CAA Clarifies Rules for NPPL SEP (SSEA) Ratings

FLYER contributor (and licence guru) <b>Irv Lee</b> writes:

Any holder of an NPPL with a SEP (‘Single Engine Piston’) rating is advised to read AIC 3/2004 (white 92) issued January 8th 2004 very carefully. Failure to understand the newly explained concept of ‘self regulation’ for validity of the rating could lead to many problems. (Terminology has also changed – ‘SEP’ ratings will be renamed ‘SSEA’ – Simple Single Engine Aircraft’ – when used in the context of an NPPL.)

The AIC can be found at your flying club or on the AIS online website (free registration required for access – see <a href=”http://www.ais.org.uk” target=”_blank”>www.ais.org.uk</a>). To summarise the important points for the NPPL-SEP or NPPL-SSEA holders:

– There is no longer a need to find an examiner to sign to revalidate NPPL-SEP (or NPPL-SSEA) ratings on NPPL Certificates of Experience every year as they no longer have expiry dates. Expiry dates already written against these specific ratings in the NPPL can be ignored as they should not be there. However…

– Instead of working to a specific expiry date, all NPPL-SEP or NPPL-SSEA pilots must ‘self-regulate’ the validity of their ratings on the day of any intended flight. This is done by checking their own logged flying experience over the previous 12 and 24 months before the intended flight. Failure to check experience over the previous 2 years before any flight could allow a pilot to take to the air without realising that the NPPL-SEP or NPPL-SSEA rating is no longer valid – a situation which might lead to legal and insurance problems should an incident occur.

For NPPL SEP (or SSEA) ratings to be valid for use on any particular flight, the pilot must have:

either:
1) Passed a NPPL skills test in an SEP (SSEA) rated aircraft with an authorised examiner in the 12 months prior to the intended flight.

OR

2) In SEP (SSEA) rated aircraft, have completed an instructional flight of an hour minimum in the previous 24 months AND also have flown 6 hours in the most recent 12 months, of which at least 4 hours must have been ‘pilot in command’.

If NPPL-SEP (SSEA) rated pilots on the day of an intended flight find that they do not meet either (1) or (2) above, they must not fly as pilot in command using that rating. To regain validity of the rating, they must pass an NPPL skills test with an authorised examiner in order to satisfy point (1).

Note that the rules above only apply to NPPL holders who have ‘SEP’ ratings (newly renamed as ‘SSEA’ ratings) entered into their licences. This new concept of ‘self regulation of rating validity’ does not apply to NPPL Microlight, NPPL SLMG, or any JAA ratings – these pilots continue to work to
current revalidation rules and continue to have expiry dates on the ratings.