Bridge instruction

In this tutorial we talk about “bridge instruction”, or “special” courses to switch from one aircraft category to another: for example from a helicopter PPL to an airplane PPL, from an airplane CPL to a helicopter CPL, from a glider license to an airplane PPL (remember that there is no commercial license for the glider… however it is recognized as a PPL if I want to do a bridge to another category).

Obviously all in the context of European licenses (if a person has a license that is not issued by EASA (the European Aviation Agency), he must do a conversion (of which there will be a tutorial later).

It seems like a simple topic but even this actually has some peculiarities.

Theoretical credits for the passage

We said that a pilot who switches from a helicopter to an airplane, for example, has the right to claim credits and take only the theory exams of specific subjects in which there is a significant difference between one category and another, however the legislation actually has some typos that are incomprehensible (for example in the PPL you also have to repeat the navigation exam…).

Another issue that no one thinks about is linked to the fact that if you want to claim credit on the theory exam, it is not enough that you have taken the theory exams on another category but that you have the full license on that category (“licence holder” says the legislation).

So if you take the PPL theory exam for a helicopter and after 4 months you want to take the PPL theory exam for an airplane, you have to take the exact same exam again also for the other 5 identical subjects (same topics, same syllabus and same database of exam questions).

Maybe for the PPL one can also think that the following year one can obtain it and then do a bridge, but let’s think about the ATPL: for a helicopter pilot for example, who takes years to obtain the requirements for the practical ATPL exam, if he wanted to move on to the airplane ATPL before having obtained the ATPL license, he would have to retake all 14 subjects… (there is actually a small credit on the communications exam… but the substance does not change).

The practice

For the practical part, discounts are applied on flight hours, which however are not fixed but depend on previous experience on the aircraft category for which you already have the license and the category for which you are applying.

For example, to switch from the airplane to the helicopter you will have a 10% discount on your PIC experience on an airplane up to a maximum of 6 hours of flight (so if you have more than 60 PIC hours you can obtain the PPL on a helicopter with 39 hours of flight with an instructor, if instead you do the opposite, from helicopter to airplane, this discount can reach a maximum of 10 hours if you obviously have more than 100 hours as a PIC on a helicopter.

There are other “crossovers” that can be made, between the instrument flight qualification on an airplane and helicopter, the MCC course, the course to become an instructor, etc … each pilot must evaluate their own requirements on a case-by-case basis.

If you have questions or curiosities fill out the info request form.