Several people at the LAA Rally were asking about putting the IR, BIR or IR(R) on a LAPL. What do we know about that?
to have the MEP/IR done you need to do the ATPL theory (14 exams as you mention) so if you just want to fly leisure, why don’t more people do this?
Not quite.
You need the 14 exams only if you eventually want to get an airline job (or to get an EASA ATPL for any other reason).
For a SE or ME PPL and IR you need "only*
A CPL is almost useless in Europe unless you get a job under an AOC. E.g. here or search for “CPL”.
Also imagining that in 5 years I want to go modular for complete fATPl, do I need to do everything as if I was starting from 0? Meaning that the money that I will pay for the SEP/IR will not be “recoverable”…
If you want to become an airline pilot then you need to do all 14 exams and yes doing the whole thing (ME CPL/IR) is most cost effective. Not necessarily at an ATPL school though; they rip you off. See e.g. this. Bear in mind that the SE to ME conversion is not expensive and can always be done later.
Several people at the LAA Rally were asking about putting the IR, BIR or IR(R) on a LAPL
You cannot have an IR on a LAPL. The IMCR, who knows? The CAA will know. I doubt it.
Reportedly, almost nobody in Europe is doing the LAPL. What is the point, especially in the UK? The only possible point would be a much easier medical, and for the ultimate for that you want the NPPL + medical self declaration (and a friend with a Class 2 medical to sit RHS if you want to fly to France).
Peter wrote:
to have the MEP/IR done you need to do the ATPL theory (14 exams as you mention) so if you just want to fly leisure, why don’t more people do this?Not quite.
You need the 14 exams only if you eventually want to get an airline job (or to get an EASA ATPL for any other reason).
For a SE or ME PPL and IR you need "only*
7 (?) PPL exams
7 CB IR exams
A CPL is almost useless in Europe unless you get a job under an AOC. E.g. here or search for “CPL”.Also imagining that in 5 years I want to go modular for complete fATPl, do I need to do everything as if I was starting from 0? Meaning that the money that I will pay for the SEP/IR will not be “recoverable”…
If you want to become an airline pilot then you need to do all 14 exams and yes doing the whole thing (ME CPL/IR) is most cost effective. Not necessarily at an ATPL school though; they rip you off. See e.g. this. Bear in mind that the SE to ME conversion is not expensive and can always be done later.
Several people at the LAA Rally were asking about putting the IR, BIR or IR(R) on a LAPL
You cannot have an IR on a LAPL. The IMCR, who knows? The CAA will know. I doubt it.
Reportedly, almost nobody in Europe is doing the LAPL. What is the point, especially in the UK? The only possible point would be a much easier medical, and for the ultimate for that you want the NPPL + medical self declaration (and a friend with a Class 2 medical to sit RHS if you want to fly to France).
Thanks a lot for the answer! 
Clarified now!
Just to clarify:
If you have MEP/IR and SEP, then you are not allowed to fly IFR on a SEP. You need to do a SEP(IR) profcheck.
Once both are valid, you can do a profcheck MEP/IR which will also revalidate the SEP/IR (cross-referencing).
I know as I ran into this issue earlier this year and extensively discussed this with the Dutch authorities. In the end, I had to do a profcheck SEP/IR and now have again MEP/SEP IR
AeroPlus wrote:
If you have MEP/IR and SEP, then you are not allowed to fly IFR on a SEP. You need to do a SEP(IR) profcheck.
Once both are valid, you can do a profcheck MEP/IR which will also revalidate the SEP/IR (cross-referencing).
I’m not under the impression that that’s true with the UK CAA. One of the pilots I regularly fly with did his MEIR with me (while I was upgrading my SE→ME) and I never heard from our instructor (who was also an examiner) that he’d have to do anything to be able to use his IR on a SE. I actually signed his licence (SEP reval) last week and didn’t notice if his IR said anything particular, but he’s a fairly thorough person and I think he’d have noticed if he had a ME-only limitation
It could very well be that the UK CAA interprets this in a different way, but when you have in your EASA license IR – ME it is not valid for SEP. In that case it should state IR – SE, ME
So with the PBN, it should state IR – SE, ME, PBN
The IR is for an aircraft category (not a class rating), so that was also my argument, but in the end, the Dutch authorities would not go along and let me do another SEP (IR) profcheck in which case I was also able to add the PBN.
And you cannot cross reference MEP/IR to include SEP/IR if the SEP/IR is not already valid as revalidation only works if both are valid still at the time.
Once you have both SEP/IR and MEP/IR you can just do a profcheck MEP/IR and then the SEP/IR can be cross-referenced and renewed as well and included automatically with the MEP/IR.
I’ve just confirmed and his licence does say SE although as far as I know he never flew any sort of proficiency check with an examiner on a SE (but he already had an IR(R) which he used on SE so that might be deemed enough)
Yes, if you have SEP(IR) already and are then doing MEP(IR), the SEP(IR) part will be cross-referenced. But if you do MEP(IR) and have just a SEP with no valid instrument rating (or one that expired), then you cannot fly IFR on a SEP unless you first do a profcheck SEP(IR) again. At least, over here in The Netherlands.
