Does my FAA IR ticket provide any enhancement in privileges when using my EASA PPL inside or outside UK?
Your FAA IR conveys no privileges at all as stated in ORS 4-998
5) Subject to paragraph 6), this validation does not entitle the holder:
a) to act as a member of the flight crew of any aircraft flying for the purpose of commercial
air transport, public transport or aerial work or on any flight for which the holder receives
remuneration for services as a member of the flight crew; or
b) to act as pilot of any aircraft flying in controlled airspace in circumstances requiring compliance
with the Instrument Flight Rules or to give any instruction in flying.
Secondly, if you had any ICAO IR, you could fly that G-reg, worldwide, IFR, but only outside controlled airspace.
Not true, the privileges stated in ORS 4-998 are derived from ICAO Annex 1 and were listed in the ANO with exactly the same exclusions.
Re the IMC – CAP 804 Section 5
3.3.2 Credits
An applicant who holds an ICAO IR or military green Instrument Rating (Aeroplanes)
and has passed a single-pilot IR test in the 24 months preceding the date of application
for the IMC Rating will be credited with a pass in the initial IMC Flight Test and the
written examination. The applicant must apply for the issue of the IMC rating within 24
months of the last IR test passed, The IMC rating will be valid for 25 months from the
date the last IR test was passed.
[link fixed]
Interesting. I wonder when this all changed. Probably around 2012 – the original EASA FCL date.
The ICAO PPL automatic acceptance was in the old Article 26, but I can’t find old copies of the ANO (cap393.pdf). The automatic acceptance of an ICAO IR was elsewhere.
I wonder when this all changed.
The only change in 2012 was to remove this privilege from the ANO for EASA aircraft and then to issue an exemption in ORS4-998 to retain the status quo to initially 2014 and now 2015.
You can get an IR(R)/IMC of the back of your FAA IR
We know that the IMC Rating is a UK thing and in its full extent is only valid in the UK FIR.
However, I get conflicting answers the question:-
Is it valid in the UK regardless of the country of registration of the aircraft been flown?
In essence I’m talking basically about a UK pilot with a CAA/EASA License, an IMC Rating and flying a N Reg aircraft on the 61.75 FAA ‘Piggyback’ thing (for want of a better expression).
Is it valid in the UK regardless of the country of registration of the aircraft been flown?
That depends upon the rules of the State of Registration. In the case of an N Reg you are operating under FAA rules which permits operation of the aircraft on a licence issued by the State in whose airspace you are flying, it does not prohibit the use of the IMC rating. You would be flying on your UK EASA licence not the “Piggyback” FAA Certificate.
I got an affirmative written answer from the FAA, here
It ought to be said that there is a “well known aviation personality” living in the UK (whose services I am not going to advertise here, due to legal threats etc) who disagrees with the above…
Funnily enough I once got a reply from the Czech CAA saying that OK-reg aircraft cannot be flown on the IMCR 
Thank you gentlemen. That seems fairly succinct and I sure don’t want to dig any further into what might turn out to be a ‘can of worms’, even though it all now seems very definitive.
Clearly a FAA IR would be a good next step – how much can you teach an old dog and how easily can that old dog learn ?!
Many thanks again to EuroGA
A new IN regarding the IMC rating. Para 3.6 states the privileges of the IMC rating; well it did until they changed in Schedule 8 to the ANO 2016, published 3 weeks ago on 25th August. I guess the CAA were on holiday and have not caught up with the latest changes! So yet another unchecked, inaccurate publication from the eXespurts
This is why I make local copies of any CAA document or announcement. They have a habit of vanishing within days!
