Use this forum to flag up examples of red tape and gold plate
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By Flyin'Dutch'
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1900339
tr7v8 wrote:
Flyin'Dutch' wrote:Brexit - the gift that keeps on giving......

Or rather than Brexit, and more likely the CAA , AKA the institution that cannot organise getting drunk in a brewery.


Neither the SOLI of my AME work, nor that of licence to different states has, beyond providing some paperwork for the licence - which was not cheap but done efficiently, had anything to do with the CAA but everything Brexit.

And of course none of any of that would have been necessary if the UK had not left EASA or Brexit of course.

Let's keep it real.
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#1900452
Irv Lee wrote:How much approx is an easa class 1 if you already have one?


Last week I did a combined UK CAA and EASA class1, a (2 years old ) renewal for UK, a (not quite lapsed) revalidation for EASA. My AME is dual qualified.

I was charged £430 for the UK class 1, another £125 for the additional EASA paperwork. I'm 51, and that included ECG, Audio, blood, urine and an emailed cardiologist consult over a minor anomaly on the ECG.

G
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By Flyin'Dutch'
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1900468
Genghis the Engineer wrote:
Irv Lee wrote:How much approx is an easa class 1 if you already have one?


Last week I did a combined UK CAA and EASA class1, a (2 years old ) renewal for UK, a (not quite lapsed) revalidation for EASA. My AME is dual qualified.

I was charged £430 for the UK class 1, another £125 for the additional EASA paperwork. I'm 51, and that included ECG, Audio, blood, urine and an emailed cardiologist consult over a minor anomaly on the ECG.

G


It's a free market out there. Clearly.

Was that including VAT or is VAT on top of those?

I charge for an all whistles and bellsUK or EASA Class 1 €245 Euros and a second medical is €100 on top.

To be fair overheads here (in Germany ) are a lot lower than in the UK
#1900660
Flyin'Dutch' wrote:
Genghis the Engineer wrote:
Irv Lee wrote:How much approx is an easa class 1 if you already have one?


Last week I did a combined UK CAA and EASA class1, a (2 years old ) renewal for UK, a (not quite lapsed) revalidation for EASA. My AME is dual qualified.

I was charged £430 for the UK class 1, another £125 for the additional EASA paperwork. I'm 51, and that included ECG, Audio, blood, urine and an emailed cardiologist consult over a minor anomaly on the ECG.

G


It's a free market out there. Clearly.

Was that including VAT or is VAT on top of those?

I charge for an all whistles and bellsUK or EASA Class 1 €245 Euros and a second medical is €100 on top.

To be fair overheads here (in Germany ) are a lot lower than in the UK


Including VAT.

I don't think that my present AME is necessarily the cheapest out there, the AME I previously used was excellent and a little cheaper (but no longer has EASA approvals, hence the switch), but is I think broadly representative of prices in SE England.

I have switched before from somebody I wasn't convinced was actually being adequately rigorous - and most of us have travel options, so the market works on more than just price as well.

G
#1901885
@JonBoy Similar-ish situation. I'd been using a Japanese ATPL and Class 1 but wanted to renew my CAA type rating and, therefore, my CAA ATPL. I think my last CAA Class 1 ran out in 2009.

Of course, it was far too much to expect the CAA to accept another ICAO medical. The Japanese are, after all, known for their really low medical standards :shock: :shock: (I have no idea how I got through each year; they are MUCH more difficult than the UK). The Ministry advised I would have to undergo an Initial Class 1.

Take comfort, if this overweight, bit of hearing loss in the port ear and 'that eyesight chart looks a bit blurry now' 55 year old can pass it then there is hope :D The AME at Heathrow Medical Services did write something like 'Repeat Initial Class 1' on the top of the form and explained this differentiated it from a 'real' initial medical. To be honest, it was just like a regular Class 1. I did have to do the peripheral vision test, which I don't recall doing on UK renewals but the Japanese bring that test to a different level, so it was a relief to just have normal blobs of white, instead of teeny, weeny ones as you look through a lens :roll:

It cost me £570 to bribe the doc to sign the bit of paper and all went okay after that. The people at LHR were very efficient and the doc very pleasant indeed (not just because he passed me either).

Believe it or not, I've found it quite refreshing being back in the UK system. At least you can speak to the doc and not everything is a huge secret, with things written on your notes with no discussion about them.
#1901953
Thanks for the comments everyone! Still “work in progress…” :D

@PaulSS - thanks for your info (& encouragement!). Nice one - and yes, the UK system is not perfect but at least we do know it and it’s foibles…! :D

@F70100 - hey, great to hear from you J! Hope things are good with you! Must meet up sometime, I’ll fly down to you!
F70100 liked this
#1918300
@Irv Lee , I wish to give you a huge Thank You for your comment and suggestion earlier in this thread (months ago). I had reached a dead end in my quest to negotiate the UK Returner’s process to get a Class 1 medical (and ATPL) again.

The CAA wouldn’t accept my latest EASA medical due to a technicality with the AME’s own authority and said the only way was to undergo an initial Class 1 at an AeMC (huge expense and hassle). You suggested doing another EASA renewal with a suitably recognised AME. I checked with the CAA that this would work, getting it in writing from them that it would indeed be OK. So I did just that, a renewal with a dual rated UK/ EASA AME just 4 miles from where I live! The end result being that finally, on Friday my new Class 1 medical certificate arrived in the post. Bingo! So thanks again Irv, you inspired me to continue with the process with this alternative suggestion when I had pretty much thrown in the towel and given up. The renewal was 1/3 the cost of an initial with a tiny fraction of the hassle!

Anyone else who may read this who is struggling with the Returner’s process, there is hope, don’t give up! If you can get all your documentation together and successfully negotiate all the requirements - and there are many - then it should work out. It took me 9 months but is now worth it in the end!
Irv Lee liked this
#1924998
Anyone managed to follow the "alternative recognition" route for converting an EASA medical from here?

All my medical records were sent by the Swiss FOCA's aeromedical section on July 20 and they almost immediately - i.e. within a day or two - appeared in the Cellma documents list online. Someone from CAA even wrote to me that the documents that are in German need to be translated into English by a certified translator. So, on July 25 I sent them the translations, but it's been quiet since then even though I sent them a gentle ping.

I am worried that they wouldn't be able to complete that medical conversion by the beginning of September, which would consequently delay the licence conversion.
#1925009
Irv Lee wrote: Are the swiss medicals not a standard easa/uk format with just Names, Dates and Codes filled in?


It's about the medical records held by the licensing authority, not medical certificates. While all the forms in Switzerland are in English, some of the free-text comments written by the medical assessors are in German.
#1928510
Dlougach wrote:
Irv Lee wrote: Are the swiss medicals not a standard easa/uk format with just Names, Dates and Codes filled in?


It's about the medical records held by the licensing authority, not medical certificates. While all the forms in Switzerland are in English, some of the free-text comments written by the medical assessors are in German.



Maybe @Flyin'Dutch' knows more on how things are now? but in the past they only need to keep and transfer any medical records after SOLI there is no requirement for NAA to even be able to read them, that is an AME job !