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Keep your EASA MEP / EASA IR up to date!

Some good points here.

I got close last year to letting my MEP expire and then realised what a complete hassle it might end up being, so it is best avoided.

Peter wrote:

If you let the JAA IR lapse for 7 years, you have to do it all again, i.e. the 7 IR exams, the 50/55hrs training!

This was posted some years ago, but I didn’t notice until the thread was just resurrected. In case it is still relevant to someone I can tell you that it is fortunately not that bad.

I had a JAA IR which had lapsed for more than 7 years. I did indeed have to redo the 7 IR exams, but I did not have to do ground school again and I only had about 8 hours of flight training + a few hours in an approved FTD. After the initial assessment, the ATO determined that I could refresh the TK myself and that no more than about the hours flown would be needed. Part-FCL says you have to redo all parts of the flight training, but it doesn’t say you have to do all hours.

The Swedish CAA agreed on that interpretation of the rules – indeed I asked them before contacting the ATO as I expected this to be unknown territory for them.

Last Edited by Airborne_Again at 15 Dec 13:37
ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

An N-reg pilot would in such a case go for the ICAO IR to CB IR conversion route, which is no exams, an oral exam with the FE, and a skills test. And that can be done without a time limit.

The big gotcha is the expiry of the EASA medical.

I do keep up my UK CAA medical (the extra cost is not much as I use the same AME who does the FAA medical). I don’t recall what the expiry regime is but I did look into it and it was severe in that you were forced to do an initial medical after something like 5 years. That would bust anyone who got into the system using a Demonstrated Ability route.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

And then we wonder why the pilot numbers decimate each year…..

I think this reval business is the biggest killer of the once-traditional piston twin route.

People who have owned twins for many years mostly continue to fly them, and like them for various reasons.

But apart from a very small number of people entering via the DA42 route, almost nobody is entering the MEP scene here in Europe.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

When I changed to an EASA licence my expired by 2 months MEP went on the back.

Two month later I got a call for some MEP flying – probably about 25 hours. However they wanted me to start straight away. By the time I been to an ATO done the profiency check and then sent it away to the CAA for it to be issued (anything from 2 to 6 weeks).

So the end result that I wasn’t able to take the job.

It’s disgraceful

Peter wrote:

it simply requires the ATO to make an assessment, so your log book is all the evidence they require

This view doesn’t seem to be shared by any French ATO, probably due to guidance from the DGAC contrary to that of the CAA. If you’re one day over, then you have to do at least two separate flights.

How long before an expired MEP/IR is gone and would have to be completely redone (EASA)? Thanks!

always learning
LO__, Austria

My recollection is that after 7 years you have to re-do the exams.

But there may be a way around this, because I know a load of ex BA pilots who went to work in e.g. Hong Kong came back to the discovery that they need to re-do their 14 ATPL exams! I don’t have any details but I heard that some “way” was found to get around the issue.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

This is from the UK, and follows a mass protest from Brit ATPs who went to work for Cathay in Hong Kong and found themselves shafted then they came back.

From CAP804:

It sounds to me that the 7 year limit is now gone, and your UK issued EASA IR will never need revalidating with flights at an ATO provided you keep the FAA IR valid.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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