Emigrating to Great Britain

I live in the US and am currently training for a career in aviation. In
about one year from now I'll have my CFII with a multi-engine rating.
Ever since I was little I always wanted to live in another part of the
world when I got older. Great Britian is one of those places that has
always intrigued me, so I have decided that once I get some experience
under my belt, I'll be looking primarily for jobs there. How the job
economy in England? Does anyone have any tips to planning for an
aviation carreer there?

Unfortunatly, a good chunk of aviation deals with regulations which
will be different over there. Does anyone know how diffrent regs are
compared to the American FARs? Is theirs kinda modeled after ours, or
is it a night & day difference?

Any suggestions or advise is appreciated. I havent made any definate
decisions yet, so I'm open to any ideas.

"buttman" wrote in message
ups.com...
I live in the US and am currently training for a career in aviation. In
about one year from now I'll have my CFII with a multi-engine rating.
Ever since I was little I always wanted to live in another part of the
world when I got older. Great Britian is one of those places that has
always intrigued me, so I have decided that once I get some experience
under my belt, I'll be looking primarily for jobs there. How the job
economy in England? Does anyone have any tips to planning for an
aviation carreer there?

Unfortunatly, a good chunk of aviation deals with regulations which
will be different over there. Does anyone know how diffrent regs are
compared to the American FARs? Is theirs kinda modeled after ours, or
is it a night & day difference?

Any suggestions or advise is appreciated. I havent made any definate
decisions yet, so I'm open to any ideas.

In aviation terms things are quite different. For example, getting an
instrument rating is the exception rather than the rule because its far more
difficult. Something like 8 exams to do and a flight test with a CAA
examiner.

Airspace is also different. Class A airspace the predominant airspace with
it starting at ground level around Heathrow, with the base slowly making its
way up to FL160 as you get away from the central area.

The other controlled airspace of any note is class D around most large
airports like Gatwick and Manchester. In the US these would be class B.
There are a number of regional airports which in the US would be class C but
here are in class G and where there instrument approaches are also in class
G airspace.

Class G airspace is where most of us fly and that can go up to FL245.

You can fly in the UK on your FAA ratings without doing any paperwork.
However you are restricted to Day VFR. An Instrument rating will give you
the privileges of the UK IMC rating. This is not an instrument rating but it
allows you to fly in IMC conditions outside of class A airspace. (As a
friend of mine who is a CFII noted this rating gives us good IMC skills
especially as we spend most of the time doing it partial panel). However if
you fly a US registered aircraft you may use the full privileges of your IR.
(I have an FAA/IR and part own an N reg Warrior).

Flying IFR means something a bit different here too. No instrument rating
required for this. Instrument flight rules means simply
1) Flying at the appropriate FL for the direction you are travelling.
Here we have the quadrantal rule rather than the semi one you have.

2) Setting the Altimeter to 1013 (29.92) once past the transition
altitude usually 3000' MSL although in terminal areas this can be higher.

3) Flying at least 1000' above the highest fixed object within 5 nm
either side of the track. Combining this with 2) above means you could find
yourself climbing into class A airspace which unless you have the IR is
forbidden so flying IFR would not be an option.

Flying conditions are either VMC or IMC. There are no conditions described
as IFR. That only applies to the rules you fly under.

If you bust the regulations then there is the possibility of facing a
prosecution and a criminal conviction. There is nothing like the FAA's
administrative sanctions. Here it's into court with the CAA as prosecutors.
Airspace violations are usually reported.

R/T procedure is strict where you need to use it but often you can do a
whole flight and speak to no one even flying IFR.

If you want to instruct for money then you will need a JAR instructor
rating. Exceptionally the Department for Transport will issue a permit to
allow instruction on a limited scope but they generally go to Brits who have
US ratings too.

As to commercial flying, moves seem to be afoot to restrict the flag of
convenience approach of having US registered planes based and operating in
Europe and falling outside the European rules.

Having said that I have recently come across number of North American voices
purporting to be pilots on British Airways and British Midland. It usually
starts of with a message like " My name is ........".

The British economy is the best in Europe and the British air carrier
industry is possibly the most profitable in the world. BA is the most
profitable airline in the world and the low cost carriers such a Ryanair and
Easyjet and Flybe are always expanding.

A recent survey identified that the British account for 14% of the world's
international travellers and that nearly 60% of the country will be making
at least one trip abroad this year.

Despite this, the cost of pilot training is very high here and it could cost
as much as $100k to train locally. That's why we go to the US.

I hope that give a reasonable account of whets required.
Further information about ratings etc can be found here.

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/LASORS2005.PDF

cb

On 2005-07-10, buttman wrote:
under my belt, I'll be looking primarily for jobs there. How the job
economy in England? Does anyone have any tips to planning for an
aviation carreer there?

If you come to Britain, be prepared to be disappointed by the amount of
asinine bureaucracy there is even if you just want to teach primary
students. I've decided not to bother part time instructing - too much BS
(like the 17 or so exams needed to get the Commercial first, most of the
exams totally irrelevant to private instruction because it's all about
airline procedures). This means there's a real shortage of instructors -
the only new instructors we are getting are time builders. No part
timers who do it because it's fun.

I still fly on my FAA ticket (you can do so for day VFR with no
paperwork in a G registered plane) because it's just too much hassle to
bother with all the JAR BS.

If you want to work, I think there are one or two places that specialize
in US ratings (so BFRs etc. can be given - I was going to take my BFR in
Britain but the winter weather prevented it so I ended up going to
Houston). You may want to try and enquire about those because your US
ratings will be valuable.

It's not all bad; there is some good news on the horizon - one of the
big wigs in EASA was saying that they wanted to reduce regulatory burden
and make GA in Europe as vibrant as it is in the US. It remains to be
seen whether they do that, but it's the first time I've ever heard
anyone from the EU actually saying something positive about GA
regulation.

Don't get me wrong - I really enjoy flying in my native country but then
again I'm not trying to do it commercially (I just can't stand the BS).
I do plenty of power flying and soaring, and have a great time doing
both (and I'm saving to buy a share in a rather nice 160hp Auster). But
until EASA's promise of less stultifying regulation actually happens, I
won't even consider getting into anything to do with commerical flying
here.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"