“Pearls of Wisdom 27th January.”
Thanks to those of you who came to this part social/part educational evening which was well attended. However I was disappointed by the poor turn-out of our current students and the majority of our Pilots’ Club members. Frankly, while we’re delighted to welcome all-comers, it for this group of regular flyers that we organise these get- togethers.
Are we doing something wrong? Are the topics not of interest or the presentations sub-standard? If so please let me know your thoughts and we’ll try to organise things differently. Or maybe you’d like presentations on a weekday evening?
Next presentation will be on February 25th when David Wood (now a CAA Examiner) and Julian Firth of the Air Accident Investigation Board will be analysing the causes of some common accidents and their prevention. If you are immune from such a possibility don’t bother to come, but otherwise you owe it to yourselves and your passengers to put it in you diaries and turn up, preferably for a drink and supper before the talks. We promise to have finished by 9pm.
Olympic Airspace.
All pilots who leave the Old Sarum circuit will need to know about this, so nearer the time we’ll be inviting a CAA representative (probably Irv Lee of www.flyontrack.co.uk) to come and brief us. Be aware that this airspace will extend to our usual Wiltshire habitat and not just London airspace. When you buy you new 1:250,000 chart in March a free “Olympic Airspace”chart will be available.
Licence renewal.
To summarise my comments in our last Newsletter:
JAR-FCL licence expiring before April 8th2012
Apply and a new JAR-FCL licence will be issued. This will cover flights in EASA aircraft but will need transfer to EASA in 5 years time.
JAR-FCL licence expiring between April and July.
Apply and a Part-FCL licence will be issued covering all flights in EASA aircraft. I think this will need change to a EASA licence after 5 years.
JAR-FCL licence expiring after July 8th 2012.
Apply for an EASA licence. There will be a single charge for this but no renewal required thereafter (though of course rating and medical must be kept current).
All of the above will cover flights in non EASA/permit aircraft.
CAA non-expiring licence.
Must be converted to EASA before April 2014 if you wish to fly EASA aircraft but no change for microlights or permit aircraft.
NPPL (non expiring) licence.
If you wish to fly EASA aircraft this will need conversion to the Europe wide LAPL before April 2015. A medical examination will be required probably by your GP. There’s a good summary in February’s “General Aviation.”
Summary of the summary!
Unless you licence needs renewal in the near future, sit tight and “let the smoke settle”. CAP 804 should clarify all (!) when it’s produced later this year.
EASA Ratings
Most pilots reading this will have a Single Engine Piston (SEP) rating and this and the requirements for currency seem unlikely to change.
IMC Rating
This is still being debated. My best guess is that holders of the IMCR who have qualified before 2014 will be able to retain some sort of privileges perhaps under another name.
Almost certainly a new rating will be the;
En route Instrument Rating (EIR)
After a minimum of 15 hours instrument flight (IF) training the holder will be qualified to fly in controlled airspace in cloud but not to fly instrument approaches (except after declaring an emergency). Theoretical knowledge will be examined after a distance learning course of about 100 hours i.e. much more than is needed for the present IMCR.
Fortunately all this training counts towards a
EASA full Instrument Rating (IR)
This will require a minimum of 40 hours IF (the EIR hours are included) some of which will be at an approved training organisation. The theoretical knowledge needed for the EIR suffices for the full IR. (and is much reduced from the current level)
The new ratings are aimed at making a full IR much more achievable by PPLs.
Other ratings
It seems likely that formal ratings for glider towing, aerobatics, mountain flying etc. will be introduced in due course but until then no loss of privileges is anticipated. The Night Qualification will need modifying as currently all flight at night in UK class G airspace is under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) which may be unacceptable to EASA.
It’s likely that LAPL holders can qualify for flight at night.
Health Warning.
All the above info. comes from nearly 200 pages of publications and should not be regarded as gospel particularly as EASA itself is still not certain about the requirements.