UK national licence holder - possibility to convert to US licence?

[flyingearly]

Hello all - this is my first post here; I was recommended to visit these forums to share a question I've got about US pilot licensing; I'm really hopeful that someone will have the patience to read and answer my question.

The simplified summary is I'm trying to understand what additional hours and training I would need to do in the US in order to obtain an FAA private pilot's certificate as a current UK national private pilots licence holder and whether it's a route I can take direct, or whether it's easier to obtain a Canadian licence and then convert it.

Apologies in advance - the detail itself is long and messy!

I am a UK citizen and resident and I hold a UK National Private Pilots Licence (NPPL).

The NPPL is a sub-ICAO licence that is recognised here in the UK; it has slightly lower hour requirements than the full PPL which is an ICAO licence.

NPPLs are very popular options as they allow you to fly ultralight/LSA aircraft and provide a more accessible, slightly more affordable route to learning to fly.

My licence is NPPL(A) and all of my training and hours post-licence (2019) have been in the Microlight class here in the UK (defined here as under 450kg until quite recently, when the limit was raised to 600kg in some circumstances).

I learned on an Ikarus C42 but for the past year I have been a co-owner of a Zenith CH 601 UL, which I believe is possibly more popular in North American than it is in Europe. Both of these are UK microlights - which I believe translates into LSA category - although to make things a bit more complicated, the C42 performs not too dissimilar to many of the Cessna spamcans used for flight training elsewhere and - in some situations - can be registered in the UK not as a microlight/LSA but as what used to be referred to as Group A aircraft.

As an NPPL(A) holder with Microlight privileges, there are a number of things I can do and routes forward:

- I can undertake around 5 hours of additional training to add 'SSEA' privileges to my licence (Simple Single Engine Aircraft) which then allows me to fly heavier aircraft and opens up the Cessna/Piper aircraft of the world.

- I can undertake around 5 hours of additional training to add a Night Rating to my licence (though, in the UK, I can only fly at night when flying SSEA type aircraft). Night flying is not a standard component of the basic licence here (either NPPL or PPL).

However, here is the issue, which affects many hundreds of pilots just like me here in the UK:

Up until April 2018, it used to be possible to 'upgrade' your NPPL to a full PPL through additional hours and training, accompanied with a corresponding weight of paperwork.

Since 2018 - as a result of Brexit, EASA and a lot more politics, that door is closed. This is absolutely not a problem if I want to fly a Cessna 152 in the UK in Day or Night VFR, but it means flying outside the UK is more restricted and - most importantly - it means that NPPL or SSEA licence holders cannot add an Instrument Rating to their licence, because IR(R) can only be added to a UK PPL.

Hopefully you're still with me...basically, the summary so far is that UK and European aviation politics is a mess, which I don't think will be much of a surprise.

So, my question relates to some options I have.

One option is to sit it out and wait. There is a lot of talk that the politics will resolve itself and that - "soon" - the NPPL >> SSEA >> PPL route will be unblocked. However, this has been going on for 4 years and the cogs of regulation move slowly. Sadly, I'm very cynical.

However, another option that someone has suggested to me - which is why I'm posting here - is that there could be a very convoluted route to upgrade to a UK PPL from a UK NPPL which involves flight training outside the UK to obtain a foreign ICAO PPL which - somewhat absurdly - the UK CAA will then recognise and will issue a UK PPL in recognition of. You really couldn't make it up.

Specifically, I have been advised of two potential options:

• Option 1 = undertake flight training in US and get credit for some/all of the existing flying I have done, towards a FAA PPL.
• Option 2 = undertake flight training in Canada and get credit for some/all of the existing flying I have done, obtain a Canadian PPL and then - via a small amount of paperwork - obtain FAA PPL.

I've been pointed in the direction of the various US and Canadian regulations, but I'd like to know if anyone here can quickly tell me whether this is feasible in general terms.

• I have 70 hours total - it will be around 100 by the time I get round to this, of which (approx):
• 35 are dual instruction, as a student pre-licence
• 5 are dual instruction, post licence
• 10 are solo/PIC as a student, pre-licence
• 20 are solo/PIC post-licence

Of that time, all of it will be on UK Microlights. By the summer, I'm expecting to be nearer to 50 PIC post-licence/60 PIC total.

Looking at the crediting guidance, I can't see any specific mention of aircraft type for crediting existing hours towards FAA PPL.

So, a VERY long story short:

Is it possible that a licence-holding UK citizen and resident can come out to the States and undertake additional training in order to obtain an FAA PPL and - given my hours, type and licence -how many additional hours would I need to do in order to obtain the licence?

In Canada, I'm led to believe that I can only credit 10 PIC hours, but the regulations do not mention dual instructions hours. On the US side, I'm pretty much in the dark.

 

[flyingron]

It should be doable. You should get some credit for your instruction as the UK is a ICAO "contacting state" not withstanding BREXIT. Of course, there is more to the US private certificate issuance than just the number of instructional hours. There's specific training items that need to be covered. You'll have to sit down with the school and let them see what they think you will need. At the minimum, you're going to need three hours of instruction in direct preparation for the FAA checkride.

Note one non-FAA issue is that you're going to need an visa (M1 most likely). You can not enter under the VWP or B visas and go through flight training.

 

[bluesky74656]

Is the Canadian certificate not an ICAO certificate? Couldn’t you get that one, skip the FAA, and go get the UK license based on that one?

 

[flyingearly]

The Canadian licence is ICAO, but I'm led to believe that Canada restricts me to only 10 hours credit PIC because I learnt on microlights, whereas US doesn't differentiate between aircraft types (correct me if I'm wrong!). I'm waiting on an enquiry to Transport Canada to confirm the former, as well as understand if my dual instruction hours are creditable.

US requires M1 visa, Canada requires no training visa/security assessment (I'm told).

The question really is what credit I can get for my existing hours in the US.

I've been pointed at 14 CFR 61.41 which says:

"A person may credit flight training toward the requirements of a pilot certificate or rating issued under this part, if that person received the training from [...] a flight instructor who is authorized to give such training by the licensing authority of a foreign contracting State to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, and the flight training is given outside the United States."

Reading this in plain language, it sounds as though: a) my instructor was authorized, given they held an IR(R) issued by the CAA in the UK, and b) it doesn't specify what aircraft category applies and c) what the credit is.

Am I able to assume (which is always dangerous) that all of dual instruction flight training (35 hours) and solo hours (30) can be carried over? And so, I would need to a) train for and undertake the FAA check ride, and b) make sure I cover any syllabus differences between the US private licence and UK NPPL?

I think the suggestion to me that I go down the Canadian route and then convert to FAA is more that the Canadian syllabus, test process and culture is very aligned with the UK and is in some ways a bit more straightforward. But, once I've got it, to switch to US FAA (I'm told) is fairly simple: a Conversion Knowledge Test ($175), third class medical ($100?) and making the application - given the lot costs, it's a 'why not'?

 

[flyingron]

Well if you had a foreign license that qualified (your NPPL as you know does not), you don't even need a test. All you do is take your foreign license to the FSDO and they'll give you a US license "on the basis of the foreign one." This requires you to maintain the underlying foreign license though.