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Help. Obtaining a UK Gliding License on the basis of my AmericanLicense



 
 
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  #1  
Old July 8th 09, 03:26 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Papa3
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Posts: 444
Default Help. Obtaining a UK Gliding License on the basis of my AmericanLicense

Any of you folks from across the Pond care to help out?

I'm finding myself spending more time in the UK lately, including
weekends. I've flown with a number of different gliding clubs and
thoroughly enjoyed myself... so much so that I'm looking in to what it
would take to obtain a UK Gliding License. I contacted the BGA, but
I was basically told to poke around the BGA Website to find the
forms. Well, after 15 mintues of rooting around trying to figure out
what applies and what doesn't in my situation, I've given up.

Can anyone simplify this for me? Can I simply convert my US ratings
(commercial glider with flight instructor, 2,000 hours, 1,000K
diplome, etc.) to a UK license or do I need to start from scratch?

Any help appreciated.

Erik Mann (LS8-18 P3)
  #2  
Old July 8th 09, 04:33 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Chris Reed[_2_]
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Posts: 56
Default Help. Obtaining a UK Gliding License on the basis of my AmericanLicense

Erik,

We don't have a licensing system, thus your problem.

We did invent something with the licence label, but it was just to
satisfy (from memory) the French authorities. It's issued by the BGA,
and doesn't meet the formal requirements of the various aviation treaties.

Licensing will be introduced in the next few years, but no-one knows
whether that will change the current system. You already know what that
is, but for other potential visitors it's quite simple:

a. Turn up at gliding club.

b. Talk to instructor, show log book, possibly show gliding
certificates, show copy of your medical (for UK pilots, this is just a
general practitioner doctor's certification that you are fit to drive a
small truck).

c. Undertake whatever check flights the club requires (usually at least
one launch if you want to fly the club's gliders).

d. Go fly on your own.

Your biggest complication might be the medical. If you have a US PPL,
then your medical should be fine. I believe that for a US glider pilot
licence you have general practitioner doctor's certification as well, so
ideally someone at the BGA would be prepared to endorse this as
equivalent to the UK certification.


Papa3 wrote:
Any of you folks from across the Pond care to help out?

I'm finding myself spending more time in the UK lately, including
weekends. I've flown with a number of different gliding clubs and
thoroughly enjoyed myself... so much so that I'm looking in to what it
would take to obtain a UK Gliding License. I contacted the BGA, but
I was basically told to poke around the BGA Website to find the
forms. Well, after 15 mintues of rooting around trying to figure out
what applies and what doesn't in my situation, I've given up.

Can anyone simplify this for me? Can I simply convert my US ratings
(commercial glider with flight instructor, 2,000 hours, 1,000K
diplome, etc.) to a UK license or do I need to start from scratch?

Any help appreciated.

Erik Mann (LS8-18 P3)

  #3  
Old July 8th 09, 07:45 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Paul Jessop[_2_]
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Posts: 8
Default Help. Obtaining a UK Gliding License on the basis of my American License

Erik,

I normally end up explaining the opposite procedures (UK pilots wanting to
fly in the US). I fly at Bicester UK and in the DC area of the USA under
similar circumstances.

Here's the information at the BGA web site:

http://www.gliding.co.uk/forms/gliderlicencenotes.pdf

and

http://www.gliding.co.uk/forms/gliderlicence.pdf

You're clearly eligible for one (as you have an ICAO compliant glider
licence/license/certificate and I assume you have 5h PIC in the last year)
but as Chris points out it won't do you much good.

You should check carefully on the medical situation. Clearly there is no
requirement to hold a medical certificate at all under the FARs to fly
gliders. The BGA self regulatory (i.e. sensible and therefore about to be
abolished in the name of European harmonisation) regime requires you to
declare that you are fit to the standard required to drive a car (or to
drive professionally if an instructor) and get a family doctor to sign off
that there is nothing in your medical records that says otherwise (to make
sure you are being honest).

I'm not sure that the BGA will accept a US family doctor's endorsement
and a doctor here won't have access to your medical records to be able to
make the endorsement. So my recommendation would be to bite the bullet and
get a European ("JAA") medical certificate. If you have an FAA medical
certificate if ought to be possible to have it validated but I don't know
how to do this. I just got my medical examiner to do both at the same time
and he charged a nominal amount for the second one.

Stop press: I just checked the BGA's "Laws and Rules" and it says "For
short term visitors to the UK, a medical certificate valid for gliding in
their own country is acceptable, but these other certificates are not
acceptable for permanent UK residents" so getting an FAA medical might be
more useful. You should look at this download anyway:

http://www.gliding.co.uk/forms/lawsandrules.pdf

If you want to instruct in the UK, that's in principle possible too. Your
club may thank you for jumping through the hoops. See the bottom of the
page at

http://www.gliding.co.uk/bgainfo/ins...quirements.htm

There are differences to learn. We fly a circuit not a pattern, glider
bits are held on with split pins not cotter pins, you'll get a kicking
from the Chief Flying Instructor if you pick up a wing drop at the stall
with opposite rudder and we fly this really sensible diagonal leg from
downwind to base that will scare most airport-trained US pilots senseless
(but is actually recommended by the US Soaring Safety Foundation which I
suspect of being infiltrated by BGA types). If you want to know more about
this, contact me off list and I'll also explain why I *still* haven't
converted my CFI(G) to a BGA instructor rating.

Have fun and fly safely.

Paul

Paul Jessop
pjessop at theiet dot org




At 15:33 08 July 2009, Chris Reed wrote:
Erik,

We don't have a licensing system, thus your problem.

We did invent something with the licence label, but it was just to
satisfy (from memory) the French authorities. It's issued by the BGA,
and doesn't meet the formal requirements of the various aviation

treaties.

Licensing will be introduced in the next few years, but no-one knows
whether that will change the current system. You already know what that
is, but for other potential visitors it's quite simple:

a. Turn up at gliding club.

b. Talk to instructor, show log book, possibly show gliding
certificates, show copy of your medical (for UK pilots, this is just a
general practitioner doctor's certification that you are fit to drive a


small truck).

c. Undertake whatever check flights the club requires (usually at least
one launch if you want to fly the club's gliders).

d. Go fly on your own.

Your biggest complication might be the medical. If you have a US PPL,
then your medical should be fine. I believe that for a US glider pilot
licence you have general practitioner doctor's certification as well, so


ideally someone at the BGA would be prepared to endorse this as
equivalent to the UK certification.


Papa3 wrote:
Any of you folks from across the Pond care to help out?

I'm finding myself spending more time in the UK lately, including
weekends. I've flown with a number of different gliding clubs and
thoroughly enjoyed myself... so much so that I'm looking in to what

it
would take to obtain a UK Gliding License. I contacted the BGA, but
I was basically told to poke around the BGA Website to find the
forms. Well, after 15 mintues of rooting around trying to figure out
what applies and what doesn't in my situation, I've given up.

Can anyone simplify this for me? Can I simply convert my US ratings
(commercial glider with flight instructor, 2,000 hours, 1,000K
diplome, etc.) to a UK license or do I need to start from scratch?

Any help appreciated.

Erik Mann (LS8-18 P3)


  #4  
Old July 8th 09, 10:01 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Chris Reed[_2_]
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Posts: 56
Default Help. Obtaining a UK Gliding License on the basis of my AmericanLicense

Paul Jessop wrote:
... we fly this really sensible diagonal leg from
downwind to base that will scare most airport-trained US pilots senseless


I remember that the other way round - flying in the US soon after I went
solo in the UK and hearing the cries of alarm from the back seat as I
cut off the nice square corner of the circuit at *exactly* 45 degrees
(as I said, I'd only just gone solo).

We have one or two other tricks up our sleeve for foreigners - for
example, we turn left off aerotow not right.

For a US visitor I'd suggest talking the UK instructor through your
flight before launching would be a good idea, so as to identify these
cultural differences before takeoff. As another example, Houston (where
I flew in the US) began all circuits at 1000ft agl over a particular
ground feature. At my UK flatland club we'd still be scratching at that
height and start the circuit around 700ft from an appropriate point,
maybe joining the circuit half way down the downwind leg. Fortunately
I'd been briefed on that beforehand, otherwise I'd not have got as far
as introducing Houston to the British diagonal. Clubs based in the hills
have modified circuit procedures to deal with curlover in particular
wind directions, but they tend to brief on those anyway because UK
flatlanders like me would otherwise get into trouble.
  #5  
Old July 9th 09, 01:43 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Papa3
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 444
Default Help. Obtaining a UK Gliding License on the basis of my AmericanLicense

On Jul 8, 5:01*pm, Chris Reed wrote:
Paul Jessop wrote:
... we fly this really sensible diagonal leg from
downwind to base that will scare most airport-trained US pilots senseless


I remember that the other way round - flying in the US soon after I went
solo in the UK and hearing the cries of alarm from the back seat as I
cut off the nice square corner of the circuit at *exactly* 45 degrees
(as I said, I'd only just gone solo).

We have one or two other tricks up our sleeve for foreigners - for
example, we turn left off aerotow not right.

For a US visitor I'd suggest talking the UK instructor through your
flight before launching would be a good idea, so as to identify these
cultural differences before takeoff. As another example, Houston (where
I flew in the US) began all circuits at 1000ft agl over a particular
ground feature. At my UK flatland club we'd still be scratching at that
height and start the circuit around 700ft from an appropriate point,
maybe joining the circuit half way down the downwind leg. Fortunately
I'd been briefed on that beforehand, otherwise I'd not have got as far
as introducing Houston to the British diagonal. Clubs based in the hills
* have modified circuit procedures to deal with curlover in particular
wind directions, but they tend to brief on those anyway because UK
flatlanders like me would otherwise get into trouble.


Grin :-) I've now flown a bit in Germany, Sweden, Austria, and the
UK. Everybody has their own local customs, but at the end of the day
we all figure out how to get the ship down in one big piece.
  #6  
Old July 8th 09, 11:03 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Andy[_1_]
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Posts: 1,565
Default Help. Obtaining a UK Gliding License on the basis of my AmericanLicense

On Jul 8, 11:45*am, Paul Jessop wrote:

Here's the information at the BGA web site:


http://www.gliding.co.uk/forms/gliderlicencenotes.pdf



that ref includes the following:

"VALIDITY
This licence is only valid if the holder has completed 5 hours P1 in
gliders during the previous 12 months. In order to maintain validity
the holder must complete 5 hours P1 every twelve months and have this
recorded in a log book by an authorised instructor."

Do solo UK pilots really have to have their log entries endorsed by an
authorized instructor? In US no instructor, or any other person, is
required to approve a licenced pilot's P1 log entries. In fact I
don't even maintain a paper gliding log book anymore. All my flights
are logged in a computer database and can be substantiated by logger
files.

I returned to UK in 1982 after getting a US licence and within a few
weeks I was towing and intructing at my local UK club. I was approved
as an assistant instructor based on my FAA instructor certificate and
had started training for full cat when I got tired of watching the
rain and fled back to US. It may have been easier because I was a
Brit, but it sounds like it would be harder to do that now.

Andy
  #7  
Old July 8th 09, 11:19 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Andy[_1_]
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Posts: 1,565
Default Help. Obtaining a UK Gliding License on the basis of my AmericanLicense

On Jul 8, 11:45*am, Paul Jessop wrote:
You're clearly eligible for one (as you have an ICAO compliant glider
licence/license/certificate and I assume you have 5h PIC in the last year)


There may be a small catch here. It is my understanding that most US
pilot certificates are not ICAO compliant since they do not include
the statement that the pilot is proficient in English. New
certificates include the endorsement.

"Background: Effective March 5, 2008, ICAO Annex 1 (Personnel
Licensing) standards require that all private, commercial or ATPs as
well as FEs and flight navigators operating internationally as
required crewmembers of an airplane or helicopter have an airman
certificate with an endorsement of language proficiency. In the case
of persons holding a U.S. airman certificate, the language proficiency
endorsement will state “English Proficient”

So Papa3 you may need to get a new FAA certificate before you try to
use it as a basis for getting a BGA certificate.

Andy
  #8  
Old July 9th 09, 12:30 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Don Johnstone[_4_]
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Posts: 398
Default Help. Obtaining a UK Gliding License on the basis of my American License

The law governing the solo flying of gliders in the UK is very simple, you
have to be over 16 to do it. That is it, that is all the law says.

The BGA rules have been correctly stated but from a legal point of view
you do not need a licence, certificate or indeed medical. I would stongly
recommend flying from a BGA site but there are locations where gliders are
flown outside the BGA and those are not bound by the BGA rules.

The BGA rules on medicals are that if your health enables you to hold a
current driving licence then you can fly solo. If you wish to instruct
then you need to fit the requirements to drive a lorry, medical
requirements that is.

The BGA rules say that your medical practitioner must sign the relevant
form which can be downloaded from the BGA website, nowhere does it say
that your medical practitioner has to be in the UK so get the form signed
by your doctor in the US and that complies with the rules. I have little
doubt that some jobsworth will try and find a reason why it is not
acceptable but it does comply with the stated rules.

To get to real basics you have to find someone who is prepared to let you
fly their glider to fly solo.
To instruct, well, you have to find someone who is prepared to let you
instruct in their glider.
The medical requirements for the above, you are expected to be able to
walk to and from the glider unaided, at the appropriate times but that is
not absolutely essential.
  #9  
Old July 9th 09, 08:37 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Surfer!
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Posts: 81
Default Help. Obtaining a UK Gliding License on the basis of my American License

In message , Don Johnstone
writes
snip
The medical requirements for the above, you are expected to be able to
walk to and from the glider unaided, at the appropriate times but that is
not absolutely essential.


It's not needed at all - there is at least one paraplegic instructor in
the UK and a number of Bronze badge holders.

--
Surfer!
Email to: ramwater at uk2 dot net
  #10  
Old July 9th 09, 02:00 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Jim Beckman[_2_]
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Posts: 186
Default Help. Obtaining a UK Gliding License on the basis of my American License

At 23:30 08 July 2009, Don Johnstone wrote:
The law governing the solo flying of gliders in the UK is very simple,

you
have to be over 16 to do it. That is it, that is all the law says.


That's an interesting point. Does the BGA enforce that rule? My point
being that in the US you can solo on your 14th birthday. A certain number
of pilots do that every year.

Jim Beckman

 




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