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Flying in Europe on an Aussie PPL (as a temporary visitor)

First of all let me introduce myself,

I’m a Dutch seafarer living in South-East Queensland and I recently got my (CASA) PPL. Years ago I spend a lot of time lurking on the private flying section of that big professional pilot forum everyone here seems to come from, contemplating going to the US to do my PPL there. I figured doing it in the Netherlands would be much more expensive, and of course why would you want to dodge the weather around Lelystad when you can have a good time in Florida or SoCal?

Anyway, that plan never quite worked out and got postponed indefinitely, but sometime along the way I ended up with an Australian girlfriend (now ‘missus’ as they say here) and moved down under. Looking for something to do in my new home country I finally gave it a try and got hooked straight away. I tried flying a few of the local 600kg LSA but couldn’t fit in comfortably (being a tall Dutchman and all) so I ended up biting the bullet and getting a ‘real’ pilot license in the Holden Commodore of the sky: a Cessna 172N (with a bit of C162 time, and finishing up in a G1000 172SP as the old N was getting its SIDs done).

For our scheduled holiday in the Netherlands next year I’d like to take some of my old Dutch mates flying. I’m aware that I could fly an Australian (VH) registered aircraft in Europe, but I’m unlikely to be able to rent one (if they even exist), so would it be allowed to fly a PH-reg airplane in NL on a CASA licence (as a non-resident of NL)?
Could I fly it to other countries as well (i.e. do a trip to Belgium or Germany)?

I know that converting to an EASA license would be quite difficult, and I have difficulties enough with KIWA to just keep my NL masters’ license valid so I really don’t wan to deal with them for another bit of paper.

Also from a more practical point of view; if is allowed by regulation, would there be any chance of someone letting me hire a C172 with just Australian experience? And additionally, would it be a smart idea to do this at all or will I get hopelessly lost between all the pesky little bits of airspace and end up being escorted by the RNLAF?

Tnx,

Ev

NB. the CASA PPL includes all VFR airspace (we only got C, D, E and G in Oz), but I guess most local flights in NL would just stay in class G?

Also: Good to see there’s an aviation forum where not every post devolves in a shouting match about leaning practices, the GA good RA bad debate or even worse: politics.

First of all – welcome here! This is indeed a place for rather civilized discussion.

Now to your Qs: I’m not sure, but somewhat doubt you’d be able to fly in NL on a CASA PPL. Best way to get a definitive answer would be to call/email the Dutch CAA and ask. There are quite a few Dutch contributors on here, so you’ll probably get a more in-depth answer soon. What I can tell you is that airspace organization is very, very different in Oz from Europe (or indeed the US). Some years ago I did a CASA validation and some flying in Oz and was quite amazed at the level of difference. Just jumping into a plane and heading off into the blue yonder – especially in crowded NL – might not be such a good idea without at least some training. One good thing about Europe, though: no ASIC!! The easiest – as it almost always is in situations like yours – would be to go up with a local instructor.

You could do this until EASA came along…. Before that you could fly on PH-aircraft with an ICAO PPL provided you stayed within the country. (no border-crossing) I did exactly what you describe, fly in NL on a CASA license, just like that!

However now that Part-FCL applies (since 8 Apr 2013) you need to have either a temporary validation, or do a full conversion. Both involve an amount of bureaucracy and money.

I did a full conversion and a lot of it felt pointless, but I did it because a 1 year license validation felt even more pointless for the amount of money and effort.

At least it got me an EASA PPL…

And an Aussie ICAO Level 6 and a Dutch ICAO level 6
And an Aussie human factors exam and a Dutch human factors exam… I can understand the need for Air Law, but human factors???

By the way you need 100 hrs PIC to be eligible for a conversion.

Last Edited by Archie at 31 Mar 04:08

The amendments to the EASA aircrew regulation in 2015/445 apply from 8 April and allow:

It was designed for the “tourist case”. What I don’t know is what the NL will do about implementing this.

Interesting development!

Some Member States have found that certain requirements of Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011 place an undue and disproportionate administrative or economic burden on themselves or on stakeholders

Wow, never expected that stated in an EU regulation. Maybe there is hope…

undue and disproportionate administrative or economic burden on themselves or on stakeholders

Oh well, that’s not going to happen in NL then, KIWA is all about creating administrative and economic burdens on stakeholders; whether you’re a truck driver, ship’s captain or airline pilot KIWA will make sure you get the maximum amount of bureaucratic annoyance before they give you your paperwork back.

So it looks like a conversion will be something to do when/if we ever move back to the Netherlands permanently, so unless the “tourist” provision gets implemented it is probably not worth the effort for just a couple of holiday flights.

I can tell you is that airspace organization is very, very different in Oz from Europe (or indeed the US).

Had a look at some Euro/UK charts and it looks quite complicated indeed! Surprised about the difference with the US though, I understood that CASA was more or less following the example of the FAA, with just a few differences thrown in to confuse the Yankee visitor (and the conversions between metric and imperial of course, we use feet for altitude, Nautical Miles for long distances and meters for clearance from cloud and viz, much to the annoyance of my Californian instructor)

The US is definitely on my list for a flying holiday, would like to do a tour of the west coast one day (from what I found online the rental rates are really cheap especially if the dollar comes back to a normal level).

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