Division 2.2 Equivalency of the level of protection

In addition, the UK identified an inconsistency in Part-FCL as the Synthetic Flight Examiner (SFE), who must hold an SFI certificate, will have the privilege to conduct assessments of competence for the issue, revalidation or renewal of an SFI certificate but, at the same time, will not be allowed to instruct these SFIs. The fact that an SFE, being also an SFI, cannot teach a pilot to become an SFI but may examine the SFI is identified as an inconsistency in Part-FCL, because all examiners under the Part-FCL system have the privilege to instruct for the certificates, ratings and licences for which he/she is authorised to conduct examinations.

Part-FCL reflects the JAR-FCL system where the instruction of applicants for an SFI certificate was supposed to be only undertaken by a TRI. Having reviewed the proposals on how the UK intends to further qualify the SFI for such task, the Agency agreed with the assessment of the UK that an equivalent level of protection to that attained by the application of Part-FCL is achieved by the intended derogation, specifically with the additional training and checking requirements suggested by the UK.

It should be highlighted however, that the UK foresees this specific tutor course also for TRIs wishing to provide such training. As Part-FCL already provides this privilege for the TRI wishing to instruct for an SFI certificate if he/she fulfils the 3-year experience requirement such a specific tutor course for the TRI is not required. These courses should therefore only be provided to SFIs.