professional pilot - seaplane training

[lebowsky]

hello everyone, i am just new to this forum.

i hope someone will be able to help:

i am italian with UK JAA PPL(A) license.
could someone suggest me flight schools in Canada that offer CPL/IR/ME training on floats?
is my UK license recognised according to CA CAA regulations?
are, as far as you know, Canadian licenses recognised in EU JAA stases (i.e. Italy)?
anyone with experience on that?

many thanks in advance,greetings from lake Como

[Hedley]

I will let someone else comment on float plane schools ....

is my UK license recognised according to CA CAA regulations?

One way to do this, is

1) do a Canadian medical (costs around cdn$120)

2) write the PSTAR written test at any Canadian Flight School (FTU) - I inviligate these for free.

3) get an Authorized Person to examine your certified logbook and ensure that your flight time meets or exceeds the minimum experience requirements for a Canadian PPL (see CARs) - I do this for free.

4) get one passport photo taken for the Canadian licence booklet (cdn$11)

Then the AP fills out the form and the application for a licence booklet, writes out a cheque for Cdn$55 payable to the Receiver General for Canada, and the package is mailed off to Transport Canada Aviation. A month or two later, you get your Canadian Private Pilot Licence Booklet (including medical certificate) mailed to you.

I have done lots of these. The resulting Canadian PPL is just like everyone else's except that it is annotated "issued on the basis of a foreign licence" which doesn't mean anything to you. You can get ratings and endorsements on it - night, multi, float, instrument - just like everyone else.

Note that you must keep the Canuck medical valid to exercise the privileges of the Canadian PPL.

The only problem with the above is that it takes time. In the long run, it's probably a better way to do it, but ... there are other temporary validations of your foreign ICAO PPL that Transport Canada Aviation can do.

[lebowsky]

thanks!

i guess there aren't Canadian authorized medical center in Europe.
but it's a good starting point.

many thanks

[Hedley]

i guess there aren't Canadian authorized medical center in Europe.

Actually, I would be very surprised if there wasn't a qualified Canadian aviation medical examiner somewhere in all of Europe!

[zed]

I had to look into this already for myself... There are no recognized examiners in Italy, but there are in a number of other countries. Here's the link to track one down for you...

http://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/saf-sec-sur/2/c ... x?lang=eng

http://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/saf-sec-sur/2/c ... x?lang=eng

Hope this helps.

[Hedley]

Good website work! According to that, there are 8 doctors in Germany and 18 doctors in France whom are qualified to do a Canadian aircrew medical.

[lebowsky]

cheers to all mates, really helpful.
i will look over it.
anyone can tell me something about air-hart?

thanks again!

[zed]

If your asking about float ratings, and Air Hart in particular, you can probably find the answer to your question, and probably a few other ones you haven't thought of in the different threads already available on the subject.

I've vetted a few for you that you might want to read through... Cheers and good luck. Float flying is quite an experience, and being a European not something you have a lot of opportunities to do.

viewtopic.php?f=54&t=40137
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=58659
viewtopic.php?f=54&t=34914
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=62978
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=47818
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=43046

[Stevo226]

After your PPL application has been submitted, you can have the AP sign an SPL for you. That will allow you to still fly in the meantime while waiting for approval.

You can only excercise the privliges of a student pilot, however the time you do accumulate will count towards the issuance of a CPL.

We do this all the time after running it by TC extremely thoroughly

[Hedley]

you can have the AP sign an SPL for you

Right - but you still have to do a Canadian medical and write the PSTAR to be issued a Student Pilot Permit (SPP). Then you can fly a C-reg aircraft solo in Canada.

The advantage of an SPP is that you only need a class 4 medical for issuance, which any medical doctor can sign off on - you don't need an aviation medical examiner.

As always, remember that you don't need a medical - or any other qualifications - to receive and log dual flight training.

[Shiny Side Up]

As always, remember that you don't need a medical - or any other qualifications - to receive and log dual flight training.

That being said, if you don't have a current medical your instructor may refuse to give you training. I usually only let PPL and RPP students do a few flights before having their medical in hand (understanding that it can sometimes be tough to get an appointment) or none if I suspect that they may not be able to get one. CPL students are expected to have their medical current.

[Hedley]

What I find fascinating is that to merely write a written (now computer) test, you legally need to have a valid medical.

I have often wondered why this is so. Are they afraid people will have a heart attack and die in the MOT test office? I guess the "optics" of that would be bad.

[Shiny Side Up]

For some reason TC is really afraid that their test secrets might get out. I questioned this once and the reason I was given (and the same reason that they require 10 hours of flight training before you can write as well) is so they don't have professional test writers coming in, just to get their closely guarded bank of questions out there. I'm still not sure why the written test questions are such a national secret, but that's neither here nor there.