gildnn wrote:
I’d be grateful to hear if this is different in the various EASA countries or asked the other way around, shouldn’t this be one single standard
When it comes to “spreading” the exams, the rules are written so that each individual country have considerably freedom in deciding how much they can be spread.
Hi,
I just have finished my CBIR theoretical exams in the Netherlands. I’ve done my first exams in August last year, and the last exam in March this year. So no need to do it in a couple of days. In total, I visited the CBR in Utrecht 4 times in 4 months to do the 7 exams. It’s definitely possible to do it quicker, but it all depends on your private life and the amount of time you’re able to spend on the question database….
It seems that the times that you mentioned per subject are taken from the IR course. Note there’s a significant difference between the IR and the EIR/CBIR in learning objectives. This means that the number of potential questions is limited for the latter, but also the number of questions in the exam and the time that you’re allowed to spend during the exam. Here you can find the time that you’re allowed per exam (from the Dutch agency): https://cbr.nl/download/planning%20Luchtvaartexamens%20tm%20maart%202017.pdf
I found AviationExam invaluable for the preparation. With AE, you can practice all questions based on the actual Learning Objectives. Despite the fact that the questions are being renewed at the moment, this tool gives you a good preparation for the actual exams in my opinion. With AE, you can practice exams as well, which gives you the exact amount of questions and you’re expected to answer these questions within the timeframe of the actual exam.
Good luck with your study…
gildnn wrote:
I should add for completeness that I received an FAA CPL-IR in 1979 but did not fly (regretfully) ever since. Being retired now at age 60 I decided to pick up flying again. I also got the FAA licence revalidated although without the IR for the moment.
Have you given any consideration at all to not going for the CB-IR and instead doing an FAA Instrument Proficiency Check after some re-training? IIRC the FAA IR does not expire unlike the EASA one. Once you have 50 hrs of PIC time IFR you can do the skill test to get the EASA IR. That would save you sitting the EASA exams.
Of course having been away from flying for so long, you would need to read up on instrument flying anyway, and receive some practical training, but going this route could be more painless.
Another issue is that you may no longer have your US certificate, or not have the plastic certificate, so you would need to go through the process of having a new one issued, and pass the US Class 3 medical.
Thank you Gents for your feedback so far.
I didn’t realize that nations had so much freedom in organizing and setting the exam conditions.
@ aviathor : yes I did consider this option but unfortunately the main condition you mention i.e. the IFR hours as POC are missing, in fact after I passed the FAA IR and did not fly a single hour as POC under IFR.
I’m feeling like a complete rookie in that redpect and for the sake of safety I think I must go through the complete programme anyway. But thanks for the hint.
If you are able to “re-activate” your FAA license and IR, get some refresher training and build up 50 hrs PIC under IFR, the conversion route is still available to you, at least if you can complete by say May 2019.
In France you have 18 months to obtain the 7 certificates from your inscription to the “theorical Ato” (the only one up to date is Mermoz Institute in Rungis.
Each certificate can be attempted 4 times, for a total maximum of 6 or 8 sessions to obtain all 7 certificates.
I don’t remember number of Q’s and time for each certificate but that’s less than you say.
For communications and human performance it is 20 minutes for 12 questions.
Meteorology is 50 minutes for about 37 questions.
Hmmm, yes, if this was me I would also try to regain the FAA CPL/IR and then do the CB IR on the back of that.
No exams at all that way 
I did the JAA IR conversion exams in 2011 and didn’t find them easy, especially as the content was mostly irrelevant to flying.
However I wonder if a European FTO could veto the conversion, on the basis that you didn’t have enough recent flying time. The fact that you passed the FAA BFR and IPC isn’t likely to affect this view…
Thanks for your view Peter. I actually had about 40 flying hours to do the conversion FAA CPL to EASA PPL (2015-2017) but all of them were with instructor. I needed those to be able to a) pass the FAA BFR and b) pass the EASA skill test. This said I’m not sure which route would take longer as I would have to spend considerable time in the US to build up the IFR hours as PIC plus the fact that I would never pass the FAA IR review at this stage without further instruction.
Where are you based? You could use a FAA instructor in Europe to do your IPC, no? You could even do at the ATO that would take care of preparing you for the EASA test, all in one go. They would train you for the EASA tests, which should allow you to pass your IPC then immediately after passing the EASA test (conversion).
Sure; you will need plenty of flying to pass the FAA IPC and then the EASA IR checkride.
But you will need to do that anyway, if you want to fly IFR “for real”.
So, what is the bit you can avoid without losing anything? The exams! Some people love exams (mostly people who don’t realise the content is mostly bogus) but I found them to be utterly soul destroying crap. Admittedly I was 54 when I did them in 2011 and they never get easier… But even stuff which should have been useful – e.g. IFR route planning – was done with 30 year old methods which have not worked since Eurocontrol started some 15+ years ago.
And the way to avoid the exams, and all the peripheral hassle like looking for a ground school FTO for the mandatory ground school, over several days, is to regain the FAA papers.
FAA training in Europe is perfectly doable. The checkride has been tricky since visiting DPEs got blocked c. 2007 but there is one well known option, which we won’t advertise here because the guy threatened legal action against myself and others. But if you go to the USA there is no problem. You could “pre-train” here and then knock off the whole thing in 1 or definitely 2 weeks out there, and it will be easy because you will be flying 1x or 2x a day and will be super current for the checkride. That is what I did for the FAA IR.
Then you end up with FAA papers which are valid worldwide and valid for ever (subject only to a BFR, and the 6/6 rolling IR currency or an IPC).
The one thing I know nothing about is the content of the oral exam involved in the ICAO IR to EASA IR conversion.
