low&slow wrote:From the pilot's perspective there is little practical difference between an FAA flight review & an EASA proficiency check flight.
Sorry low&slow but there is a massive difference between the FAA BFR and the EASA PC. As Bathman stated in the first post a significant number pilots dont understand the regulations. Its no wonder, instructors and examiners are not fully aware of the regulations and even the CAA is a clear as mud. The FAA system is simple and reasonably clear.
http://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/medi ... 61-98B.pdf“The CFI must be aware that the flight review is not a test or check ride, but an instructional service designed to assess and enhance a pilot’s knowledge and skills. “
“The FAA does not intend the flight review to be a check ride. If the review is not satisfactory, the CFI should log the flight as “dual instruction given” and not as a “failure.” The CFI should then recommend additional training in the areas of the review that were unsatisfactory.”
“A pilot who does not receive an endorsement for a satisfactory flight review may continue to exercise the privileges of his or her certificate.”{so long as it is less than 24 months since last successful review}
A checkride or wings module can replace the BFR requirement
EASA PC
CAP 804 states the following:
“within the 3 months preceding the expiry date of the rating, pass a proficiency check in the relevant class ... with an examiner”
The CAA Web Site has very ambiguous wording:
http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid ... geid=15220“passing a proficiency check with an examiner up to three months before the rating expires.”
Irv Lee on his website (
http://www.higherplane.co.uk/faq.html) is far more informative
“You can actually do this one flight (the proficiency check with an examiner) at any time, but if it is not in the final 3 months before expiry, your rating will be renewed from the date of test, not the date of original expiry. ”
Irv also highlights the big caveat
“One thing to note is that if you abandon the 12 hour route to take this test and FAIL, you cannot fly again as pilot in command until you have passed a re-test, so the 12 hour route effectively disappears if you take the test and fail.”
The huge elephant in the room however is that is you fail to get the revalidated before your validity expires you now have to go to an ATO for training and when they deem you ready, undertake a GST.
Why is the GA community dependent on good graces of Irv, Cookie and others like them on this forum to keep them informed of the correct procedures when the regulator, with hundreds of staff, seems incapable of doing so? The current system has failed. JAA/EASA tried to reinvent the wheel and after a thousand committee meetings come up with an octagon.
What chance does the average GA pilot have with such complex regulations ? You need to a lawyer, computer programmer or both to make sense of them.