Meeting with the IAA.......Another big step forward

Following the licencing agreements outlined at our recent AGM, we met with the IAA again today to discuss some of the detail. Paul Mc Mahon, Padraig Higgins and Joe Davy attended for the NMAI and John Steel, Declan Fitzpatrick and Martin Purcell attended for the IAA. This meeting was again constructive and a lot of issues were ironed out satisfactorily.

The meeting lasted 3 hours 30 minutes. As you can imagine, it would be impossible to go through the whole meeting but these are the main points.

Validation of foreign microlight licences

To facilitate pilots who hold a foreign microlight licence and who wish to visit and fly in Ireland the IAA may issue a temporary validation to an applicant who meets the following basic criteria.

1.Holds a valid microlight licence in another EU state (recognised by the National Aviation Authority of that state)

2.Has at least 50 hrs experience in flying microlight aircraft or meets the experience requirements necessary for the grant of an Irish licence.

3.Has not been issued a temporary validation which has expired in the last 30 days or has already been issued more than one temporary validation in the last 365 days.

The normal duration of the temporary validation will be 90 days. The commencement date will be the date indicated on the application form.

A second temporary validation may be issued to extend the duration of the initial validation, at the
discretion of the IAA and for a maximum of an additional 90 days. The primary purpose of this
extension will be to allow a person who wishes to convert their existing license to an Irish microlight
license to continue to fly in Ireland while they complete any training, experience or medical conversion requirements.

The requirements for the issue of an Irish microlight licence are as the document presented at the NMAI AGM.

We also discussed at length the problems currently being experienced by our members trying to validate and convert due to previous log book entries. It was agreed that this is likely to continue to cause problems in the future. John Steel suggested that it may be possible to give some form of amnesty to pilots currently flying within the state on foreign licences to enable them to convert to Irish licences. This amnesty, should it be possible, would have to be agreed with the Director and would be for a limited time, so we are waiting to see how it develops. This a very substantial and proactive suggestion by the Authority and should allow the majority of our pilots to regularise their position.

Microlights are to be removed from AIC 11/04 and put in an Aeronautical Notice on their own and AN P 17 is to be rewritten. We should be in receipt of the final draft documents shortly and are well on course to meet the publishing deadline of July.

Many other details on all aspects of microlight licencing were discussed and agreed. Way too many to put in this post so, if you have any questions on conversions, validations or the requirements for the issue of an Irish licence please ask as it would be easier to answer than to write a huge post on here.

All the best
Paul