Following from here I have often wondered this.
Start with the JAA PPL and its 5 year expiry. Which CAAs chased this up? The UK one didn’t and according to one “famous high social media profile” examiner about half of UK PPLs were flying illegally for quite some time (months or years). The CAA fully knew this but didn’t give a damn.
If you have a gun licence or a driving licence nobody chases you up either, its the licence holders responsibility to ensure that you are legal. If you don’t, then it could well be considered that you are not a suitable person to hold a licence and renewal is not guaranteed.
The greatest problem in the UK is that the rules have changed so much in the last 20 years that very few people have ever caught up with them. We have moved from one system to another with no visible improvement and no statistical analysis to determine anything.
They keep a very close eye on firearms certificates. I have only an FAC air rifle but I get a visit from a policeman every 5 years to check the safe. Plus he needs fresh references each time.
Driving licenses aren’t chased up; that’s true. But, IIRC, in the UK you don’t need a license to drive provided you are not disqualified from applying for one. At least that is how the law used to be.
I still think it’s fair to expect the regulators to send reminders on legal matters and updates to pilots via some useful channels (no AIP or NOTAMS it’s already full of junk and outdated texts)
Big transitions rarely happen for gun & driving licences as there is lot of pressure to keep grandfathered rights on these?
- If I did driving test before 1 January 1997, I can drive any glider trailer & caravan without having to pass new tests
- If I have deactivated shotgun before 2015, I can still carry it with it’s old certificate without having to get new papers or comply with EU 2015/2403
We have moved from one system to another with no visible improvement and no statistical analysis to determine anything.
I fully agree, there is a lot of incentive not to move anything and hope deadline will be extended or rules being reverted
I had converted my BGA papers for gliding to SPL and went through everything and now this regulation is being rolled back in EASA FCL to a lighter version while the hard version went into UK FCL before being rolled back into the old system, I no longer fly gliders but the whole thing is a piece of theatre…at some point I had 5 different papers all valid to fly the same aircraft (SF25 TMG), 3 of papers had instructor privileges and all with different ratings & currency rules (it would have been 7 papers if I could hold LAPL.S.TMG and LAPL.A.TMG in addition)
Tumbleweed wrote:
The greatest problem in the UK is that the rules have changed so much in the last 20 years that very few people have ever caught up with them.
I think it’s the same everywhere. During the last 20 years, I am now on my third license. First I got the old national license. This was renewed to JAR, then to EASA. The regulations have changed from national to EASA. Putting them side by side in paper form is like going from a 10 cm stack (which already was a lot) to a 5m stack (which in all essence is unmanageable without online access and Google, but even then). The same has happened with the UL license (or more correct, proof of competence). Luckily it’s all national, so the stack is barely a cm. But I mean, it has changed completely, and now with lot of references to the 5m stack 
Tumbleweed wrote:
its the licence holders responsibility to ensure that you are legal
True. But the authorities also have the information. Why? What do they use it for?
But the authorities also have the information. Why? What do they use it for?
Exactly.
They even get your past year’s flying hours at each medical.
Why? What do they use it for?
Possibly because the regulation says they must. Apart from generating a few statistics it has no use unless called for in an investigation.
Tumbleweed wrote:
If you have a gun licence or a driving licence nobody chases you up either
Well, actually – they do. I have a “chase up” letter to renew my driving licence on my desk right now. They are sent automatically a couple of months before expiry.
So, what do the CAAs do with the data?? For example in the JAA license days they were obviously aware that a large % of pilots were flying illegally, probably with no insurance, yet they still didn’t write to them.
It’s a weird mentality. “We own you, we control you, you have no comeback if we make a mistake, but all your mistakes can be punished (like this) if we choose to do so, which we might do, or we might not bother”.
I prefer the US system where the FAA generally keeps information on a need to know basis, a pilot certificate never expires, and meeting currency dates is the responsibility of the pilot. If I can‘t remember when my medical is due, then I‘m not mentally fit to fly. 
This is part of the paternalistic expectations many people in Europe have of their government.
