Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
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By Dave W
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1695432
It's not a view of the CAA generally, it's a comment on outcomes experienced from FCL on more than one occasion.

To the practical and financial deficit of the applicant who, after all, is paying a significant fee for a service they're not getting.
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By GrahamB
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1695455
flybymike wrote:A refreshingly cynical view of the CAA; truly worthy of a post by Cockney Steve. :wink:

Smiley noted, but hardly fair.

Dave W is quoting a specific set of circumstances in which he is involved, unlike your comparison, which is typically an uninformed rail against supposed 'job creation schemes'.
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By RisePilot
#1695499
• My first interaction with the CAA in 2006 resulting in them making an error (only found on my query to them) for which I slammed my phone down and promptly left my London office to get on a train to CAA’s Gatwick offices to resolve It personally

• In subsequent years, I have had three queries to CAA. None were able to be answered by the person on the phone. I always had to send the query by email after the call. Two queries took 3-4 months for a reply; one took six months. What I do is keep forwarding them back the same mail until they answer the query (i.e. Dear Sir/Madam, Per my three prior mails below in February, March and April...)

• Though every CAA form I have ever filled out has a box to list my email address, I’ve never received anything from the CAA via email unless I repeatedly contacted per my point above.

I have been dealing with the FAA over the same time period. I have never had a problem with the FAA and every interaction has been handled promptly and professionally by them.

This is anecdotal and pertains to my experience with the CAA & FAA. The CAA can stop blaming EASA; they were a disorganised and unprofessional both before and after the creation of EASA. Further, they do not have to “reinvent the wheel” – why not just copy how the FAA do things?
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By flybymike
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1695545
I applied for an update to my FAA licence via the CAA stand at the LAA rally last September.
Having required me to obtain multiple photocopies of documents courtesy of the Aviator hotel, documents they themselves had issued, and notwithstanding the original documents presented to them personally, they took £45 from me to process the application.
Having heard nothing over four months later, and following approximately 12 emails to them via three different personal email addresses, I was finally advised that the FAA would not accept my application because of a fundamental difference in the licence numbers on my original cardboard FAA licence, and my current UK licence. I had been under the naive impression that the whole point of the update was in order to reconcile differing licence numbers, but apparently only small differences, not big ones, count.
The CAA advised that to proceed further I would need to “chase” the FAA to request a licence verification from them, but seemingly to do this I need to pop over to an FSDO office in the States.
After receiving such a request from the FAA, the CAA said they would then need a further £112 from me to process the application, and if I decided to cancel the application instead, then unfortunately a £112 cancellation fee would also apply, meaning I had paid £157 for precisely nothing.
Thus far they have been waiting to hear what I wish to do for several months. I will neither be continuing with the application, nor cancelling it for obvious reasons. I shall just sit here fat dumb and happy and hope the whole horrible business all goes away.
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By defcribed
#1695565
That is truly breathtaking flybymike. I didn't think there was much scope for them to get worse, but clearly they've found a way.

At the start of this year I decided to do some extra training and expand my flying a bit. The choice was between night rating or tailwheel. Notwithstanding the much greater utility of tailwheel (as I now have a share in a tailwheel aircraft), I'm glad I didn't choose to do the night rating because it would have involved sending paperwork (and perhaps my licence?) to the CAA and I just couldn't face getting into that mess.