French licensing requirements

Most UK and French flying club students study for the Private Pilot's Licence issued in accordance with the Joint Aviation Requirements (JAR) of the Joint Aviation Authority (JAA).

Essentially, the privileges of a JAR licence may be exercised in any JAA country which basically covers the whole of Europe.

The aircraft flown must also be registered in a JAA country.

In practise, JAR licences are granted by national authorities such as the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in Britain and the Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile (DGAC) in France. 

Some specific UK-only qualifications, such as the IMC rating, may be included with a UK-issued JAR licence but are invalid outside of the UK.

The privileges of the recently-introduced NPPL (National Private Pilot's Licence) are also restricted to the UK.

Pre-JAR UK PPL Licences

These older UK PPLs are still valid for flying UK-registered aircraft in various foreign (ICAO) countries and there is no pressing reason for conversion to JAR unless you want to fly a foreign-registered aircraft.

All medical and licence-currency requirements are the same although the JAR licence allows the various certificates to be signed-off by foreign JAR medical and flight examiners (UK licence = UK examiner). 

In practise, the French authorities will allow a UK PPL(A) licence holder to fly a French registered aircraft (VFR, day only) though it took me some time to obtain a clear ruling on this from a senior DGAC official.

The only difficulty arises when you want to fly the French-registered aircraft to the UK or elsewhere in Europe

For that, you need a JAR licence.

Fortunately, conversion of a UK licence to JAR is not too difficult though it does involve shelling-out £164 for a licence which needs to be renewed 5-yearly at a cost of £65 (2007 prices).

The basic requirements for conversion of a 'current' UK PPL(A) are:

1. A minimum 75 hours flying experience on aeroplanes—demonstrated by submitting logbooks to the CAA
2. Demonstrate the use of radionavigation aids to the satisfaction of a Chief Flying Instructor—certified in logbook
3. Demonstrate knowledge of the relevant JAA requirements—this is done by self-certification
4. Demonstrate a knowledge of English—this seems to be taken 'as read' by the CAA
5. Hold a valid JAR-FCL medical certificate—for some reason, the CAA won't issue a JAR licence unless the medical is current and registered on their computer system so it is best to wait a few days after the medical before rushing down to Gatwick to sample their excellent 'over the counter' service
6. Pay £164 and smile 

In the interests of accuracy, please check the CAA web site here for the current official statement of requirements and an application form. 

Fédération Française Aéronautique (FFA)

The FFA is a sort of French AOPA and is mandatory for French aero-club members as well as other regular private flyers.

The annual fee (€61 for 2008) is normally collected with aero-club membership though members of muliple clubs pay only once.   

Benefits include €10,000 accident insurance cover and the membership number is also used for accessing the on-line French Meteorological service.   

Comments

[David]

I found your blog surfing around - I'm hoping you may be able to offer some advice.

My wife and I are planning to move permanently to the Franche-Comté region during 2009. I am a flyer, and would like to change my "issuing authority" from the CAA to their french equivalent, so as to benefit from not having to return to the UK all the time for revalidations and medicals etc, and of course I am hoping the medical requirements will be a little more relaxed. (I am mid 50's). I realise of course that my IMC is not valid in France, and that there are differences of operation during the hours of darkness, but I do intend to keep flying for pleasure.

Can you shed any light on the best way to start the process, and how long it is likely to take ? I should think the local strips are likely to be La Thize or Veze if I have remembered the names correctly, both on the edge of Besançon. Also any tips on gotchas that might apply having made this change if then I want to visit back in the UK would be most welcome.

The issue of hire is probably too large ask you about in this context, but any guidance or contacts for aircraft hire, cost comparisons with the UK etc would be most welcome.

[Les King]

I know, from having asked all of the same questions myself, that one advantage of converting my old UK licence to a JAR version was that medicals and revalidations may be done by medical and flying examiners from any JAR country.

This was advised directly by the Civil Aviation Authority Personnel Licensing Department who may be contacted on +44(0)1293 567171.

As it happens, I still live in London and was not really concerned with the medical issue—I mainly converted to JAR in order to fly French-registered aircraft outside of France.

If the CAA's advice is correct, I can’t really see any pressing reason to change the licence issuing authority though it seems sensible to check with the relevant authorities on both sides of the water.

As to the 'flying costs' question, both aircraft-hire and subsididary costs such as landing charges are considerably cheaper in France—the recent 'Flying Prices' post on this blog seems to indicate flying costs equivalent to about 60% of UK charges.