JAA Conversion
If you hold FAA or other ICAO foreign licenses and wish to work as a pilot within the European Union (EU) or other JAA member countries it is essential that you hold a JAA ATPL “Frozen”.
The theory
There is really only one way to achieve this – you have to sit the fourteen written exams for the JAA ATPL theory. Some exceptions do apply to this rule and I shall address them later.
The first thing you need to do is find a flight school offering the ATPL ground school courses (see the links at the bottom). Just be aware that some schools may only let you do a distance learning course if you are a conversion student. If you want to do in-house training it can therefore be smart to shop around a bit. Note that there exist exam centers in USA (Orlando, FL) and Australia too – so there is no need to go all the way to Europe to sit the exams.
High time pilots and exceptions
The major exception to the fourteen exams is that all JAA countries stand free to validate any other ICAO license they wish. However your JAA ATPL is then considered a national license and is only valid for the country where it was validated. Companies like Ryanair are known for this practice to bring experience pilots from outside JAA to work as captains on their B737 fleet.
The flying part of your conversion
Ones you have sat (and passed) all the fourteen exams you are ready for the flight portion of the conversion. The requirements to convert are a minimum of 250 hours total time and a long cross country of at least 300 NM. As a FAA commercial pilot this should not post a problem at all.
For the commercial conversion the regulations only state “training as required”. This means it’s up to your instructor to determine if you are ready for the JAA CPL check ride or not. A little tips here is that the CPL practical test standards for the JAA are relatively low compared to FAA and can almost be compared to that of the FAA private pilot level. Nevertheless expect to fly about 5 hours plus your check ride for the JAA CPL. This part of the conversion can also be completed outside Europe and there are a few schools in USA, Australia and Canada that offer this already.
The instrument rating can not be converted outside Europe and consist of minimum fifteen hours of flight training. For many students this therefore become the most expensive part of the conversion flying. Expect to pay between 3000 and 5000 pounds just for the instrument rating.
Ones you have completed the instrument check ride there is one last thing you need to spend money on before you send out your resume to the airlines. Almost without an exception the airlines require that you have an MCC course as a bare minimum.
Multi-Crew Coordination Course (MCC)
The MCC course is a two week course preparing you to work in a multi crew environment. The courses are normally done in complex simulators and the price often represent the aircraft you wish to do it in (ex. a Beech 200 may be cheaper then a B737). The large schools and many sim-centers offer these courses and the prices vary from 2000 to 5000 pounds.
MCC is the equivalent to LOFT (Line Orientated Flight Training) in USA, but unlike the US an MCC course is a minimum requirement with all airlines in Europe. The one exception to this rule is if you already have over 500 hours total time in a JAR 25 approved multi crew environment. Just be careful here because JAR does not recognize single pilot airplanes flown in a multi crew environment as being multi crew time (this also goes for the SIC time in your logbook). An example of this is a single pilot airplane like the Beech King Air flown with two pilots because of insurance requirements. Under FAA this would be valid SIC time for the copilot – under JAA it is not as the airplane is not considered to require a multi-crew.
A few JAA Ground Schools
Cabair - UK
Helicopter Adventures - Florida, USA
Oxford Aviation Training
Bristol Ground School - UK
Naples Air Center - Florida, USA
Conversion programs outside Europe
UK Flight Training - California and Pennsylvania, USA
Orlando Flight Training - Florida, USA
Western Australian Aviation College
Naples Air Center - Florida, USA
Helicopter Adventures - Florida, USA
Find a flight school to train with today.
Good luck!
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TRAINING ARTICLES
• Pilot Sample Cover Letter
• Pilot Sample Resume
• How to Become a Pilot (USA)
• How to Become a Pilot (Europe/UK)
• JAA Conversion
• JAA ATPL Groundschool
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• Caution: Celebrity Onboard
• A Day in the Life of a Flight Attendant
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