Shorrick_Mk2 wrote:
BFR you only need to care about if and when you go to the US.
Or if you fly a N-reg in Europe… or outside the US, like many of us do.
BFR you only need to care about if and when you go to the US. Most renters will require a rental checkout anyway. The rest… well… first world problem :).
Shorrick_Mk2 wrote:
The FAA license validity is based on your European license (and medical) validity. The Biennial Flight Review – every two years.
The EASA license has no validity date, so it’s valid forever as long as you have a class rating. Medical I is valid for 1 year max. SEP is valid 2 years, MEP 1 year, IR also 1 year. And then the BFR two years. Makes it pretty complicated, especially as each of these has a different expiration date.
The FAA license validity is based on your European license (and medical) validity. The Biennial Flight Review – every two years.
You need to get the license first (the FSDO will issue a temporary license and you will get the definitive, plastic one by mail to your home address within a relatively short time), and then do the Flight Review. The Flight Review is biennial (24 months).
BFR = Biennial Flight Review.
So after you make the Flight Review and get an FAA license based on the EASA license, how long is the former one valid? How often do you need to repeat the Flight Review?
172driver wrote:
The big difference is that there is no ‘revalidation by experience’ in FAA-land. No matter how many hours you’ve flown, you have to sit down with an instructor and cover some theory and then go flying.
Revalidating the SEP rating by experience requires (a little) experience and a flight with an instructor unless you have passed a proficiency or skill test within the 12 months prior to expiration of the rating. But currently there is no formal requirement to go through any theory. I did however hear or read somewhere that they had the intention of firming up the revalidation requirements – maybe someone else can fill in.
172driver wrote:
I say not a bad thing, as it prevents the Euro-style ‘hour building’ where two or three pilots fly together and all write the time up as PIC….
Also, you can (and I do) to get some training in areas you are weak at or try something new altogether.
I doubt that this is widespread because EASA requires every aircraft to have a journey log where every flight is entered, it is relatively easy to match a pilot’s logbook against the entries in the journey logs of aircraft flown (or claimed as such). Even N-reg based in EASA land will often have journey logs. I am not sure this is really required (by EASA) for N-reg, but maintaining a journey log will at least save you some grief on the occasion of the odd ramp check.
172driver wrote:
Also, you can (and I do) to get some training in areas you are weak at or try something new altogether.
My last BFR was a familiarisation flight on a P210 
My own BFR (btw, officially it’s now called the ‘Flight Review’, not BFR anymore) is due soon and I am going to do some aerobatic training. According to the local DPE perfectly OK.
An FAA Flight Review can be focused on any aspect of flying that you and the instructor think will be useful based on your current kind of flying and your background. Depending on how current I am when Flight Review time comes around, I may do a little hangar flying with a friend who has an instructor certificate, followed by a local flight, or I may do something more serious and pay a different instructor – for instance unusual attitudes or flying in extremely busy airspace. I’d imagine an EU pilot in the US would want to learn the airspace configuration, flight following, uncontrolled airports and ATC stuff the most. The plane doesn’t fly any differently.
I’ve done it the easy way and the harder way. Either way the result is a handwritten note by the instructor in my logbook.
For the BFR you need to familiarise yourself with the FARs, essentially parts 61 and 91 IIRC.
Part 61 is how you get the pilot certificate, Part 91 is how you lose it
Aviathor wrote:
BFR is similar to EASA SEP revalidation every two years although the format may be somewhat stricter.
The big difference is that there is no ‘revalidation by experience’ in FAA-land. No matter how many hours you’ve flown, you have to sit down with an instructor and cover some theory and then go flying. I say not a bad thing, as it prevents the Euro-style ‘hour building’ where two or three pilots fly together and all write the time up as PIC….
Also, you can (and I do) to get some training in areas you are weak at or try something new altogether. My own BFR (btw, officially it’s now called the ‘Flight Review’, not BFR anymore) is due soon and I am going to do some aerobatic training. According to the local DPE perfectly OK.
