keyboarddude101

Hi guys,

I wanted some advise please here it goes;

I am 19 guys old living in London, United Kingdom studying in University 1 year. After I graduate I want to be an airline pilot. As United Kingdom Airline Training is very expensive I am planning to come to United States California Orange County for my training.

My questions:
1. Once i get my license from FAA, Will i be allowed to fly for US Airlines, * Please note; I am not a US Citizenship or hold a Green Card but i am a British Citizen
2. If i get my license from US FAA how long will it take me to convert it into a European JAA ATP, and how do i do that?

Thanks

Faraz

acebaxter

You should have better luck getting a visa to work in the States than a U.S. citizen will have getting one in the UK.

BALPA has veto power in the UK on work permits. They told me they would fight it all the way. At least Alpa stays out of the visa department.

Go figure.

Jim

keyboarddude101

acebaxter mate so should i go for it then.

XR270

To convert a FAA CPL/IR/ME to a JAA fATPL you need to:

Attend an aproved groundschool course and pass all 14 ATPL exams (budget 6 months of full time study for this)
Pass a JAA CPL checkride
Complete a cut down JAA IR (must be done in europe) inculding a min of 15hrs flying (or which up to 10 may be in an approved simulator) and an IR skills test.

If you hold over 500 hours multi crew time and are typerated on a multi crew aircraft when you come to convert you still need to take the 14 exams but can forgo attending an approved course first. You can also in this case covert the CPL/IR together by taking a skills test on the aircraft you are typed in.

There are also other options for those with much higher MPA times as well.

I am a UK national and from what I understand most airlines would be unwilling to give you a job without at least a green card, and there are few ways to obtain one for a pilot without having family in the US. Remember that British Nationals are not eligible for the green card lottery. However if acebaxer has any ideas about how it may be possible I would be very interested as well.

Even though the conversion is difficult I would still recomend getting your FAA tickets and converting later: Flying is so much cheaper in the US, Most airports are very GA friendly and flying is so much more of a pleasure than in Europe. FAA licences never expire either so are always good to have and having studied both systems I can say that FAA regs are usually much more logical and less bueaucratic than under the JAA system.

Good luck with it anyway

acebaxter

As to getting a work permit I have no idea. You would need to do some research on that one. There is an airline in the States that used to require english as a second language for their requirements. That would leave me to believe it is possible.

For the ratings, if it were me, I would look for a school that would get you both of them at the same time. If there is not one out there I would be surprised. I've got both, started with the FAA and when my job went away I came to Europe and acquired the JAA ATPL. My situation was different because I have over 14,000 hours and 6500 on the type I was using for the conversion.

For the FAA the written tests were simple and the oral exams were the challenge. It's just the opposite for the JAA. The 14 exams were a pain in the rear, basically everything I forgot from college 24 years ago, and almost no oral exam.

No matter which way you go it will require a lot of legwork on your part. Nothing about this career is easy. Fun, but not easy. This is as good a time as any to see if you are willing and able to put forth the effort to succeed.

Best of luck,

Jim

keyboarddude101

XR270 Man I am really thinking to go to United States for my license thing is man I have studied too much in my life. It was a nightmare for me to get Straight A`s in my final results.

So if you where on my position where would you do your training USA or UK. One more thing man if I get my PPL from UK would I have to pass a new test in USA or will they let me go on the CPL course.

So if you don’t mind man where did you do your training in UK?

privateer01

Without a work permit or a work visa you'll have a tough time finding an Employer in the USA to hire you.

The industry is not great here at the moment as it is.

Thats not to say that a FAA license wouldn't get you hired in some other country.