•you can’t do the Foreign Pilot IR route; you have to do the full FAA IR
Yes but it is a once off hassle instead of a life long hassle.
•the European options for FAA checkrides are poor now
BFRs are required for the piggy back licence too (or do you mean doing the PPL/IR in Europe instead of USA).
To me the big danger is that something happens that you didn’t realise and you find yourself flying illegally. eg. you never noticed the need to change the cardboard licence to plastic, and you could be flying illegally for ages. Or you send off your EASA licence for renewal, and it comes back with a new number, and now you realise that you’re instantly grounded and need to start the piggy back licence again which will take two or more months to organise.
boscomantico wrote:
These are two different things. The test for FAA validation of foreign IRs is much shorter and easier.
It is shorter, the regular test is 60 questions and the Foreign pilot add on is 50 questions. Passing is 70 percent, so you need to get 35 correct answers, the rest are a waste of effort. :)
To me the big danger is that something happens that you didn’t realise and you find yourself flying illegally. eg. you never noticed the need to change the cardboard licence to plastic, and you could be flying illegally for ages. Or you send off your EASA licence for renewal, and it comes back with a new number, and now you realise that you’re instantly grounded and need to start the piggy back licence again which will take two or more months to organise.
This is very straightforward to avoid and not really a big danger.
dublinpilot wrote:
Some here are totally against the 61.75 piggy back licence. Personally I think it’s great for the flying holiday trip to the USA, so I like it, and have gotten it twice in the past.
AFAIU Rob2701 already has EASA papers so he actually needs the FAA license only to be able to fly his (future) N-reg all over Europe to all EuroGA social gatherings.
it seems like a recipe for disaster to get a piggy back licence. It’s only a matter of time that something changes and you then need to go through the whole process again.
As long as you have EASA papers there is no reason the FAR 61.75 should close up on you. But I do understand what you are saying.
I have had a 61.75 license for 18 years now and have been through the cardboard to plastic conversion (like all other FAA license holders) and the EASA license number change. For the former I had to visit a FSDO. For the latter I had to visit my EASA NCAA north if the polar circle (I have an exotic EASA license), but the FAA designed a process that worked really well in cooperation with the NCAAs, so most of it could be done by e-mail and did not require a trip overseas.
In both cases I never stopped exercising the privileges of my US license.
So although I understand what you are referring to, I do not agree with your conclusion, Colm.
On top of this, if you change your home address, you can’t just notify the FAA like anyone else.
I believe I have done that on several occasions so unless something changed since 2006… Do you have a reference?
If you’re getting an N reg aircraft for your own, then I’d knuckle down and get a full FAA Airman’s cert and save the hassle long term.
Although I do not see the reason to do so, this is about to become a lot easier when/if the BASA goes into effect in April 2016 as discussed here.
Aviathor wrote:
I believe I have done that on several occasions so unless something changed since 2006… Do you have a reference?
I’ve looked it up. Perhaps I mis-remembered that. I think I was mixing it up with replacing a lost Airmans cert, which you can’t do on a piggyback.
Sorry for the bad info!
I am flying N-reg for almost 10 years on a 61.75 piggyback. I even added my FAA IR onto it. It first depended on my Malaysian ICAO PPL, later on my Belgian JAA PPL, and later onto my Belgian EASA PPL.
I did re-request it like 4 or 5 times following the classic procedure (letter to Oklahoma, confirm by own CAA, receiving letter back, making appointment with FSDO, visiting FSDO and obtaing temp, receiving plastic later on). It takes a little time, but doesn’t cost anything. The only pre-requisite is that I visit the US very often. See also here.
I never found a reason or the time to obtain a standalone FAA PPL or CPL.
dublinpilot wrote:
Perhaps I mis-remembered that.
I have seen this rumor several times, you might have picked it up. AFAIK it’s not true. You have 30 days to do so. I remember reading a post where author wrote “and” instead of “or”. In essence he wrote “you have 30 days and it becomes invalid” instead of “you have 30 days or it becomes invalid.” The version with “and” doesn’t make much sense anyhow – why give you time limit if it becomes invalid anyway (so they could fine you or prosecute you for exceeding it?).
Another rumor is that any change to the underlying licence invalidates the 61.75. Such as adding a rating. AFAIK, again, that’s not true. As long as the change doesn’t result in a different licence number. But the newly gained privileges do not automatically transfer to the FAA certificate. Even losing privileges doesn’t force validation, you lose them no matter what the FAA certificate says. The underlying licence is limiting you.
Anyway, if someone is in doubt, they can seek legal counsel. This is how I understand it. Yes, certain events will force you to go through it again but getting a standalone licence entails, in my opinion, significantly more hassle. And the process of getting 61.75 certainly doesn’t have to take months. It can be done in two to three weeks or so (with a bit of luck and your NAA can’t be asleep). Inconvenience, no doubt, if it catches you with your pants down. 
As for owning N-reg, I would probably go down this route if I bought used and it was already registered there. I wouldn’t be keen on opening the can of worms that is transferring registration to EASA-land. Especially if I wasn’t planning on keeping the plane for long (US are a big market) or I knew the plane was modified.
Can’t the national CAAs now update a 61.75, if the underlying license number changes? There was a huge publicity on this 1-2 years ago and it was hugely welcome due to the alternatives all being a hassle. Adam House was/is OK but was/is still a few hundred quid.
I am sure there are multiple threads on it here.
