License regulations and general help needed.

Norway is a fantastic place to fly (and presumably learn)...very aviation friendly...and when I lived there many years ago was substantially cheaper (to rent) than the UK...although I understand it is about in par now....

I presume you already have a UK medical which AIUI means your "home" NAA within EASA is set to the UK...so as long as Norway recognizes the UK theory passes, it would make your life easier to do the exams in the UK and the flying in Norway....also should make it easier to add the IMC rating (which will appear as an "IR (Restricted)" on your EASA licence....but be sure to do this before April 2014 because as has been pointed out it will not be possible after that date....although once you have the IR(R) you keep it for life (subject to renewal/revalidation)...even if it is only of use in the UK

Nate,

I do not think that it would matter much where you start your "flying adventure", and getting a PPL is just the beginning!

I would like to suggest that you start learning to fly as soon as practicable - in Norway or in England - to make use of the good summer weather.

Don't worry too much about "the paperwork" - I am sure that "to validate" a Norwegian PPL for use in England (if, in fact, such "validation" would be required) would be a very simple and straightforward matter.

Safe flying :)

Give it a day or so. There are pilots on here from Norway and they should know.

Sorry, Nate, beats me as well. Norways is listed as full EASA member state. Sounds like there's a spanner in the works somewhere.....

@mdoerr: You are right, I know the difference, but should have been clearer in my comment.

Note to self - don't post before the first espresso has kicked in ;-)

With a LAPL only valid in EASA countries you are not allowed to overfly Croatia at all.

I am not sure that is (or will be) true.

There are EU members but there are no "EASA countries" in any clear sense.

Norway and Switzerland are non-EU but have adopted EASA FCL. Norway, I understand from a local pilot there, implemented the anti N-reg EASA FCL policies without derogation.

Most of non-EU Europe is still "contracting" to EASA. Croatia is more or less adopting EASA policies. It's true that EASA has recently said they refuse to accept Croatian "JAA" licensing (which is a farce given they accept Spanish and Greek FCL) but I don't see Croatia refusing to accept the LAPL for example. Croatia is just too laid back and far too smart to shaft aviation tourism.

Even Egypt uses Eurocontrol to collect it's charges...

If the UK left the EU it would still follow EASA regs, PROB99... it would not be bound by EU directives, but the end result would not be much different for FCL.

On flying VMC on top, holders of UK issued JAR-FCL PPLs do not need sight of surface since April 2012. Holders of UK issued national (non-JAR-FCL) PPLs still need to be in sight of surface. In practice, of course, this is moot because nobody is watching, and whatever you do you need to be able to get back down. UK PPL training does not equip you to navigate usefully other than map+stopwatch - at most schools.

An EASA license will - when it comes to validity - be essentially the same as a JAR license, i.e. valid in the contracting states. It won't be valid anywhere else, except, of course, after validation/conversion.

We may have wires crossed but a normal JAR-FCL PPL is an ICAO PPL and is thus valid in all (approx 200) ICAO contracting states if your plane is registered in the country of your license issue.

The JAR/JAA business is just a mutual validation scheme, which enables the holder of such to fly a plane registered in any JAA state, using his existing PPL and medical. So the holder of a JAA (UK-issued) PPL can go to say Germany and fly a D-reg. The holder of a non-JAA (UK-issued) PPL cannot do that and would need a German validation.

But the holder of any ICAO PPL, flying a plane registered in the country of his license issue, can fly to/over any ICAO contracting state.

The LAPL will not be an ICAO PPL, I believe entirely due to the GP (sub ICAO) medical. You won't be able to fly on it to/over say Turkey unless Turkey accepts it (which Turkey may well do, given its ambitions to become JAA compliant etc...).

My view of the LAPL is that it will be great for VFR-only pilots, because going far outside Europe is a rapidly escalating logistics hassle anyway (avgas, etc). And it will be completely useless for anybody else because there will be no way to add any instrument privileges to it. IMHO, it will be like the NPPL i.e. offering a route to keep flying for pilots who cannot get (or fail) the CAA Class 2 medical. Anybody who can get the medical shouldn't bother with the LAPL.

Nope. An EASA license will - when it comes to validity - be essentially the same as a JAR license, i.e. valid in the contracting states. It won't be valid anywhere else, except, of course, after validation/conversion.

JAR (EASA) licenses are valid in all ICAO countries. That means you can fly an EASA reg to any country you like without validation. If you fly to Greece and pass Croatia (non-EASA) you don't need a validation. With a LAPL only valid in EASA countries you are not allowed to overfly Croatia at all.

You confuse regulations to fly in planes with other (non-country of license) registration with validity of the license.