My journey as an American pilot (PPL-A + IR) transitioning to Europe

Thanks for all the kind words!

Snoopy wrote:

I recommend to take your TB10 to some European GA classics like LJPZ or LIPV. Germany, Austria, Slovenia and even Croatia are pretty easy for GA and offer interesting destinations.

Thanks for the recommendations. I’ve been to a number of nice places in Germany and stopped in Vienna on my way back from Romania in February. Croatia is definitely on the list as well!

LeSving wrote:

It’s very different from country to country in Europe as well.

Absolutely. The point I was hoping to get across is that in the US it’s standardized in a way that can’t even be said within most European countries. As far as I can tell there is no standard anywhere in Europe. It’s just applied based on whatever competing priorities the airspace designers are trying to accommodate.

johnh wrote:

This is exactly my situation, though I plan to use the post May 2021 rules if I can ever find anyone who knows exactly what they are!

I’m happy to talk with you about this. I did a lot of research on my own and even had to help the Dutch licensing authority understand the requirements. Finally I got in touch with the head of testing and worked out with him exactly what I needed to do. This was the breakthrough for me, as he was able to provide clarity for me as well as educate the authorities. Ultimately he did my skill test as well. I had the misfortune of doing this in the year when everything changed, but the upside is I have a good understanding of the possibilities. Which country will you be in?

Peter wrote:

I reckon the number of people who knew about the FAA-EASA treaty route can be counted on one’s fingers

As mentioned above, I found exactly almost no one had any idea. I ended up using the treaty to keep flying IFR in Europe on my US IR, but for the actual conversion I followed the ICAO CB-IR conversion route instead. This route will not exist after this month, when the CB-IR is replaced by the Basic IR. I did this because at the time it was the most well-understood and therefore least likely to cause issues. In practice the primary difference with the new FAA-EASA agreement is that the Meteorology exam is replaced by a Communications exam, which I suspect will make the theory much easier. As long as you have at least 50 hours IFR PIC time, you can do this orally with the examiner. As I mentioned, the night rating can now also be obtained without additional training.

Peter wrote:

The checkride indeed differs a lot – for example, mine, Arizona, 2006 was 99% partial panel and incredibly hard work – and it varies between countries.

My US IR checkride was brutal. Took a whole day, with the oral lasting several hours. When I was finished with the oral the examiner said, “Congratulations! You just passed the ATP oral!” I was not amused, because I had been sweating with all the subject areas I hadn’t expected to be covered. In general I found the FAA oral exams to be quite intense and a much better test of a candidate’s knowledge than the endless useless junk required for the EASA theory.

Then, like you said, my actual flight was largely partial panel, and 100% under the hood. The last thing I had to do was a partial VOR-A approach into an unfamiliar field. While on the approach, the examiner told me to ask ATC to “pause” the approach. I’d never heard of this before, and ATC sounded equally confused but complied anyway. We then proceeded to perform partial panel unusual attitude recoveries, after which he told me to resume the approach, which ended with a circle to land in basically the opposite direction. Once on the ground he said, “Ok if you can do that, I think you’re ok to be an instrument pilot.”

To this day, my IFR checkride stands as the most challenging exam of any kind I’ve ever done. And I’ve done a number of certification exams that require you to be a human compiler…

Mooney_Driver wrote:

How are you getting on with your TB10? I was wondering… hopefully all is sorted by now and you can enjoy the plane.

It’s mostly sorted now, though I still have a few issues that have to be worked out. I’m flying it to Termikas in Lithuania on Thursday for a full inside-out refurb, so wish me luck on that!

Snoopy wrote:

Do you mean in the context of FAA to EASA “conversion“?

Yes, sorry. The CB-IR conversion path I followed, with the reduced theory requirement will no longer be offered after this month. Supposedly this will be replaced by a Basic IR conversion, though I can’t imagine anyone would do this from an FAA IR under the new rules. But it is attractive under the standard ICAO conversion because that route requires 100 hours IFR PIC. So you could get a Basic IR and build time for the full conversion. Also the new FAA conversion is only valid for people who lived in EASA-land prior to November 2020, OR whose ratings were issued in the last year. This will disqualify people in the future who move to Europe having an existing FAA IR with less than 100 hours IFR time.

Ibra wrote:

Are you sure? ICAO IR conversion to FCL IR will stay forever it’s 50h PIC IFR, skill-test and off you go, nothing to do with FAA? why you think this will disappear this month?

There’s a new reg (from March 2020) superseding this (article 6 paragraph e):
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32020R0723

There was a separate document extending the timeline, but I can’t find it now.