Hangar Talk - 25 Aug 2016 deadline for pilots paid for flying a third country aircraft whose operator is EU based

16-Aug-16 17:41

I just got this anonymous email from “Alex”

From: FCL <[email protected]>

Dear All,

Apologise for the cold email but as people may be involved in the operation of ‘N’ registered aircraft in the UK I felt some of you may be affected.

As you will be aware, the deadline for meeting the UK’s validation requirements for third country pilot licences for remunerated pilots is fast approaching on 25 August 2106[sic]. In most, if not all, other EU countries, derogations have been issued postponing the compliance date to 08 April 2017 and, indeed, in the UK such a derogation has been issued in respect of non-commercial (now non-paid!) licences. However, 25 August 2016 remains the compliance deadline for remunerated pilots.

No credible or reasonable justification for what seems to be a discriminatory approach to remunerated pilots holding third country licences has been offered by the CAA or DfT. I and some others in a similar position believe this is unfair, hopelessly impracticable and prejudicial to those pilots operating commercially (remunerated but NON-AOC) on the basis of perfectly valid third country licence who have been operating safely and professionally around the world and in the EU for many years.

The impact on some of our community is likely to be profound, either or both in terms of the cost and time for compliance (first class medical, additional out of phase simulator training and classroom examinations) or ultimately in making it impossible for them to continue to work because of age and prohibitively extensive and costly compliance requirements.

I (and others) have had various unsatisfactory communications on the subject with the CAA and we believe we are now at a point where, if there is to be any prospect of at least having the UK derogation in respect of remunerated pilots extended to the same date (08 April 2017) as for private pilots, we need to engage lawyers to pursue this on our behalf. The greater the number of affected pilots or operators who together pursue this, the greater the prospect of the CAA and DfT taking heed and actually doing something to address the issue.

If you are adversely affected by the new licence validation requirements and would like to join us in seeking an extension of the current derogation to 08 April 2017 to put us in the same position for compliance purposes as non-commercial (non-paid) pilots, please contact [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>, in confidence, as soon as possible.

Alternatively if you are not directly affected but would still like to lend your support to what we feel is a just cause please also get in touch. Additionally please feel free to forward to anyone else you feel may be interested or affected.

Please do not delay, as time is fast running out.

Thank you for your time and support

The .co.uk domain doesn’t look up to anything useful.

I asked a bizjet pilot and apparently this is real. These paid pilots have to either get an CAA validation, or get the EASA pilot papers.