EASA's non-recognition of UK (EASA FCL compliant) theory exam passes and training done before 1/1/2021

dublinpilot wrote:

Out of curiosity, how difficult would it be for someone who recently did their exams, to redo them under EASA? I know that would be a pain but it would open up the option of both an EASA and UK ATPL allowing maximum job opportunities.

Would it be particularly expensive? Would you need to redo all the course work to be allowed to sit the exams?
Or are they done over a long period, meaning that the acquired exam knowledge is largely lost and you’d need to do a lot of studying?

It would take somewhere between 8 and 12 months and cost somewhere between 2 to 5k EUR depending on which ATO you choose, PLUS and more importantly the opportunity cost of spending a year of your life redoing something you’ve already done when you could be earning 60k doing something else.

You’d need to do them through an ATO, complete internal progress tests and mock exams, go to their classes etc. There are “distance courses” but you need to attend in person for pre-exams brush-up at least, I believe it’s 2 weeks of classes before each sitting. Of course having done those exams in the past, some knowledge will come back quickly but there will be significant studying and preparing required. Those exams don’t really test your knowledge of anything but rather your ability to gove over thousands of multiple choice questions found in question banks.

And It’s not the money that matters. It’s not even the time it would take, and this is significant. It’s the “psychological pain” of having to redo something that was challenging in the first place all over again because you were fucked over by politicians.

However, if it comes to that point, I’ll just do it. I will do it because I have to be a pilot and that’s that. It will be painful, but there’s no way I’m quitting or resigning from having my licences. I passed them all first time with a 93% average so I could do it again, but the thought of it just makes me sick.

Peter wrote:

However I still think there will be some conversion route.

I sure hope so.

Brussels can screw a small group of UK licence holders for what? Who’s even going to care? Also they are screwing themselves as well because I’d argue UK licence holders are disproportionately more represented in pilot crew licencing around Europe due to the reputational pull/prestige the UK had over the years that atracted so many airline pilot students.

skydriller wrote:

I have sympathy for those that appear to now be in a bit of a pickle , but I cant help but ask “Did you not know about Brexit?”…And that extends to any flying school that was teaching students over the last 4 years too.

Yes, you are right, but on the other hand consider the following:

During those 4 years nobody was sure of anything. In fact today nobody is sure of anything. In the noise of uncertainty why would you be so sure that transferring was the best thing to do? What if you transfer your licence, which takes several months during which you can’t legally fly and also isn’t for free, to then find out that EASA has struck a deal with the CAA? What if you transfer to then find out that it’s the UK who won’t recognise EASA licences anymore?
My belief during this time has been that if you’re not sure of what to do, better not deviate from the initial plan and carry on. I have been proven wrong unfortunately, but I still don’t believe my rationale was fundamentaly incorrect and it’s served me well in other life situations I dealt with in the past (offtopic, involving my engineerind degree in Spain during a transition to the new Bologna model of higher education, many students transferred to the new model which proved unnecessary and also costly as they had to repeat many course they had already passed, and then again do new courses…)

Also what about students who were undergoing training during this whole thing? If you are in the middle of a CPL/MEIR course, as has been my case since October 2019, transferring training records is a huge pain with its own costs involved, both in time and money.

And finally it’s not just Brexit that has screwed me over. It’s been the combination of both Brexit AND Covid. My ATO has been closed for most of 2020 meaning I haven’t been able to finish my training in time in 2020 to transfer to EASA once it was becoming apparent there wouldn’t be mutual recognition.

Sure now it’s easy to say: You should have transferred to EASA while you could. But it was never that clear at any point since 2016. Only in the last part of 2020 was it more and more apparent but as I said, this is when Covid came in to the rescue.

skydriller wrote:

You and me both. Myself quite probably much more than yourself unfortunately, but thats not the topic of discussion – the state of the current UK/European/World economy is not anything I can do anything about or could have foreseen – Unlike Brexit, which we all knew was coming.

I am sorry if you mean to say you have lost loved ones, it’s been my case as well. Not a pissing competition of course, just sincerely expressing I’m sorry if that’s the case and I may have sounded arrogant with my previous comment.

We knew Brexit was coming but we didn’t know how, what it would mean, what the implications were. Nobody knew anything for sure, it was all just assumptions and guesses. Every statement was full of “IFs” and “MAYs”. Also you needed to be on top of the whole thing and invest considerable time and effort to try and make any sense of it while also entertaining your other life obligations. Uncertainty was still there and making decisions when you don’t have information is not easy. Can’t expect from everyone to be a lawyer specialised in international relations…
Let’s assume I f****** up and I should have acted as to cover more possible scenarios, fine. Let me be punished for my mistake. My punishment will be to redo my EASA ATPL theory exams, skills tests etc.