AOPA UK

Following on from my earlier posts and Beerdrinker's experience described above , I has now received the following e-mail from the FAA in New York:

From: James.Emma@faa.gov [mailto:James.Emma@faa.gov]
: 05 May 2009 14:33
To: John Zarno
Subject: RE: English Proficiency endorsement




Dear Mr. Zarno,

I can now offer you definitive guidance as to how you may obtain the English Proficiency endorcement to your FAA Private Pilot License. Despite contrary guidance which had been published in INFO 08012, there is indeed an alternative to appearing in person at a FSDO or IFO in the United States.

If you request that your Letter of Verification be FPEs (Foreign Pilot Examiners) they are authorized to add the English Proficient endorsement. In fact, because this is an administrative action, both can reissue licenses to either fixed wing or rotorcraft pilots and you can chose to employ the services of either gentleman. As you are no doubt aware, the DPEs charge fees for their services which they set on their own. Contact information for Mssrs. Hughston and House can be obtained via http://www.faa.gov.

In your particular case, you will need to contact the Certification Branch in Oklahoma City directly to have your Letter of Verification transferred from our office (New York FSDO-15) to the New York IFO. I recomment you contact a DPE first to make sure that you wish to utilize his services. Of course you also have the option of traveling here and having this office issue your certificate. We have our copy of your Verification Letter and will be glad to set up an appointment for you if you wish.

I hope that this clarifies the situation for you. I can assure you that this information is valid and can be relied upon. This guidance has been clarified and signed off on by the highest authorities available in the FAA at both our Certification Branch and our Headquarters in Washington, D.C. I personally thank you for your patience and for allowing me to clarify the inconsistent information that has been making the rounds throughout the U.S. and Europe. You have helped provide a service for your fellow airmen.

Sincerely yours,

James J. Emma

Federal Aviation Administration
Flight Standards District Office
NY-FSDO-15
990 Stewart Ave, Suite 630
Garden City, NY 11530-4858
Phone: 516-228-8029 ext 270

The above post is, I hope, categorical proof - for those who still need it - of the reality of the true situation for those who wish to get/amend a FAA 61.75 Certificate (a 'piggy-back').
When I first started this post - following the article in AOPA General Aviation FAA throws a spanner in the works - I gently requested that knowing that the printed information was contrary to the facts that it needed to be corrected. (One had only to go to Le Touquet and see through the window of the office where they were being processed to know that one did not have to go to the States, and only to the States - as the original article stated.)
The result was, both publically and privately, an extraordinary number of convoluted postings to me in which people tried to defend and justify the orginal article to such an extent that some pilots who had FAA 61.75 certificates actually made the journey to the US only to find when they got there that they had done so unnecessarily.
Because so few pilots actually read certain forums - not least this AOPA one - I hope that as soon as possible the definitive situation will be given as much publicity as the original article - not least in General Aviation which has more readers than all the forums put together.

For your information Tom Hughston is temporarily not doing 61.75 English Proficiency ( or for that matter anything to do with the FAA) as he is doing his JAR qualifications as I believe he has been told he cannot do FAA Instruction/examining in Europe without a JAR Licence.

Beerdrinker wrote:For your information Tom Hughston is temporarily not doing 61.75 English Proficiency ( or for that matter anything to do with the FAA) as he is doing his JAR qualifications as I believe he has been told he cannot do FAA Instruction/examining in Europe without a JAR Licence.

Actually he was told that he could not do anything in European reg aircraft as that would constitute aerial work and would require a European commercial ticket. I believe that was part of the reason he left the UK on order to operate under the French but I believe that loophole has closed as well so he now has to do the same as the rest of us and get dual qualified.

Hopefully he will get through it quickly as we would expect from a man of his experience and be back on line.