BritishGuy said:
I hate to bring this thread up again, but looks like theres some good news about FAA to JAA conversions. Here's the link:
http://www.ifrance.fr/bbchat/images/CONVERSION.pdf
Basically, now it looks like you need 1500hrs of time in a 'multi pilot' aircraft and hey presto, one exam later you can have your JAA licence! Not bad huh? Looks like the Europeans have finally sorted their act out.
It's about time. Historically, the Brit and Euro attitude regarding aviation has been one that regards aviation and driving airplanes as rocket surgery.... a mixed-bag that regards being a pilot is an "elite" profession reserved for their "best and brightest", protectionist barriers, economies/tax structures that squelch every sector of aviation except state-run airlines and their academies, and every flight as an Apollo moon shot. Nice to see they're waking up....there's probably more corporate aircraft based in the US NE corridor alone than all the European countries combined. This goes for flight schools, clubs, small airlines..you name it. Speaks for itself. Also, the wages are doodly-squat. The grass is NOT greener on the other side of the Atlantic fence.
The Brits...gotta love em...well they just LOVE official-sounding, yet non-essential radio chatter! You can't intercept an approach in radar contact over England without being advised to "advise when established on the approach" (why?...don't ask me..adds to the congested frequencies. I guess their radars don't actually show...you know... blips) or being told "you have 20 miles to run until such-and-such fix" (um....ok!..now just what am I supposed to do with this information, Nigel?). Ah, but the best is when the pilots check onto freq with that phony-baloney accent...you know the one......."Ahem....____ Control, it's THUH SpeedBuhrd 123 Flight Level 400....". I swear, every BA pilot must carry a dictation machine to practice that straight-out-of-Hollywood-central-casting radio voice while alone in their hotel rooms at night, instead on their laptops looking at porn sites like normal pilots. And btw, what's with that "THUH" sh1t ????
Then there's the French! You may have THOUGHT English was the official aviation language.....HA! Just wait until you're surrounded by Air France flights in French airspace...you'll have NO mental picture of what's going on unless you speak French (Gee, they just cleared me in bad English to "line-up-and-wait" on the runway during low vis...but do I have any idea whether they just cleared that other guy they were just talking French to, to land...on me?....He11 no but oh well.. C'est La Vie!!!). And you haven't lived until you've gone through a SAFA inspection on the ramp compliments of their surly authorities.....I'm convinced they're secretly looking for stowaway snails to pocket while you're looking the other way, busy rummaging through dusty supplemental sections of avionics tech logs to prove you actually had the approved equipment to navigate where you just navigated to.
Oh, and they..Brits, Euros..the lot of 'em.... all refer to upgrading as "getting one's Command". "Command".....visions of striding up to and standing...feet firm, legs apart, proud eyes cast to the horizon, Napolean Hat plumage fluttering in the breeze.. on the wooden deck of a 120-gun Man-O-War. Ah yes...the HMS Airbus!
Fly in Europe enough and you will quickly begin to miss the competence and versatility of the controllers in our system (yes, I said that!), and their humor. O'hare-style, ego-crushing sardonic wit doesn't exist over there, and the airway (not airport)-slot system that just keeps almost everybody from going anywhere on the ground (to airports big and small) guarantees that they'll never need NY (and ATL, DFW, LAX, etc) Tracon-types who could, if they had to, squeeze all of Heathrow's traffic into the airspace occupied by Prince Charles' ears.
