ICAO to TC and advice to a foreigner

[afterburner1n60]

Hello!

This is my first topic here after many months only reading the forum.
I hold an ICAO commercial license with IFR/multi engine/CFI and C525 rating (+- 1300 TT).

I'll briefly describe my situation and, unless you want, I'm not gonna dive into negative explanations. Basically my background is over 10 years in corporate aviation and I gave up aviation in my country due to many reasons.
The last company that I worked sold the plane 2 years ago and fired me, then I decided to start a plan B, so now I'm here in Canada studying software development.

As you may know the tech industry is going through massive layoffs and right now the market is incredibly tight to join, specially for fresh developers.
Thinking of that, I was wondering if took the wrong path or if I missed the right timing...

I've been to a career fair here in Calgary which had many aviation companies and I had the chance to talk to their representatives. All of them encouraged me to get TC license and apply. Only one company required citizenship.

I'll be graduating in May and will be eligible for a work permit (3 years), and I'm considering the license conversion.

I would like to know from you guys. 35 years, foreigner, and only 1300 TT, rusty for 2 years... How bad/good is my profile?

Yeah I know I should have at least double the hours I have but I spent precious time flying for companies/bosses that didn't want to pay for my initial training to start logging hours. But at the same time, I had a job - while almost all of my friends were not flying and were driving Ubers instead.

I feel I'm not gonna land any job in the tech field and maybe coming back to aviation is a better choice.

Btw, is anyone familiar with ICAO to TC conversion?

Thanks!

[ruffdeezy]

Best to get the medical done and then talk to a flight school about your situation. They will help you get ready for the flight test, written test etc. Once you have the licence you are probably not too far off from getting an ATPL based on total time. If it is something you loved to do before there is no better time than right now to get that going again.

[Beefitarian]

Isn’t a Canadian CPL an ICAO commercial license?

[ruffdeezy]

it is

[prop2jet]

You can call Transport Canada Licencing and they will confirm requirements for a transfer. An ICAO licence is as far as I know a straight transfer. You pay the applicable fee. You will also need to get a TC medical done. The rest falls under recency requirements and that is probably where the flying school will come in.

[afterburner1n60]

Best to get the medical done and then talk to a flight school about your situation. They will help you get ready for the flight test, written test etc. Once you have the licence you are probably not too far off from getting an ATPL based on total time. If it is something you loved to do before there is no better time than right now to get that going again.

Thanks for your tips!
When you say "no better time than right now", do you mean the pilot shortage is real?
Or is it a shortage of high skilled and experienced professionals?

[afterburner1n60]

You can call Transport Canada Licencing and they will confirm requirements for a transfer. An ICAO licence is as far as I know a straight transfer. You pay the applicable fee. You will also need to get a TC medical done. The rest falls under recency requirements and that is probably where the flying school will come in.

I'll call them. As far as I understood, I must go through all the exams and tests, proficiency and checkride. I honestly don't know what a straight conversion would be.

[StrayPilot]

I haven't gotten my conversion started but I plan to do so before end of this year as I'm landing in Canada as a PR. As per my research with TC and a flight school, the conversion is quite straightforward.
1) Complete your Cat 1 Medical (takes the longest time nowadays I've heard. I did it outside Canada though so it was issued within a month)
2) Finish your CPAER and INRAT exams with TC (you can study on your own or enrol for an online ground school, many options in Canada)
3) Enroll in a flight school to get proficient in the flying. You'll need to do two checkrides, one for CPL and one for IR issuance. How much practice you'll take to be endorsed for a checkride would depend on how much skills you have retained from the long gap.

As long as you have a certified that logbook meets all the requirements of TC CAR for CPL/IR issuance, you could be issued the license.

Again, I haven't really gotten the process started myself but various sources say the same thing about the conversion process so it seems quite straightforward. TC conversion seems to be more of a straightforward process compared to most countries I know.

[ruffdeezy]

Thanks for your tips!
When you say "no better time than right now", do you mean the pilot shortage is real?
Or is it a shortage of high skilled and experienced professionals?

just saying if it is something you wanna do just get it started

you will have to pass the exam, flight test, and they will confirm you meet the training requirements from your logbook already which is pretty clear based on the time you have then it is pretty much a straight transfer

[nicklee3272]

The hardest excercise for foreign conversion candidates is navigation, in my opinion. You do not know the area and depending on what your training was in your original country, dead reckoning and map reading skills could be lacking. Flying commercially and flying to flight test standards in a training environment can be different. Don't expect to have your conversion done in 5 hrs.

[JoshCooper]

I'm currently in the stage of converting my ICAO CPL to a TC one. Just finishing up the flying and then flight test. As laid out above, Class 1 Medical is the first thing to get as you need it to write the exam. Regarding the CPAER exam, it is pretty straight forward. 100 questions divided up into the different subjects. Depending on what country you come from you will find it relatively easy. Then its about learning to fly here in terms of procedures and navigation. I have done just under 5 hrs and am feeling pretty comfortable. Feel free too ask any questions!

[SkyCLR22]

I'm currently in the stage of converting my ICAO CPL to a TC one. Just finishing up the flying and then flight test. As laid out above, Class 1 Medical is the first thing to get as you need it to write the exam. Regarding the CPAER exam, it is pretty straight forward. 100 questions divided up into the different subjects. Depending on what country you come from you will find it relatively easy. Then its about learning to fly here in terms of procedures and navigation. I have done just under 5 hrs and am feeling pretty comfortable. Feel free too ask any questions!

Hi Josh can you pm me, I am looking into potentially going through the process of converting ICAO to TC. I need some information based on your experience, I would appreciate it. Thank you.