Wanted to give a final update here on the saga of a conversion from faa to easa. But they finally finished the medical transfer today and will be sending my license. Overall took them about 5 months to do the medical transfer. In hind sight I should have just made a day trip to Austria for my medical.
Next step is to get my ifr transferred over.
Rus wrote:
Also in re: paper solo do you get that from the instructor or from Austro control?
The instructor can sign you off for basically unlimited solos. I did this to deal with the exact situation you’re in.
can you talk about the US IR conversion as that is next for me
This has been discussed many times on the forum, but admittedly it’s a bit of a challenge to navigate as it depends on a number of factors. I’ll pm you my contact details and I can help you directly.
@dutch_flyer can you talk about the US IR conversion as that is next for me. Also in re: paper solo do you get that from the instructor or from Austro control?
Rus wrote:
So it has been 4 months now and still waiting for my license from Austro control apparently there is a backlog for medical transfers from Spain to Austria. The process is completely not transparent and frustrating to just wait.
Indeed I can relate. I waited two months for the official theory pass results from Austro Control, and another several weeks for my paper license from Kiwa (the outsourced Dutch licensing authority). What you can do in the meantime is get a paper solo endorsement that lets you keep flying, although you can’t carry passengers. I also had a lot of paperwork drama converting my US IR. But the good news is once you’ve done this there’s not much else regarding bureaucracy that you have to deal with other than what you’d do in the US, i.e. medical + flight reviews (aka “revalidation”). The sightseeing in Europe is worth the wait! 
So it has been 4 months now and still waiting for my license from Austro control apparently there is a backlog for medical transfers from Spain to Austria. The process is completely not transparent and frustrating to just wait.
I am starting to fully understand why GA is slowly being strangled here in EU. Truly sad that paperwork nightmare is this bad which can be easily solved with a bit of software. I get there are multiple countries involved but all of this is just because of manual steps in my head.
Another day another update. Pass my medical class 2 if you need a great aeronautical examiner in Jerez , Spain let me know. Also had my skills test which was also a Pass. About 1.5 hour flight, dead reckoning, stalls, comms, and pattern work. Nothing out of the ordinary there just some complications about payment was not aware that examiner needed cash vs bank transfer so that was a bit of unseeded stress before the exam. Lots of manual paperwork for austrocontrol ( I do love iacra in USA as you get your temp cert after you pass so you can fly right away I am guessing I will have to wait 15-30 days before I actually get my license). The last thing today is to do the RT practical it has been hard to schedule with the examiner being busy. So all in all trok a week to get all this done. Plus some time for paperwork. Definitely the whole process can be streamlined for conversions. If anyone from Madrid flying clubs reads this I am coming to join :)
Good luck! And as to the lab test; in Spain they test for drugs. I’m not implying you use them, just a factoid..
Edit: that may be for Class 1 only, not sure..
Ok another day in the book here in Jerez here is the update. 1) Did ground school for RT and I am happy I did prior to the practical exam. As much as I talk to ATC in the USA the test looks for exact phraseoly and I would have messed that up. Plus it was great refresher overall. 2) Did the LP exam got the good news of L6 pass but not too surprised on that one :). The plan for today 1) get 1 hour of night time flight with instructor to add the NVFR when filling for the conversion. (Doing Jerez to Seville and back). I think this is a good practice prior to skill test as well. 2) Did my labs yesterday doing the medical exam today (the only exam outside my control :)). We shall see if RT practical will be today or tomorrow. The Gran finalle skill test is scheduled for Friday afternoon will do the final update then.
Don’t get confused between an RT exam and a language proficiency. They are different.
My ELP was through Malta although taken in France, and very efficient it was too. No problem at all getting the DGAC to add it to my French /EASA licence.
Congrats!
