Finally DGCA has come with up a Flow chart/Check list which is pretty good and kinda walks through the steps for the most part.Please go through http://dgca.nic.in/licencing/conversion.pdf
Below steps might be helpful to you as well.
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Please note this is just for your information and the steps I have followed/following to convert my license. This is not the final authority. Please check with DGCA as the process might be changing from time to time.
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The following steps can be done in any order. But, please make sure none of them is left behind. But, the trick is NOT TO WAIT FOR ANYTHING. If certain things can be independently of other, please finish them off right away. Just keep getting things done. You never know when you need what and how much time each would take.
- Get your Class I medical done. Prior to that, you need to get class II medical done and if you qualify, class II medical examiner is supposed to send the assessment to DGCA. Please follow up with him and make sure he has forwarded it to DGCA.
- There are only 2 centers as of now where you can get Class I medical done. One is IAM Bangalore and the other is in Delhi. There is a long waiting period of 6-7 months right now. So, this needs to happen right away.
- You need to send a letter to IAM (Indian Aerospace Medicine) requesting them to grant you a date for Class I medical examination and also to DGCA to forward your PMR number to IAM and DGCA is supposed to send all your records to IAM. Please keep following up with both of them.
- I recommend you do this before you go abroad for learning to fly as the medical test is carried out very strictly and chances are there you have some ailment wihch you are not aware of and they will doscover and disqualify you.
- Parallelly apply to DGCA for Computer number (like Social Security Number in US) - Application form available in DGCA web site
- Get your UK RT done
- Apply to WPC for permitting you to use it in India
- Get your 10th and 12th marks sheets validated. You have to apply to your respective education board for this. This might take few weeks. DGCA requires this as the requirement for you to be a pilot, you need to have Physics and Maths in 12th and many people apparently have faked this. So, they are wanting you to get these verified by the board. You need two letters (Originals - One for 10th and the other for 12th) from your flight school on their letter head requesting the board to verify.
- Apply to DGCA for converting it to FRTOL (Current fee is INR 5000/-, 5 Photographs, validated and attested 10th and 12th marks sheets are required). It might take few weeks to get this done.
- Please check with an Indian CFI to understand what all you need to get done before you come back such as 300 nm cross country with 3 stop overs (Which is not part of FAA). You might need to get this endorsed by the local airport tower. Please check with a CFI on this.
- For multi Engine you need to learn from a selected few type of aircrafts which DGCA recognizes. I think Seneca is one of them. Apparently there is form you need to get signed by the examiner who also signs your log book after the Multi Engine rating exam. These two should match.
- Once you are back, you need to appear for written exams (Air Nav composite and Regulation). Please make sure you prepare well. Composite paper (Navigation, Radio Aids, Instruments and aviationa & Indian Materirology) requires you to prepare thoroughly. It is not like FAA exam. Questions are not known and they don't repeat. They are very challenging. I would recommend you take some coaching classes. There is a whole bunch useless subjects you need to know thoroughly before you can appear for this exam.
- If you get below 35 marks twice, I think there is a rule you can never appear for the DGCA exams. So, be very very well prepared.
- Also note you need to complete the written tests within 6 months after you last flew. Otherwise, you have fly again to become current.
- You need to have 15 hours in the last SIX months.
- Then you need to fly for 3 check rides which will be with a CFI in India and get all you papers together and submit to DGCA and pray for the license approval. (I'm not sure what all papers you need to submit. Once I have the list, I'll update here).
- The 3 check rides (Day, Night and Instrument) have to be done. According to the recent rule (Nov 2007- Flow chart) these can be done outside India.
- Check out the following web site and the links below. They are very comprehensive
Newly Added - They need a CA39 form without which they won't convert the license. I have created one here (http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p7R02F-MDDQkOSva9cu1Haw). It is not available on DGCA web site. You need to get this signed and sealed by your flight school.
http://supremeaviation.in/DGCA_conversion.htm http://dgca.nic.in/circular/fcl1_2007.pdf
http://dgca.nic.in/aic/aic13-91.htm
http://dgca.nic.in/airrule/rule38.htm
http://dgca.nic.in/schedules/sections.htm
http://dgca.nic.in/schedules/sections.htm
http://dgca.nic.in/schedules/section-j.pdf
http://dgca.nic.in/schedules/section-o.pdf
http://dgca.nic.in/cars/D7B-B4.pdf
http://dgca.nic.in/cars/D7B-B7.doc
http://dgca.nic.in/cars/D7G-G1.pdf
http://www.pilotguru.com/images/CA40.pdf
http://www.pprune.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-262184.html
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You can also use this as a checklist
- Original FAA Commercial license
- Verification letter from FAA. You can get this off of FAA website (http://www.faa.gov/, register you account, make a request and they'll email you a pdf file with verification, print and attach it)
- Original FAA Medical
- Original FAA Log book with Indications in the log book for Signatures of FAA examiners
- Log book contents printed on a A3 paper for convenience from beginning till the Date.
Within the last 5 years
- Letter from CFI for total 200 hours
- Letter from CFI for 100 hours of PIC
- Letter from CFI for 10 hours of Instrument time
- Letter from CFI for total of 40 hrs of instrument time
- Letter from CFI for total of 20 hours of cross country
- Letter from CFI for 300nm cross country
Within the last 6 months
- Letter from CFI for 15 hours of PIC (Required is 15 hrs)
- Letter from CFI for 5 hours of Night flying (Required is 5 hrs)
- Letter from CFI for 10 takeoffs and 10 full stop landings in the night
- Letter from examiner for test by the day
- Letter from examiner for test by the night
- Letter from examiner for test for Instrument rating
- Letter from CFI for 250nm cross country
- Letter from CFI for 120nm night cross country
- Letter from CFI for 5 hours of Instrument time on airplane
- Letter from CFI for 3 instrument approaches on aircraft.
For Multi Engine Endorsement
- Letter from CFI for Ground and practical test for Multi Engine training and exam
- Letter from CFI for 10 hours of training on Multi Engine Aircraft
For Multi Engine Endorsement - Within the last 6 months
- Same as 4, 5 and 6 as above – ENCLOSED. (Tests by DAY, NIGHT and IR)
- Original DGCA exam results for Air Regulation and Air Navigation composite exams
- Original Indian Class I medical
- Original Indian RTR
- Original verification of 10th marks card
- Original verification of 12th marks card
- Draft for Rs.5000/- each for (Single Engine, Multi Engine, Instrument Rating and FRTOL. If you need all these, you need to pay a total of INR 20,000)
- Form CA39 filled in every aspect (Two Form CA39 filled in every aspect (one to list all your flight hours in the last 6 months on a month to month basis and other which lists the breakups on a yearsly basis for the last 5 years). You can find the CA39 form here. Please note: THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS THE APPLICATION FORM WHICH IS AVAILABLE ON THE DGCA WEB SITE.)
- One Cloth lined stamped and self addressed envelop
- Photographs with name imprinted on it - 5
- They also need a Morse code test report which says you are capable of recognizing the morse codes at a rate more than 8 words per minute.
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- If you want to get trained in India on a fast pace, Indus Aviation will be starting a Flight school in Hosur near Bangalore pretty soon. This is the place where there will be 2 CFIs (Chief Flight Instructor), good number of AFIs (Assistant Flight Instructors) and FIs (Flight Instructors). They build the Aircrafts so it is not a problem at all for them to have good number of aircrafts. So, please stay tuned. I'll update this page.
- This will the place where you'll be treated right and will be thoroughly professional unlike other places in India. Everything will be kept transparent. Staff of this school will be honest, transparent and upfront. Please stay tuned. I'll be updating this page with Indus Aviation Flight School's website.
