Flying to France with an NPPL? An update

[Peter Harvey]

There has been plenty of work in the background on assisting the French authorities to recognise the UK's NPPL (SSEA) for flying in France. It would appear a solution is near. The link on the LAA website explains the latest position.

http://www.lightaircraftassociation.co. ... rance.html

It's not perfect and it's not quite yet a 'done deal', but might provide some further cause for optimism over the mulled wine and mince pies of the New Year celebrations.

Clearly, the European wide Light Aircraft Pilot's Licence (LAPL) will be the best solution, but until that becomes available, this might help a large number of pilots.
Pete Harvey, CEO LAA

[nmarshal]

If this goes ahead as planned, will a UK NPPL be able to fly a French-registered aircraft?

[Simon Clifton]

Peter

This change would definitely help me and lots of people I know, although I am just a flight test away from upgrading NPPL(SSEA) to JAR PPL!

Is my shiny new Class 2 medical I got for the PPL okay for the job?

Could you hazard a guess on when the changes might come into being, and when they do, if there is any extra paperwork to do?

What countries will be included - not just France perhaps?

Thanks

Simon C
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[Brian Hope]

Hi Simon, all we can say at the moment is that CAA and DGAC are on side and have agreed in principle, we just need it 'rubber stamped' so to speak, and the hope is that will be done in plenty of time for the summer. Once France has OK'd it, the plan is to expand the idea through the other EU states - Switzerland had already given NPPL the OK and so has the Channel Islands.
If you're going for JAA SSEA with Class 2 then none of this is relevant, your license will be OK for anywhere in the world you are likely to want to fly.
There will by now be a number of ex JAA and CAA license holders running as NPPL but without an actual NPPL license, I'll have to ask Roger if they are included in the current proposals or whether they would have to get an actual NPPL - purely a paperwork (and money!) exercise.
Once the OK has been given (fingers crossed), we'll need to get a few contacts for doctors who are handy to French airfields and willing to conduct ICAO medicals for Brits at a reasonable price. Anybody with details of such medics might like to contact me and/or the office so we can forward details to members who wish to arrange a medical.

[nmarshal]

The entire list of French AMEs can be found here:

http://www.dgac.fr/html/avia_leg/liste_medecins.htm

[Brian Hope]

Thanks 'n' that's very helpful.

[Donald Walker]

Am I right to assume we can get an ICAO compliant medical from the FAA AMEs in this country?

http://ame.cami.jccbi.gov/search.asp?search=country

Donald

[ChrisS]

Does an FAA medical count as compliant?

I cant pass a JAR medical due to my diabetes, but I can have an FAA one (in process)... so could the FAA medical support the NPPL saving me gettng the FAA PPL

Thanks
Chris

[Cookie]

Chris,

I intend to produce a list of medicals which will be acceptable, and publish it with the final ICAO compliance document. Please be aware that some states do file differences with ICAO and so may/may not be on the document. It will almost certainly become a matter of what the CAA will accept in lieu of the NPPL medical declaration.

Regards,

Cookie

[ChrisS]

Just got my FAA Medical through today, so hopefully all in place for when progress on the NPPL acceptance comes through.

I think that a lot of great work is being done with the NPPL and personally I am grateful for the efforts - I could not fly solo without whats been done so far

Chris

[nmarshal]

From the above, it appears that the FAA Medical is the one which will be of most interest. Could Mr. Cooke please tell us if this one at least will be on the approved list?