EASA licence endorsements - requirements?

From EASA side, there is very little in terms of regulation or guidance. This is all there is:

The phrase

Differences training requires the acquisition of additional knowledge and training on an
appropriate training device or the aircraft.

is obviously open to interpretation.

Anyway, apparently, some NAAs have taken this void as a call to define certain requirements for these endorsements (this is often called “goldplating”). If your license is issued by LBA or a Landesluftfahrtbehörde, I believe there are no further presciptions regarding your questions, at least as far as I am aware.

I’ve never heard of such requirements, but I’ve only done or considered very obvious variants (VP and RG, which are quite self-evident as far as requirements are concerned: no FI is going to endorse you if you can’t reliably operate and land a VP or RG aircraft).

EFIS variant seems a lot blurrier to me, since I don’t know for which aircraft / avionics you need the endorsement. Possibly aircrafts where mandatory instruments (based on flight rules and conditions) are not present in their classic analog version. In day VFR in practice it means aircrafts that have only an electronic altimeter and airspeed indicator (without analog version), which is not very hard to grasp on an EFIS PFD… It’s of course different for on top, night, IFR where a lot more stuff is mandatory and more electronic instruments may be crucial to the flight, but still an EFIS AH isn’t really the end of the world. Compare that to handling a G1000 and its intricate menus…

I would expect an EFIS endorsement (barring any IR) to cover at least all “classic” instruments in their electronic equivalent: gyro, AH, airspeed, altimeter and Vspeed, and basic forms of radionavigation (VOR). For IR you would add all certified navigation and approach modes.

For SLPC it indeed seems very simple, you may be good with a <30min flight doing a couple of circuits (I’m talking about what’s reasonable, not what’s legal). And the training will mostly focus on the particular aircraft type since its FADEC may have a lot of specific procedures associated, of which operating single-lever is just a small part (engine run-up, electric power failure modes etc.)

“Training” = requires a structured course according to a syllabus (Essential Requirements for Aircrew, Annec IV, BR).

Qualupalik said

It’s why the term “familiarisation training” was changed to “familiarisation,” since familiarisation doesn’t require a structured course with a syllabus.

As said above, apart from training vs. familiarisation it is subject to interpretation.

There are no requirements for “difference training” (logbook signoff), there are some guidances and outdated docs here and there from various authorities (e.g. G5 does not count as EFIS), however, nothing explcit in FCL: except the guidance that one need to get a training flight in actual aircraft or in a simulator, again this is only a “guidance” !

For “familiarisation training”, one has to remember that this does not even require an instructor flight (a pilot can read POH on his own and familiarise himself), also it’s very moot when it’s a single seat SEP aircraft

The common thing to do around here is to write something like this in the logbook:
«____(Name)___, Licence number_____ has successfully completed training for retractable undercarriage as required in accordance with Part FCL.700.»

At least the Norwegian CAA is happy with this.

I’m actually in the process of translating my Norwegian book “Utsjekksboken” (the “checkout book”) to English. The book covers what I think should be the minimum required theoretical knowledge for differences training regarding VPP, RG etc. The working title is now “Differences training and familiarisation – For single-engine aeroplanes”, but this title it terrible… If someone comes up with a better title than this, I’m happy to offer (digital) copies of any of my books as a reward.

In my club, where the VP variant is obtained during initial training, the FI simply specifies the variant at the first solo (something like “authorized solo, VP variant”). No further mention of this exists, in the PPL exam, license or other.

ErlendV wrote:

“Differences training and familiarisation – For single-engine aeroplanes”

“Differences and Familiarisation – The Complete Guide for Pilots and Instructors of Single Engine Aircraft”

“Training for Differences and Familiarisation – The Complete Guide for Pilots and Instructors of Single Engine Aircraft”

@Ibra wrote

There are no requirements for “difference training” (logbook signoff), there are some guidances and outdated docs here and there from various authorities (e.g. G5 does not count as EFIS), however, nothing explcit in FCL: except the guidance that one need to get a training flight in actual aircraft or in a simulator, again this is only a “guidance” !
For “familiarisation training”, one has to remember that this does not even require an instructor flight (a pilot can read POH on his own and familiarise himself), also it’s very moot when it’s a single seat SEP aircraft

Not quite. There is no such thing as a familiarisation training.

From FCL:
Differences training requires the acquisition of additional knowledge and training on an
appropriate training device or the aircraft.

From Annex IV to BR: “Training” = requires a structured course according to a syllabus (Essential Requirements for Aircrew, Annec IV, BR).

This means that differences training requires a syllabus. A familiarisation is not training and doesn’t.

Not quite. There is no such thing as a familiarisation training

It’s there in picture posted by Boscomantico, look at bottom left on the lower corner