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Twenty years ago I had a US-FAA PPL for single engine aircraft, then got
a PPL in India, where I live, but both lapsed in the early 1990's.
Three years ago I got a S.African PPL-Helicopter, and then revived my
Indian PPL with a Helicopter rating. I've now flown 600+ hours. Now i'd
like to again fly in the US on holidays, and am wondering if it is
possible/worthwhile to try and revive my 1989 US-PPL or to get a
"Piggyback" license based on either my S.African or Indian PPL.
comments and suggestions, please ! Thanks, J
-- jay panda, March 1, 2010
The most obvious thing to do is take a U.S. FAA helicopter add-on checkride. You'd need to fly three hours with an FAA instructor in prep, get signed off, and then take your checkride (if you don't already fly the Robinson R44 perhaps this would be a good time to do a transition course and use that as your checkride prep). No knowledge test would be required. I think you'd need to get a U.S. medical and maintain it every few years. You might well meet the qualifications for a U.S. Commercial certificate. Another way to go would be to use an R44 transition course as training for the Commercial checkride.If you're already getting medicals over in India it might be simpler to get a new U.S. certificate based on your Indian license because then perhaps you can just fly with your Indian certificate and medical.
-- Philip Greenspun, March 1, 2010