@ Noe: I had two days 11 April and 18 April and I had the choice which subjects to do on which day. For the practical training you may be right, I have to see how well the progress goes. Thanks for the advice anyway.
Ah that’s right. I think I got confused, did 2 sittings but 4 on one day and 3 the other
Doing CBIR in Different EASA Country
Hi,
I’m from Ireland and our aviation authority has done nothing about implementing the CBIR and EIR here and won’t answer my emails. To be honest there’s probably so few PPL/IR types here that it’s not worth their while. I want to add the CBIR, which I will likely do in the UK or Spain but I have two questions:
Can I do most of the hours at an Irish ATO and just go to UK/Spain to do the written test and the flight test? Obviously I would budget a few hours of instruction there to get used to local airspace and approaches. But from a cost and family point of view I can’t really go missing for a month!
Secondly, when I’m renewing every year can this be done with an Irish IR examiner, or would I have to return to the issuing country?
Thanks a lot!
zuutroy wrote:
of the hours at an Irish ATO and just go to UK/Spain to do the written test and the flight test?
For the CB-route to the IR or the EIR you need an ATO which has approved courses for those. From what you are saying (I am not familiar with the situation) I understand there are none in Ireland, so you need to go to a different country. BUT: The CB-route allows up to 30 of the 40 required hours to be flown outside of an ATO, so all you need for that is an independent instrument instructor and a suitably equipped aircraft in Ireland. Upon completion of these hours you need to take a pre-entry assessment at an ATO and fly the remaining 10 (if all goes well) hours with them.
Secondly, when I’m renewing every year can this be done with an Irish IR examiner, or would I have to return to the issuing country?
This can be done with any EASA examiner.
Tobias
That’s great, thanks. You’re right, there are no ATOs here that offer the approved course. One says that CBIR is ‘in the pipeline’, but apparently the EIR isn’t. I think Ireland was a strong objector to the EIR at meetings where it was proposed.
zuutroy wrote:
Can I do most of the hours at an Irish ATO and just go to UK/Spain to do the written test and the flight test?
You can even do the theory and written test in a different country from the practical part – that is what I did. But the exam flight must be under the auspices of the ATO that did the final bit of training. So AFAIK it won’t be possible to do the training in one country and the flight test in another.
But you can of course do the test in one EASA country and then have the rating added to your licence which is held in another country. This is governed by the Examiner Differences Document. In your case, you would for example fly with a Spanish examiner and probably need to register him to the IAA beforehand, and notify them of the exam date (or get approval) – I haven’t checked the details, but it’s under the above link. And here.
From my personal experience, it is very helpful to start with as much simulator training as possible, since that will allow you to progress much faster for the procedural parts. But doing this limits you in the choice of schools because you wouldn’t be able to start sim training in one ATO (close to home) and then change to another to finish off the CBIR (at least when I looked into this, nobody would want to do it). So I ended up doing the whole 40 hours in one ATO, and took three blocks of 4-5 days off for that.
This can be done with any EASA examiner.
Although this is true, the NAA requirements vary. Check the Examiner Differences Document for details.
Here is what I would do. Find a reputable ATO with experience in doing CB-IR’s, explain your situation and ask for their cooperation in letting you 1) attend their distance-learning CB-IR theory course, 2) borrow their lesson plans and SOP for flying the 30 hours with an instructor of your choice on an airplane of your choice – in Ireland, and 3) have the pre-entry assessment and complete the flight training at the ATO.
You would likely have to pay for borrowing the flight plans for the free-lance training, but it will make the “transition” from free-lance training to ATO-training much more seamless as there will be much less risk that you will have to de-learn stuff that does not match the ATO’s SOP. In the end that will save you training hours. It will definitively also save the ATO office work because as they already know your completed lesson plans they will spend less time going through them to assess which syllabus items can be ticked off and which cannot.
From my personal experience, it is very helpful to start with as much simulator training as possible, since that will allow you to progress much faster for the procedural parts. But doing this limits you in the choice of schools because you wouldn’t be able to start sim training in one ATO (close to home) and then change to another to finish off the CBIR (at least when I looked into this, nobody would want to do it). So I ended up doing the whole 40 hours in one ATO, and took three blocks of 4-5 days off for that.
But only 10 hours have to be done at the ATO which does authorises the test at the end right? So I can in theory do 25 hours of sim and 5 hours of flight training at my local school and then present myself in Spain/UK for the last 10 hours of training, written test, and flight test. It’s all very complicated!
