against future issues – Something is always harder to get when you actually need it, so better do it before. That’s one of the reasons I acquired 2 other citizenships than my “initial” one.

I just had a bit of a look and couldn’t find how to apply to this “National” PPL. I see the NPPL is pretty much restricted to UK airspace (well, unless you get approval, but that’s probably too much work)

Yeah, confusing wording

The NPPL is administered by the LAA (the “homebuilt” /Annex 1 body, with authority delegated by the CAA, loosely speaking) but the initial issue of it goes via the CAA who check you out.

The NPPL can be used in France (I don’t have a reference but some stuff is here) but you need a Class 2 medical for that trip. There is also a statement in that link that it is valid for an N-reg but the CAA issued an IN a year ago to limit it to a G-reg (I am told, an illegal move by the CAA).

The National PPL is the ICAO compliant PPL issued by the CAA. This has been around for ever. It was set to vanish, I think, under EASA, but was retained due to stuff like the Brussels onslaught against the IMCR, years ago.

Everybody in the UK should obtain both the above, IMHO. The political aspects are of course debatable (and I believe will sort themselves out whichever way brexit goes, notwithstanding the EU’s current stance of unilaterally nullifying all UK papers on brexit date) but the medical reason alone is priceless, when you consider the absolutely vast range of medical issues which under EASA PART-MED will instantly ground you, pending investigations. It isn’t like the FAA which publishes a list of self grounding conditions and if you comply with that, you can get yourself sorted out, fly when well again, and disclose it at the next medical. The whole of PART-MED is basically one long self grounding list

I don’t remember where the National PPL forms are.

Yes, confusingly, when you google National PPL, you get onto a “National PPL” CAA page, but that is really about the NPPL.