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Can flight training hours be transferred between ATOs?

Say you did 20 hours of a PPL or IR and then had to move country for some reason. Could a new ATO in the new EASA country give you credit for those hours towards your license, or would you need to start from scratch?

EIMH, Ireland

I believe there is only a requirement for integrated courses to finish the entire course in one sweep in one ATO. For the courses you’re asking for it is allowed (make sure your hours are trackable, instructor signatures in the logbook and/or your syllabus student records).

yes, it is credible

mh
Aufwind GmbH
EKPB, Germany

Within one country, this is often done because students change schools, for all kinds of reasons.

Sometimes training records get lost, however. Not always accidentally… depending on the exact scenario under which the student left the previous school, if you understand me… I have seen a few such cases If a school goes bust they are supposed to lodge their training records with the CAA.

Regarding transfers between countries, I have no idea. It would be amazing if it were possible. Is each exercise standardised? Maybe @tumbleweed might know?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Appendix 3 – to Part FCL = Training courses for the issue of a CPL and an ATPL Regulation (EU)

An applicant wishing to transfer to another ATO during a training course shall apply to the competent authority for a formal assessment of the further hours of training required.

In effect, Head of Training at new school assesses and makes recommendation to new authority which agrees it and student can complete course with that authority

Now retired from forums best wishes

Yes that is possible. The question is whether there is any specific regulation about it. I never found anything (for PPL).

Whenever an ATO approves a student pilot for a skill test, it is the responsibility of the ATO that all requirements in the approved ATO documents – Operations Manual, Training Manual – are fulfilled. When there has been a change of school, some additional work going through the first school’s training documentation and ticking off hours and syllabus exercises is usually involved.

If the school change is within the country, it is routine and does not involve authorities. When we get a student pilot with some training from another EASA country, we ask our competent authority for specific requirements, but I am not sure that is really necessary according to EASA regs. And we know of some problems doing that for IR training because of national differences that might actually come from gold plating. But PPL is straightforward in my experience.

Last Edited by huv at 16 May 20:29
huv
EKRK, Denmark

As per regulation, a flight school change to any EASA member state’s ATO/DTO is possible. Usually it isn’t a problem. However, there are countries that violate these regulations (I heard in Germany it isn’t possible to switch from one Bundesland to the other because the PPL theory is different [it shouldn’t be] and all sorts of made up reasons). It might be wise to ask the CAA to avoid such a situation. It doesn’t help to be right if the CAA likes their opinion better.

ArcticChiller wrote:

Germany it isn’t possible to switch from one Bundesland

Well that doesn’t surprise, every Bundesland has their own Luftamt (Aviation Authority), it gets even worse, in Bavaria they have one for Nothern Bavaria and one for Southern Bavaria…

LFMD, Monaco

Actually it is possible, but requires cooperation of both authorities and ATOs involved at either end.

Any of these can be s showstopper. A friend of mine experienced this,as he switched ATOs mid-training. The old ATO made a fuss of handing over his training record to the new one, hampering his progress to the point that he went to court over this. No state authority to blame for this, because he trained for the fATPL, which is governed by the LBA anyway.

The whole thing of state aviation authorities applies to plain PPL and below only.

EDXN, ETMN, Germany

Formally required flight hours can certainly be transferred, but in addition to the old ATO’s releasing the papers, as CR rightfully mentioned, it’s also up to the new ATO to accept the old one’s training. I tried to transfer my CPL training from a totally disappointing ATO to an excellent one, and the head of the latter said: “Sorry, we cannot accept responsibility for that training. You said it yourself they are a shitty outfit, and I agree”. It didn’t upset me the least because he was obviously right.

LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic
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