Adding a MAJOR UPGRADE to my Pilot License!
This is my FAA private pilot's license.
It means I can fly an American registered aircraft anywhere in the world as long as it's
not under instrument meteorological conditions. So why then have I traveled all the way across
the world to here in New York City to this tiny little building on the corner of two very
unassuming streets here in Brooklyn let me explain [Music] [Music] so let me explain to you why I am here in the
US I currently have an Australian issued pilot's license which allows me to fly Australian
registered aircraft that's any aircraft which has got VH before its registration just
like Victor Hotel Echo Yankee Zulu anywhere in the world that's great when I'm flying my own
aircraft but sometimes if I am flying overseas I like to hire other aircraft and quite often the
easiest type of aircraft to find is a November or an enregistered aircraft which comes under the FAA
the American Federal Aviation Administration rules and regulations in 2019 I actually worked with my
friend Philip to do a license conversion basically from my Australian private pilot's license to an
American FAA registered one and then you can fly November registered aircraft anywhere in the world
as pilot in command now that's great for just kind of Joy flights and flying around and I've done
that in the UK in the past as you would have seen on the channel but I actually wanted to add
my instrument rating to that FAA license and in order to do that you do need to take a test you
do need to come here to the US and things get a little bit well not more complicated but it's
just a few more steps that you have to [Music] take if you think this next sequence is going
to involve me ice skating you obious you never see me ice skating and you are sorely mistaken
so the first thing you're going to want to do if you want to convert your foreign license to
an FAA license is you're going to need to set up an account on a system called iacra that's
the integrated Airman certificate and rating application now what that gives you is it gives
you an ftn which is an FAA tracking number and you're going to need your ftn whenever you speak
to anyone from the FAA regarding your application now if at this stage you don't have any FAA
license whatsoever then you can apply for the regular one and you can apply for the instrument
rating Edition at the same time I actually did the two things separately you don't need to do that
you can do it all as part of the same process but whatever you're doing the first step you need
to do is a foreign pilot's license verification I basically had to say hello FAA I want you to
verify my license they give me a form I then fill out that form and give it back to cassa
here in Australia who say yes Stephan jury does have these licenses and ratings they then send
that form back to Oklahoma and once Oklahoma has that form from cassa and all of my documentation
that's when they can give me a tick and say yes this person has got the ratings and privileges
to be able to get an FAA license you are then ready to take the FAA written instrument exam
and that's why I had to come to America cuz you can't do it anywhere else in the world and that's
why I headed across to [Music] Brooklyn [Music] I'm in Brooklyn now this is the PSI exams
testing facility this is where I need to take my exam I'm a bit nervous I we'll
be honest in um quite a noisy Brooklyn I hope there's earplugs or something because
there's a lot going on and then hopefully I come out of there for me which will be
I think it's 2 hours but few in like a matter of seconds hopefully I come
out of here with good news so wish me luck I passed I actually did quite well in that
a lot better than I thought and a lot of That's Got to Do with the the shepherd air program that
I used for practice and training beforehand there was nothing in the exam that I wasn't expecting
the questions that I got some of them I'd even seen in the practice exams before and I knew how
to navigate around the f a supplement book that you've got with all the figures and legends
and instrument approach plates and everything that you need for the exam I found it really
easy to navigate CU you get 2 and 1 half hours and I finished it in 50 minutes and that's not
just some big flexx I think it's a testament to the study strategy that shepher air actually
have which which got someone like me prepared to take the [Music] exam [Music] there are two
key words that you need to know if you want to pass the FAA instrument written test and they
are shepher air now if you are taking the exam as a foreign pilot like me you don't need to
take the full FAA instrument written exam the same exam that Pilots here in America would
be taking if they're doing their instrument Racing for the first time if you're a foreign
pilot converting your license you need to take the instrument foreign-based pilot exam now on
top of that there is another version of that foreign pilot exam if you come from one of what's
called a basa or it's a bilateral Aviation safety agreement countries of which Australia is one if
you are from a basa country you take a slightly different version of the instrument rating exam
and the good thing about that exam is it's only 40 questions not the 50 that you normally have
to take for the full instrument written here in America and yes to study for the exam like I said
I used a system called shepher air now that was because I didn't really feel like I needed to
do the full Ground School training and then do practice exams for me it was about learning what
types of questions are going to be coming up and then doing basically a bunch of practice exams
and shepher a is awesome for that if you do need to do the Ground School component as well for
a bit of a refresher then yes you could there's online systems there's flight insight sporties
and also some of the other YouTube Pilots out there like angular attack learn the finer points
they all have courses online that you can check out as well but if like me you basically just
need training for how to pass the test shepher a I cannot believe that shepher a is actually
well I can't believe it's legal to be honest it only costs $45 to get full access to their
questions the same questions that appear on the test you're not just doing similar questions
you're learning the exact same questions that you see on the test now it's not just aank could
practice exams that you go through one after the other sheer air actually have a really clever
system which is their IP so I'm not going to tell you all about it here and they basically get
you match fit so when you're taking the practice exams if you take a couple and you're getting
in the high 90s which because of their system I was they say at that point just go ahead and do
the exam that's exactly what I did the other very cool thing about the FAA instrument written
exam unlike Australia I don't know what it's like in other countries in Australia when you
do the instrument written exam it's a multiple choice test and you have to choose the correct
out of four possible answers the FAA test you only have to choose out of three possible answers
I just like that it makes it a little bit easier I don't know why anyone wouldn't use the shepher
air system it's just well like I say it should be illegal it's very very [Music] good and now I
have my paperwork and I have everything ready to go there's still one final part of the process
which is I've got to go to what the FAA call a firstone flight standards district office show
them my paperwork show them my identification they put everything together and hopefully that
will mean that the instrument rating which I've now passed and proven to the FAA that I know how
to do that in America that will be attached to my American license and the whole process will
be done but to do that I've got to go to JFK [Music] the only times I've ever heard fizo
mentioned before in the sphere of YouTube is normally when someone's in trouble and um
I believe this is where you have to come if there been like a FAA violation or something
you've been reported to the FAA I've always heard about people coming to the fizo to answer
some questions and resolve the whole situation uh so hopefully I'm going to give you a foo
positive story on YouTube instead cuz in this building here where the FAA are located
hopefully this is the last part of call on my whole trip to get my instrument rating added
to my license it's going to work out how to get [Music] in [Music] one really important point to
consider in all this of course is you need to make sure that your original pilot's license remains
valid if any of your ratings or privileges Laps on your original license anything that's tied into
that on your FAA license is also going to lapse as well so once you have that FAA license it's not
just there in perpetu you need to maintain your existing one but you also need to do FAA uh
license revalidations with an FAA instructor as well you now have two licenses which is
great but you also have two licenses that you need to keep current but now I can fly a November
register aircraft anywhere in the world under the instrument flight rules which I'm really humbled
and lucky and privileged to be able to do and I'm really grateful that I've had the opportunity to
do that if you're interested in a video about the differences between between the FAA regulations
and cass's regulations so basically what's it like flying in America versus flying in Australia
let me know because some of the things about flying under the FAA regulations just they really
make a lot of sense and I wish they'd be adopted in other parts of the world just like Australia
let me know in the comments otherwise thanks for watching I'm going to enjoy New York I love this
city so much it's so cool to be [Applause] back
