Folks,

In the past, I've had foreign pilots come to me asking how to get a US
license on the basis of their foreign rating. No problem - fill out
the form, come with me to the FSDO, show your ideas, wait for the
other country to validate. Easy.

Now, we have a person who DOES have a valid, current, foreign rating
wanting to get a US rating NOT based on their existing rating. In
other words, they want to have a standalone US rating. Since they
travel frequently, they want to avoid the potential of having their
foreign rating lapse due to scheduling issues (e.g. being in the US at
the time their medical just lapsed)

So, other than the TSA Foreign Pilot Training paperwork, what else do
we have to worry about. Specifically:

- Does the pilot still have to take some minumum amount of dual
instruction, or could one (theoretically) sign the guy off for solo
after 1 flight?
- Does the pilot still have to have 7 hours of solo flight in the US
before I sign him off for the practical?
- In short, can they just take the written and (assuming they pass)
go right to the practical test, or do they have to spend a bunch of
time with a CFI.

Erik Mann
CFI (who doesn't feel like wading through all of Part 61 to figure
this out)