Hi there. New to flying so this is my first post (sorry if its a dumb question). I did some searching of the forum but couldn’t find an answer (or the posts pre-dated brexit).
I’ve wanted to get my private pilots license for many years, and am finally biting the bullet as life is affording me a little more free time. My challenge is I increasingly split my time between the UK and france, and have struggled to get clarity on the licensing situation, as ideally I would like to fly in both (renting for now).
I’m UK resident and spend say 80% time in UK today. Over the next five years that will gradually flip to 60/40 in france/uk.
My starting point was to just get a UK license, but if i understand correctly, i wouldn’t be able to rent/fly a french registered plane on that license? That would be a problem as i probably have more spare time in france than in UK. I did read you can get some sort of short term ‘validation’, but that doesn’t really help much as i’m doing probably 8 separate trips to france, rather than one long stay for a couple months.
Any ideas? Can you actually obtain/hold both concurrently? Happy to be pointed at another thread. I searched about, but as with many things, there are probably a lot of acronyms i don’t know yet and didn’t search for the right thing!!!
Thanks!
Well, I heard that SFC folks in EGSG are OK to help you with an EASA license. :)
I think the easiest option would be to get your UK CAA PPL, and then after 100hrs total time to get your EASA PPL (1 or 2 exams + skills test), unless SFC could offer you an EASA PPL in the UK at the same time or some other option.
A G-reg can be flown worldwide on a UK PPL. It cannot be flown at all on an EASA PPL (unless, I believe, it is a G-reg Annex 1 in which case any ICAO PPL is OK).
An EASA-reg can be flown worldwide on an EASA PPL. It cannot be flown at all on a UK PPL.
Yes you can hold both concurrently. They are different ICAO-compliant licenses.
Then you get the crazy “dual papers” requirement. If you are “based” in the UK you need to hold UK papers (even if not relevant to the aircraft). If you are “based” in the EU you need to hold EASA papers (even if not relevant to the aircraft). However, if you move about between the UK and the EU, it is not likely anybody will hassle you over this. It is “operator residence”; do a search if you need details. There is practically no enforcement of this, apart from this case but there the official never provided any legal basis; it was done as “harrassment”.
arj1 probably has the best answer, via the 100h route, especially as you’re mostly in the UK now.
Just in case, it’s worth noting that the European licence can be from any EASA state, not necessarily France. You can also mix and match licence/medical, e.g. I have a French PPL and Maltese class 2.
You would think there there would be a market for dual UK/EASA flying schools, but Google doesn’t find much. It might have to be a custom package negotiated through an airline school e.g. Oxford.
Once you have two (or more) licences, it’s not much effort to maintain them: there’s a slightly higher admin charge for the medical, and you’ll have to email logbook scans to the other aviation authority every second year for the refresher flight with instructor.
Keep us updated 
So I need to build up 100 hours in the UK after which picking up an EASA license is simpler. I will ask of the flight school can do both together, have only done one lesson with them in the past. Doing my homework before I start in earnest.
Thanks all!
Considering VAT, is there no limit how long you can stay in the EU with your own G-reg plane? Or vice versa in the UK with an EU registered plane?
Or does it depend on the country you’re staying in, say, France is ok, but Italy isn’t? Going from 80/20 to 40/60 seems like a recipe for disaster…
Check the aircraft VAT thread. I think you get 6 months. In practice, unless you draw attention, nobody will be counting. I would make sure the plane is VAT-paid in the EU.
Inkognito wrote:
Or does it depend on the country you’re staying in, say, France is ok, but Italy isn’t? Going from 80/20 to 40/60 seems like a recipe for disaster…
I will have to look into this. As mentioned earlier owning my own plane seems far off (albeit that is more about convincing my wife it’s a grand idea than any paticular barrier, but it’s sensible i don’t rush into it).
I’m in the phase of ‘transitioning’ out of my regular full time work over the next little while hence the situation. But unfortunately i expect for aircraft ownership (like many other things, taxes, pensions etc. etc.) the world just isn’t designed around people having more than one ‘residence’, although pre-brexit it would have been easier i think.
Thanks for the tip on the VAT thread, i’ll take a look as (hopefully) in a couple years i’ll be pondering a similar question as to whether i should be an aircraft in the EU vs the UK!.
Capitaine wrote:
You can also mix and match licence/medical
I think this isn’t entirely accurate. Medical records need to be stored in the same country that issues your licence. However the AME/AeMC that issues your medical may be licenced by a different EASA country so the paper they give may look as if it’s given by that country.
Medical records need to be stored in the same country that issues your licence
Yes – that was done explicitly to block what EASA called “medical tourism”, where loads of airline pilots got their initial Class 1s in Hungary, where you could do handy stuff like the CV test, which you are supposed to need only once per life, but equally you are not allowed to repeat (using the same method) after failing it, for the rest of your life!
But it sounds like the OP travels around so he can sort out two lots of papers, for renting local reg planes as needed.
