Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
#1613284
Says on their website service standard is 4 weeks but not currently meeting it due to demand.

Same issue on permits-to-fly as far as I can tell. Even the service standard seems to have changed from 5 days to 15 days to 20 days (working days that is). Of course that is *before* they request a surveyor appointment be scheduled (instead of doing the sensible thing and booking it at start of process).

On permits apparently the LBA (the efficient Germans) are no better. (I checked) Dunno about pilot license issue though.

Omnishambles? Or have all the experienced staff simply upped sticks to a blessed retirement or an EASA pay cheque?

I wouldn't mind but I thought the red-tape challenge made their jobs easier. Risk based regulation under part-NCO should mean that not every dot and comma needs to be checked.

Hmm...no vacancies on their website. My bet is they've had a budget squeeze on the GA unit.
#1613301
Flintstone wrote:Oh, and I forgot to mention that his application was threatened with going back to the bottom of the pile because a document had been scanned in a format they said they were unable to read.

:roll:


They told me that they couldn't read the document format, but they could only have got the details to contact me from that document. By the time I got it in a format they were happy with, it was on the wrong form because there had been three updates since my first submission.
#1613303
My NPPL to LAPL took three weeks, but that was almost two years ago before the current flood of applications...hundreds(?) of GSTs passed this spring, hundreds(?) of last minute EASA conversion applications, all on top of the usual CPL and higher stuff.

I guess there's only so much that the small number of people in the license office can do, and I reckon the incessant enquiries demanding answers also eat into their limited office resources, perhaps also putting a damper on their motivation.

It would certainly demotivate me if every day I had to hear from entitled moaners how useless I was at my job. "Stop moaning and let us got on with it" would be my response to demanding calls.
#1613330
FlarePath wrote:Maybe the highly paid upper echelons of the CAA could ask the heads of the passport office, & the DVLA, how they manage to process hundreds of thousands of forms/fees in far quicker times, but the CAA can't manage a few hundred? :evil:


That is a good example of efficiency that the CAA could learn from. In fact earlier this year I renewed my UK passport in 3 hours, fill in the forms, book the interview time to suit online, arrive at passport office waited 10 minutes for the interview which took 5 minutes, went away for breakfast and coffee returning at the allotted time for passport collection was in the building 10 more minutes before leaving with a new passport :D
By Oldfart
#1614107
Its not just GA having problems. An Airline mate finished hie Type rating Course 2 weeks ago still waiting for issue. His employer looking at legal recourse due his enforced lack of employability after a mega bucks conversion course.
#1614119
So how would I stand?
Old PPL, have to do a medical, and a flight test and renew my PPL with a change of address.
My plan would be to do this in the next week or two.

Then while I wait I could go to BC and fly fly fly, earn a few bob teaching, some chaps have bought a Volmer there and need their Seaplane ratings, then there’s a load of tailwheel training to do.
So I could survive the time while my PPL is renewed, and the EASA licence applied for...
User avatar
By Ben K
#1614136
Oldfart wrote:Its not just GA having problems. An Airline mate finished hie Type rating Course 2 weeks ago still waiting for issue. His employer looking at legal recourse due his enforced lack of employability after a mega bucks conversion course.


Why wasn't he issued with a Temporary License Certificate (SRG1100, i think)? He could have quite happily flown on that for up to 8 weeks post test, for a type rating.
#1614198
I sent my NPPL to LAPL application in at the end of February and got it back in 3 weeks in spite of forgetting to sign it. They sent an email with the offending page attached, I printed it, signed it scanned it and sent it back, both by e and snail mail.

The initial application was sent in using paper copies, not the on-line system.

They issued a concession allowing people to continue to fly on their NPPLs for a couple of months so that looks like how long they reckoned the delay would be. Wonder if they will extend it.
#1614224
Yes, well, on the subject of DVLA, remember why the driving licence now runs to age 70 when it used to need to be renewed every three years? - because it was computerised and the computer system couldn't cope with issuing a driving licence to everybody every three years, which the manual system had been perfectly capable of (I know, I worked in a driving licence office as a summer job as a schoolboy).

:scratch: in 51 years driving I can recall going from a typewritten cardboard licence, to a piece of green paper, to a plastic photo job.
I can’t ever remember renewing every three years?