You have
Any other options?
fly any EASA reg, UK airspace, on your UK issued EASA PPL, VMC, IAW IFR (is this really still possible?)
This has never been possible unless you have a valid instrument qualification IMC/IR(R). Only UK National licences (pre 1999) did not prohibit IFR without an instrument qualification, but are no longer valid on EASA aircraft
fly any reg on the UK IMC Rating (UK airspace only)
Depends on the law of the State of Registration; they determine the qualifications to fly the aircraft.
Thanks for the correction on that one – time to put that option to bed for ever.
I have it in writing from the FAA here that the IMC Rating is good for an N-reg.
Of course, there are people out there who have a different view.
BTW, is the long standing option to fly a G-reg on any ICAO PPL (optionally IFR with an IR, but only OCAS) still there? I thought EASA killed that c. 2012 but it remained valid for non EASA (e.g. Annex 2) aircraft.
BTW, is the long standing option to fly a G-reg on any ICAO PPL (optionally IFR with an IR, but only OCAS) still there?
Yes, until 7th April 2015 ORS4 No 998
Of course, there are people out there who have a different view.
They can have any view they like, it has never been prohibited!
Hi everyone,
I have at the moment an FAA PPL and an EASA PPL and I’m considering doing an IR in the near future. I’m based in Spain yet I would like to do the IR in the US given that its a course much more focused on piston pilots wanting to get an instrument rating (I’m not planning to be an airline pilot). I have looked at the requirements for the FAA IR to EASA IR conversion and found the following:
(c) have a minimum experience of at least 50 hours of flight time under IFR as PIC on aeroplanes
I got my PPL in the US and then converted to EASA, and even though I had my logbook signed, stamped and signed again every time I rented an aircraft, when I did the conversion, AESA (Spanish CAA) didn’t accept it and I had to chase up my flight school in the US to send an ‘official’ letter saying those hours were actually flown.
So before I embark on the IR in the US, how does one go about proving that you actually flew as PIC AND being under IFR? I mean it was a hassle proving that I had flown 100hours before, I can’t imagine to prove that those hours were IFR. Has anyone had any experience showing proof that hours flown were IFR and/or PIC?
Thanks!
I just had my IR skill test (in France) last Tuesday to convert my US IR to EASA. The paperwork was sent to Norway CAA the same day and I am now waiting for NO CAA to send me my new license.
I am however the first NO licensed PPL to go down this path, and when the examiner applied for a designation the first time, they asked for training documentation from the ATO. I had to point out the relevant portions of EU regulation 245/2014 that had just been adopted by the norwegian parliament a few months prior, followed-up with phone call and talked to an “examiner inspector” who was very nice about it, admitted that this was a little new to them. His primary concern was to make sure that the candidate had the required theoretical knowledge in the areas of flight planning, meteorology, IFR performance and air law, and the way to document that.
Documenting my experience was however not a problem – or at least NO CAA have not raised any concern about that yet. I provided 3 years worth of scanned logbook entries, as well as the complete logbook in an Excel spreadsheet to ease the analysis of my logbook by applying filtering and a pivot table.
Your logbook is an official document and you can get into trouble for falsifying it. It is based on the honor system, until someone finds a forged entry. When you fly non-N-reg airplanes, you also enter a record into the journey log. Your personal logbook can theoretically be compared to the journey logs of aircraft flown. You can keep a copy of the relevant journey log pages.
If you rent an airplane in the US, you can keep a record of your rental bills and payments, copies of your flight plans and/or nav logs.
Frankly I do not think that the CAA are justified in not taking your logbook at face value as long as you have the license that goes with it. Also, the examiner will soon determine whether your flying skills match the claimed experience, and at the end of the day your performance during the skill test is what counts.
When I started on my IR training in 2001, I chose a Part 141 flight school partly because I wanted the paper trail in case I would one day need to document the training received in anticipation of a future conversion path (there was already talk about BASA back then). In retrospect that was not very useful
Aviator thank you so much for the information! Very helpful!
Exactly, during my training in the US it was stressed that logbooks are official documents and that as such anything that was put in there had to be true. Yet when I got back to Spain and the officer said that he couldn’t accept the logbook that’s what worried me in case of further training abroad.
I’ll most likely do my IR in the US. If when I convert to EASA they question my logbook, I’ll just tell them to ring up the flight school and check the aircraft logs. They’ll see that what goes in the logbook was really flown 
how does one go about proving that you actually flew as PIC AND being under IFR?
Your logbook is entitled to be believed, unless somebody can come up with really good evidence that you are lying.
There have been plenty of cases, some well known ones in GA, where somebody was claiming far more hours than they could possibly have had, but it is hard to prove it is faked even if say the G-INFO database entry for the person’s aircraft shows Annual hours way lower than the logged time – because somebody could be doing flying somewhere completely different and in another aircraft.
Many people have wondered (lots of threads on it here) how the hell one is going to prove IFR time for the CB IR purpose, and nobody knows.
BTW I don’t think you can do the CB IR in the USA. The JAA IR was certainly never possible out there because that would have destroyed the European ATPL business (some claims were made but the poster never came up with any detail, but the JAA CPL was doable in the USA) except possibly some small part of it. If it was possible, it would open an interesting avenue because you could cost effectively do an FAA PPL/IR in the USA and then having logged some hours out there, do the CB IR conversion. For a young person, or anybody without family etc ties, it would be a great way to collect all the paperwork for flying both N-reg and EASA-reg.
Yet when I got back to Spain and the officer said that he couldn’t accept the logbook
Sounds like a money grabbing scheme. There is a lot of it about. Was the school one of the two at Jerez? What exact reason did he give?
The OP stated
I have looked at the requirements for the FAA IR to EASA IR conversion and found the following:
He is obviously planning on getting the FAA IR and go down the conversion path.
@ngoiz, you should know that according to the current state of things, after April 2016 you will not be allowed to use the privileges of your FAA IR for flying in Europe if you are a European resident. Between now and then things may change. But this is what it currently looks like. So you need to work up your 50 hrs of IR PIC time before then if you are planning to do so on a N-reg airplane in Europe. There is a long thread about that here. You also ought to read this.
Sounds like a money grabbing scheme. There is a lot of it about. Was the school one of the two at Jerez? What exact reason did he give?
Yep, a lot of that going on in Spain, especially with anything aviation related. It was with the ‘Spanish CAA’ in Madrid, I handed in my logbook, US PPL, my EASA skills test paper work, theory exams and 180EUR just for looking at it. He said everything was there except proof of 100hrs experience, that the logbook didn’t qualify…. I had to ask for an hour certificate to my Part 141 school to sort it out. Glad to hear it is likely a one off thing.
BTW I don’t think you can do the CB IR in the USA.
No sorry, I want to get a full FAA IR on my FAA-PPL and then convert that IR to EASA standards, for which you need to have 50hrs IFR PIC
according to the current state of things, after April 2016 you will not be allowed to use the privileges of your FAA IR for flying in Europe if you are a European resident.
Hmm, ok so by means of that new regulation, after April 2016 the only way do to IFR PIC hours on an FAA IR would be in the US, unless the local CAA allows flights in an N-reg on a FAA IR. Lets hope the BASA comes out with a GA-friendly solution….
