FAA Training
Basic and Advanced
What is the FAA?
The Federal Aviation Administration is the body responsible for controlling aviation in the United States. As an FAA certified Airline Transport Pilot, and Certified Flight Instructor (multi engine, instrument), Brian Mellor is authorised to instruct pilots for FAA licences and ratings.
If someone is interested in becoming an aircraft owner, there are definite advantages to keeping the aircraft on the American (FAA) register (“N-register”). Pilot licensing requirements are generally much simpler. A PPL requires a Biennial Flight Review, every 2 years – nothing more. We conduct these frequently.
Similarly, if someone has access to an N-registered aircraft, he would need an FAA certificate in order to be able to fly this aircraft anywhere, without restriction.
An Instrument Rating remains valid, without the need for regular, expensive flight tests, provided the pilot remains in current practice. Even if the pilot does not remain current, the privilege can be regained by taking an Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC), which we can conduct. Compare this to JAA – an IR is valid only for 12 months, and requires a full test for each renewal.
We can conduct all of the training listed below. However, when the training is completed, a test with an FAA designated pilot examiner is required (and before that, there are written examinations that must be passed – usually from a computer terminal, at an FAA approved test centre). At the moment, there are no designated examiners in Spain. But there are two solutions.
- Training can be conducted to obtain a CAA/JAA PPL. Once this is obtained, a visit to an FAA FSDO (Flight Standards District Office) in the USA will allow them to issue an FAA certificate, based on the CAA licence. There is no charge for this service, at the current time. This does require that the CAA licence is kept current.
- Obtain an FAA medical certificate. Complete the training here. It will be certified in the logbook as being correct, as required by the FAA rules. Then make a trip to the USA to take the FAA written examination, and then the flight test. This allows a standalone FAA licence to be issued, and does not require a supporting foreign licence.
Here are the various licences and ratings, and any comments that are applicable to training in Jerez.
Private Pilot
We do this training, and it is basically the same as JAA training, with one or two other requirements. Hence, it is easy to qualify for both JAA and FAA purposes.
Commercial Pilot
No problem. We have suitable aircraft, and are conducting commercial instruction at the moment.
Instrument Rating
Perfect place to do the training! Jerez Airport has VOR approaches, NDB approaches, ILS approaches, Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs), Standard Terminal Arrival procedures (STARs), DME arc procedures, everything you need.
In addition, the nearby airports of Seville, Granada, and Malaga are used, to give maximum exposure to flying airways routes, high workload/high traffic density operations.
Instructor Rating
We are very experienced at teaching people to become instructors, with an excellent pass rate. The pre-requisite to becoming an instructor is to hold a Commercial certificate, and an Instrument Rating.
***NOTE***
The FAA have recently introduced new rules, that make it more difficult, and expensive, to conduct training in the USA. See attached note.
For non-US citizens. The following is an extract from the TSA explaining the new procedure.
Due to passage of Vision 100 - Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is now required to screen all non-US citizen candidates for flight training on any aircraft. To accomplish this screening, most non-US citizens seeking flight training with FAA-regulated flight training providers (whether in the US or abroad) will need to submit information via https://www.flightschoolcandidates.gov. The request will be submitted to the appropriate flight training providers, to verify that the applicant is truly seeking training at that facility. After this acknowledgement, the Transportation Security Administration will conduct an initial screening. If the results are favorable, the candidate may then be fingerprinted. After fingerprints are submitted, those results will be checked, and training may commence if approved by the AFSP. The law allows the Transportation Security Administration 30 days to process Category 1 applications and 5 days to process Category 2 applications after all information (including fingerprints) is received.
