After asking around on Flyer Forum and with Rockcliffe Flying Club in Ottawa, the ‘easiest’ for me would be to get the Canadian licence based on my FAA licence. I must stress at this stage that my FAA licence is a truly ‘standalone’ licence (as opposed to an FAA licence ‘based on’ the JAA licence). This is important, as you can only get a Canadian licence based on a completely standalone FAA licence.
After an email that pointed me in the right direction from the helpful CFI at Rockcliffe, a bit of scouring on the net in the Transport Canada website, revealed that I needed the following:
• Current, standalone FAA licence
• Minimum 45 hours flight time
• TCCA Category 3 medical certificate (medical exam and certificate)
• Complete form 26-0702 (D610-01) and deliver it in person (book appointment) with originals of FAA licence and medical, proof of name age and citizenship and pilot logbook
• Take and pass an FAA to Canadian air law exam (25 questions) – at an approved Transport Canada office (i.e. not the flight school)
• Pay $CAN55
• Wait 90 days for Canadian licence.
WOW! And they said this was the easy route! I’d hate to see the hard way!
Now the complications!
I am overdue for a BFR for my FAA licence and I have only just bought into a new group flying the RV6 taildragger. I don’t have taildragger sign-off, so I will be in training for this for a good few weeks yet, and I will be in Canada trying to nail all of this down in early February. Do an FAA check ride in Canada? No. So I booked both an aircraft and a UK based FAA instructor from Oxford in early January – strange plane, strange airport, strange instructor – piece of cake!
Oh, and I need a Canadian medical so I can get the medical number. I will be trying to cram too much in to do this in one day in Ottawa, so I booked myself in for a Transport Canada registered Doctor in the UK, an hours drive away in Leamington just before Christmas – yet another medical, oh goodie!
I have booked a date and time with a suitable Transport Canada office near Ottawa international airport for both the submission of the papers and to take the air law exam while I am there in February. Hopefully, I can get this done in two hours and not waste too much time hanging around.
Still, it should be worth it as I can then hire and fly touring around Canada.
I don’t suppose for one second that flying licences will ever be like driving licences – international around the world? Notwithstanding that driving in different countries is harder than flying in different countries (different sides of the road, different road signs and road law etc.).
Naaaahhhhhh!
