Sir - Capt. Rackham would appear to be confused on the subject of licence validation within the European Union (Flight Inter-national, 20-26 September, P76).
A European Commission directive in 1991 brought down his perceived barriers to the movement of labour within the EU. All EU licence-holders are subject to the same validation requirements, ie providing that they have achieved the minimum flying standards they will be required to take air law and have an instrument-rating check, in the UK or elsewhere in Europe.
The licence conversion process for pilots with a low level of experience is quite different, as it is in other EU countries. It depends on the level of experience of the licence-holder as to how much of the UK's Airline Transport Pilot's Licence course he will need to complete to convert to a licence.
The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) is concerned that licence validations have been permitted on non-EU licences when there are still many very experienced UK airline pilots seeking employment.
We are told that these instances are few - BALPA believes there are eight - but only because there were no experienced A320-rated pilots available in Europe.
In the interests of safety a new UK airline would need that experience to back up its many newly converted crews.
CHRIS DARKE
General-Secretary
BALPA
Hayes, Middlesex, UK
Source: Flight International
