Sure it works. Many Europeans do it this way.
Re your bonus question: no. Do calculate to do 50 hrs PIC IFR time after getting your ticket. You will need to find the CFI of an EASA ATO to confirm in writing that you do have at least 50 hours PIC IFR. I wouldn’t start arguing about FAA subtleties with that person…
I guess it works because EASA (presumably) don’t discriminate between an ICAO licence earned from scratch in the issuing state (the USA in this case) vs one issued on the basis of another ICAO licence….
However, for the sake of academic interest, if the tables were turned the FAA themselves would not issue a licence on the basis of a foreign licence if that foreign licence was issued on the basis of the licence from another state…
I discovered this when I was required to replace my paper 61.75 licence with plastic which was issued on the basis of my Australian licence and which I had been flying on in the US for around 15years. Because I originally learned to fly in Singapore my Australian licence states that it is issued on the basis of a foreign licence…it wasn’t a problem all this years ago (in fact I’m not sure it had any such note back then)…but it is now. In the end I had to use my UK JAR licence which did not have any statement that it was issued on the basis of s foreign licence…even though it was actually issued on the basis of my Australian licence which in turn was issued on the basis of my Singapore licence!…it just didn’t say so on the licence… Anyway now I have a stand-alone FAA licence so it doesn’t matter anymore.
AnthonyQ wrote:
it was actually issued on the basis of my Australian licence
Did you do an air law exam and pass a skill test? That was the typical way to get a UK licence if you had another ICAO licence, and that is a complete standalone licence; you just did not have to do the full training. This is the equivalent of getting a “standalone” FAA licence if you do a theory test, do the three hours with an FAA CFI and pass the US flight test.
That is sometimes called the “100hr route” – you need 100hrs post-PPL to do this.
Getting a conversion instead of a validation into the JAA/EASA system has been the holy grail for countless pilots, and various avenues existed in past years, some exploitable with some subterfuge 
Cobalt wrote:
Did you do an air law exam and pass a skill test?
Yes and yes…for a UK CAA PPL ( it was pre-JAR).. I did the same in Australia for my Australian licence…and they still saw fit to notate my licence ad being issued on the basis of my Singapore licence… I took this up with CASA (at the time of replacing my FAA certificate for plastic) and they just shrugged.
In fact even my UK CAA PPL also says issued on the basis of my Australian licence….when I got the JAR licence on the basis of my UK PPL there was no such “issued on the basis of” notation…. and now of course I have an EASA PPL!
All these licences! Plus I have UAE, Qatar and Malaysian PPLs as well…
Peter wrote:
2 pilots flying together in a single pilot aircraft both claiming P1 hours;
Do you have a substantiating reference of this on a US certificate? I assume by P1 hours you mean PIC hours. I believe the statement is incorrect, but I could be wrong.
14 CFR 61.51 (e) (1) (i), combined with 14 CFR 61.51 (e) (1) (iii).
(1) A sport, recreational, private, commercial, or airline transport pilot may log pilot in command flight time for flights
(i) When the pilot is the sole manipulator of the controls of an aircraft for which the pilot is rated ….
…
(iii) When the pilot … acts as pilot in command of an aircraft for which more than one pilot is required under the type certification of the aircraft or the regulations under which the flight is conducted.
This allows for the safety pilot on an IFR flight in simulated instrument conditions to be the pilot in command (because he assumes responsibility for the flight, and the safety pilot is a required crew member according to the rules), and the handling pilot to log as sole manipulator of the controls.
Hi,
Peter you write that one needs 100hrs post-PPL to qualify for the conversion from FAA to EASA PPL. In everything I’ve read, 100hrs total time is stated but there is no mention of this is pre or post ICAO license issue (see abstract from EASA website below).
Please can you confirm if you have seen in any official documents from either the EASA or national CAA doc supporting the post PPL part or was this second-hand info?
I’m planning to travel to do the conversion in the next few weeks.
If you hold a Private Pilot Licence obtained outside Europe or not according to the relevant EASA licensing regulations, you can convert it to an European one. In order to do this you will need to pass an exam on Air Law and another exam on Human Performance. You also need to undertake a skill test and have at least 100 hours as a pilot in the relevant aircraft category (ref https://www.easa.europa.eu/easa-and-you/general-aviation/licensing-general-aviation )
Cheers,
Douglas
I could well be wrong. Maybe someone here can confirm?
Nearly all information is secondhand Usually, here on EuroGA, somebody corrects one pretty quick.
Presumably if you have less than 100hrs post-PPL the difference is that you will need to do all 7(?) exams instead of just Air law and HPL…. and a flight exam… I don’t see that you would need to do the full 45hrs under an EASA ATO…is that correct? If so it’s not that bad…
