Careers in GA

boscomantico wrote:

Of course you can get paid (as a PPL with a FI rating).

Didn’t you, yourself, only yesterday accuse me of not reading an entire thread before answering?

It depends on whether you want to log it.

In a single pilot certified aircraft, your grandmother can sit in the RHS and if you let her, she can fly the plane. You (type rated with a PPL and, if necessary, an IR*) will be in the LHS. As post #8 shows, nothing prevents you paying your grandmother for being a non-required crewmember I have known of several jobs like that. They exist where the client sitting in the back of a single pilot plane likes to see two people up front. There is no money in it, however.

If you are an FI/TRI/TRE/whatever you can be RHS and the grandma can be LHS but AFAIK she can’t log it because you can’t do an ab initio PPL lesson in a jet (can you?).

If you want to log it i.e. fly officially you need a PPL/ME and the IR if conditions dictate. And the type rating, on which there is / used to be the SIC (second in command) concession. No idea about the medical in that case; probably not needed since you have a “safety pilot”.

* No type rating school will take on a jet candidate unless he has an IR, AFAIK.

I would investigate getting a Class 1 medical. I have found AME expertise to be very variable especially when it comes to knowing the detailed rules. For example the UK CAA had a route to a Class 1 whereby if you had an ICAO CPL or ATPL (which could be an FAA one) and an ICAO Class 1, you could go to Gatwick and do a “Class 1 Renewal Medical” which was a normal Class 1 but it had the Demonstrated Ability option, which opens up the routes dramatically. This option used to be on the CAA website but they removed it a couple of weeks after somebody posted it on a pilot forum But they continued to run it for years later and maybe they still do. Details here.

Are you able to get an FAA class 1 medical?

Have you looked into a functional vision test?
I asked my AME (ophtalmologist, who also works for the CAA for these weirder cases) for a friend of mine who had an infection and essentially has monocular vision now, and he mentioned that he would be able to do a functional vision test, and likely only limitation is that he’d have to wear goggles if he wanted to fly open cockpit (due to the increased likelihood of dust getting in the good eye). He doesn’t necessarily respond fast to emails, so might be worth emailing and then calling: http://www.pilotmedicals.com/

He’s in HKG currently so hasn’t gone that route.
For his FAA part, he managed to get his medical back (not sure which class), despite practically no AME wanting to touch him with a bargepole (had to find one in Nevada!). At the moment he has to renew every 6 month.

It’s a huge difference if you want to renew a class 1 medical or if you want to get it for the first time. The regs for the latter are indeed quite strict.

I don’t recall on fist enquiry that a renewal was mentioned, but could be wrong.
I’d give it a shot.

The UK CAA also looks differently on applicants who are going for non paying passenger jobs. Airline pilots are going to be treated tightly simply because it is an extremely emotive topic, even before Germanwings. But if eg you want to instruct, it is very different.

And you will never find this written anywhere. You need an AME who is very smart and really works for you. This is rare in EASA land where an AME is an agent of the CAA.

On the link I posted above:

I am sometimes asked to do appeals work for complex cases where an applicant is challenging a CAA decision. Typically I charge £900 for these but please contact me for a quotation.

From my friend’s experience, he’s happy to have some discussions before formally starting the process (and paying)

Would you be happy to publish your spectacle prescription and Visual Acuity. If not PM me.