If a U.S. Sport Pilot moves to another country, can he convert his SPL to the new country's equivalent of the U.S. SPL?

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N918KT
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If a U.S. Sport Pilot moves to another country, can he convert his SPL to the new country's equivalent of the U.S. SPL?

Post by N918KT »

I have a hypothetical question. Say if a pilot with an FAA Sport Pilot Certificate with a driver's license medical in the U.S. moves to another country where they have their own equivalent of Sport Pilot in the U.S. like Canada, UK, or Australia. Would it be possible for the person with a U.S. FAA Sport Pilot Certificate to convert his pilot certificate to say a Canadian equivalent of sport pilot with just a U.S. driver's license medical?
ct4me
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Re: If a U.S. Sport Pilot moves to another country, can he convert his SPL to the new country's equivalent of the U.S. S

Post by ct4me »

It seems logical, but I wouldn't count on it. As it is, after 10+ years of Sport Pilot, none of those places have created a reciprocal agreement allowing Sport Pilots to fly in their countries. The hang-up seems to be the medical. Now that we have BasicMed, maybe there will be more pressure to re-think the whole thing.
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Re: If a U.S. Sport Pilot moves to another country, can he convert his SPL to the new country's equivalent of the U.S. S

Post by TimTaylor »

I don't know, but I doubt there is any connection to what the US requires vs what some other country requires. It's easy enough to explore the requirements for any country a person plans to move to.
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drseti
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Re: If a U.S. Sport Pilot moves to another country, can he convert his SPL to the new country's equivalent of the U.S. S

Post by drseti »

On the back of your Sport Pilot certificate, it says something like "does not comply with ICAO requirements." That's the International Civil Aviation Organization. So, those countries that require ICAO compliance (pretty much everyone except the Bahamas) will not honor the US Sport Pilot certificate.
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Re: If a U.S. Sport Pilot moves to another country, can he convert his SPL to the new country's equivalent of the U.S. S

Post by Nomore767 »

Don't expect a one for one issuance as like for like.

For example I once went to the UK's CAA to ask about getting my FAA CPL/IR converted to a UK one. First I had to make an appointment in London and leave my logbook for their assessment which took a couple of weeks. The result was that they would agree if I passed the UK medical and had a considerable amount of training. When I looked it over it was pretty much completing the entire UK ground and flight syllabus for their own CPL/IR which I calculated would have cost me about £20k and that was in early 80's money.
I got the impression that they considered the FAA licenses and training to be inferior to their own.
Needles to say I didn't do it and haven't regretted it. This was then and now they have the JAA European licenses.

On the other hand I'm not sure that if you wanted to simply rent a plane and. Fly during a vacation that there wouldn't be some kind of way to do that based on your FAA license but not sure as to the medical aspect although I believe they were considering a similar drivers license type medical.
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Re: If a U.S. Sport Pilot moves to another country, can he convert his SPL to the new country's equivalent of the U.S. S

Post by drseti »

About 20 years ago, when I started going frequently to Germany (I have a son who lives in Berlin), I investigated the possibility of acquiring German pilot privileges. I was told that my US Commercial certificate meant there would be no flight training requirement, but that I would have to take their knowledge test. I was fine with that, until I learned the written was ONLY given in the German language. I gave up. Technical German is a world different from tourist German, so I never would have passed.
The opinions posted are those of one CFI, and do not necessarily represent the FAA or its lawyers.
Prof H Paul Shuch
PhD CFII DPE LSRM-A/GL/WS/PPC iRMT
AvSport LLC, KLHV
[email protected]
AvSport.org
facebook.com/SportFlying
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