Conversions and Renewals

Converting a foreign licence

People who learned to fly outside Europe almost always arrive with the same question: how much of what I have done will be recognised? Most of it, usually. But the route depends on who issued the licence.

A licence issued outside Europe

An ICAO licence issued outside the European Union cannot be used directly on a European-registered aircraft: it has to be converted, and the conversion combines credit for the experience you already have with a course of top-up training — theory, flying and a skill test. How long that takes depends on the hours you hold and on what you have flown.

It is the most common case here: pilots who trained in the United States and who come home wanting to fly in Italy. Bring us your logbook and your licence: half an hour with those in front of us is enough to see what lies ahead.

A European licence from another State

If your licence is already Part-FCL but was issued by the authority of another European country, there is nothing to convert: it is a matter of transferring your file to ENAC, or simply of carrying on flying with the licence you have. We will help you work out which of the two suits you better.

Medical certificate and paperwork

In every case you need a valid medical certificate issued under the European rules. The office has the list of authorised medical examiners in the area.

Revalidation and renewal

An expired rating is not a lost licence. It is only an engine that needs starting again — and in most cases a few flights and an afternoon with an instructor are all it takes.

Revalidation: while you are still in time

As long as the rating is still valid, you keep it by flying: a minimum amount of activity within the period, a certain number of take-offs and landings, and a training flight with an instructor. There is no examiner and no test. The school will tell you the exact requirements, and keeps count alongside you.

Renewal: when you are out of time

If the rating has expired the road is a little longer: refresher training at a school, tailored to how much time has passed and to what you used to fly, and then a proficiency check with an examiner. The programme is not the same for everybody — and rightly so: someone who stopped last year and someone who stopped in 2011 do not need the same things.

Our school (IT.DTO.012) is set up to see you through this, with its instructors and with the school’s Piper PA28.

The medical certificate

The medical has to be renewed in good time: without a valid certificate you do not fly, however well in order everything else may be. The office keeps an up-to-date list of authorised medical examiners.

Flying again after years away

It happens more often than you would think: work, children, money, and the licence ends up in a drawer. Then one day you drive past an airfield and you hear the right sound.

There is nothing to be embarrassed about and there is no hurry. It starts with a flight with an instructor, with no commitment and no test: it tells him what is still there — usually far more than you believe — and it reminds you why you started in the first place. From there we build a programme that fits you, whether that is two flights or ten.

Anyone coming back also finds a club: people who fly at weekends, a hangar where the talking gets done, and a mountain range all around that is the reason this airfield exists. The technical side comes back. It is the company that you have missed most over these years.

And what if you wanted to do more?

People who come back to flying often find themselves wanting something they had never even considered the first time round: the ratings, gliding, or mountain flying. Coming back is the best moment to talk about it.

For information and enrolment, your point of contact is always the club office: write to us using the contact form.